Fathers’ Chronic Health Conditions Linked to Pregnancy Loss Risk

Study suggests metabolic syndrome in the dad-to-be linked to more than 1 in 4 pregnancy losses.

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一个人的健康在产前健康和妊娠成功中起着重要作用。 iStock

在计划怀孕方面,饮食和运动的先选咨询几乎完全针对该女性。一项包括近100万怀孕的新研究表明,这种思维方式可能已经过时了,也许男人也需要参加那些预先怀孕的健康生活方式讨论。

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A Man’s Health Matters When It Comes to Pregnancy Outcome

A retrospective study that looked at pregnancies between 2009 and 2016 published December 18, 2020, inHuman Reproduction发现如果父亲有三种或更多的医疗状况,这些病情是代谢综合征的一部分:obesity,糖尿病,高血压, orhigh cholesterol, the risk for losing a pregnancy was 27 percent compared with 10 percent for men who had no medical conditions.

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父亲健康与妊娠损失之间有联系

“Preconception counseling, things like prenatal vitamins and living a healthy lifestyle, has only focused on women. This is the first study to show an association between the preconception paternal health andpregnancy loss,”说迈克尔·艾森伯格(Michael Eisenberg),医学博士, associate professor of urology at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, and lead author of the study.

The More Conditions of Metabolic Syndrome Dad-to-Be Has, the Higher the Risk for Pregnancy Loss

Eisenberg and his team analyzed data from U.S. insurance claims that covered 958,804 pregnancies between the years 2009 and 2016. Researchers evaluated the health of the father according to records of medical conditions, which included components of metabolic syndrome (obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, andhigh cholesterol) 也chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),depression, andheart disease.

The burden of chronic disease for all the men was calculated by reviewing their health history ofheart failure,心脏病发作,血管疾病,肾脏和liver disease,癌症, stroke, anddementia.

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Calculations were adjusted to account for otherfactors that can impact pregnancy, including the mother’s age, health, weight, and whether either parent was a smoker.

A total of 4.6 men in the study were over 45 years old and 23.3 had at least one component of metabolic syndrome prior to conception. Of the pregnancies included, there were 785,809 live births and 172,995 pregnancies lost toectopic pregnancy,流产或死产。

研究人员发现,父亲所拥有的代谢综合征的组成部分越多,妊娠丧失的风险越高。

The risk of pregnancy loss was:

  • 当父亲没有代谢综合征的成分时,17%
  • 父亲有一个代谢综合征成分时21%
  • 23 percent where there were two components
  • 如果父亲有三个或更多组成部分,则为27%

“The fact that the risk of an adverse event in pregnancy increased with each additional health component strengthens the findings of this study,” saysChad Aaron Grotegut, MDWake Forest医学院的妇产科教授,以及北卡罗来纳州温斯顿·塞勒姆(Winston-Salem)的Wake Forest Baptist Health的母亲医学专家。Grotegut博士没有参与这项研究。他说:“我认为看到这种剂量反应增强了这一观点,即这可能是一个真正的发现。”

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父母的年龄也会影响怀孕丧失风险

调查人员还发现,妊娠损失的风险随着母亲的年龄和她的医疗状况的增加而增加,但是即使允许这一点,父亲的健康与妊娠损失之间的关联仍然存在。随着父亲的增加,失去怀孕的风险也增加了。

The authors do a good job of acknowledging there are some limitations to the study, says Grotegut. “In research, anytime that you’re going back and analyzing data that was collected for a different purpose, there’s always a concern that certain data or conditions were either not recorded or not recorded correctly,” he says.

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Population for this Study Was Not Inclusive

作者说,其他限制是数据仅包括私人保险和雇用的人,并且数据不包括种族,滥用药物或社会人口统计学状况,例如教育水平或收入。

What Is It About Men’s Health That Could Impact Pregnancy Risk?

尽管这项研究并非旨在揭示父亲健康与怀孕损失风险之间关联背后的“原因”,但现有的研究提供了一些线索。艾森伯格说:“有一些研究表明,年龄较大,吸烟或肥胖的男人的精子可能在其精子中具有异常的表观遗传学特征。”

表观遗传学是对您的行为和环境如何引起影响基因运作方式的变化的研究。Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).表观遗传变化是可逆的,不会改变您的DNA序列,但它们会影响您的身体读取DNA序列的方式。

他解释说,这些表观遗传变化并没有改变DNA代码,但它们改变了DNA表达的效果和有效性。

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It’s possible that these chronic health conditions of the men lead to poor epigenetic signatures of the sperm, says Eisenberg. “If the sperm DNA can’t be expressed efficiently or perfectly, that may lead to a poor embryo or a poor placenta that then can lead to this adverse pregnancy trajectory where it’s more likely to end,” he says.

研究表明,孕妇的环境ment and behavior during pregnancy, for example whether or not she eats a healthy diet, can change the baby’s epigenetics, according to theCDC.

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Paternal Age Linked to Increased Risks at Birth

Eisenberg and his colleagues published a 2018 study inThe BMJ这使用了来自美国国家数据共享计划的4050万活生生的数据来检查父亲年龄的影响(如果有的话)。

在控制教育水平,婚姻状况,吸烟史,获得医疗保健和母亲年龄等因素之后,调查人员发现,年长的父亲与出生时的风险增加有关,包括低出生体重和癫痫发作。年长的父亲出生的婴儿也更有可能需要通风和新生儿重症监护。

Fathers May Play a Role in Determining the Health of the Placenta, Animal Research Suggests

尽管迄今为止没有任何人类研究,但发表在美国国家科学院论文集looked at mules, which have horse mothers and donkey fathers, and hinnies, which have horse fathers and donkey mothers. Investigators found that genes from the animals’ fathers were predominant in the placenta.

The placenta is the organ that gives the fetus nourishment and oxygen and filters out waste products through the umbilical cord.

Further Research Needed to Strengthen the Association Between Paternal Health and Pregnancy Problems

One avenue for further research would drill down deeper to examine the individual health of the fathers-to-be, says Eisenberg. “For example, if a person has diabetes, let’s look at how tightly they’re controlling their blood sugars and how they are doing it, whether that be through diet and exercise or medication. We could discover that what we’re seeing as far as increased risk in pregnancy could be the disease itself, but it could also be the treatment for the disease,” he says.

Replicating the study and looking at individuals with more detail is really crucial to understanding what is going on, adds Eisenberg.

对准父亲,家庭的健康建议

This is only one study, and at this point it hasn’t been proved that the father’s health causes the increased risk in pregnancy, says Eisenberg. That being said, the advice that we would give a man would not be harmful, even if further studies don’t prove causation, he says.

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Men should be mindful of their diet, to exercise, maintain a healthy body weight, and check in with their primary care doctor to make sure that they’re in good health, says Eisenberg. “I think that’s reasonable, it’s going to benefit their health, and this data suggests that it would hopefully benefit the pregnancy as well,” he says. “Maybe this could be an extra carrot to get people, specifically men, to adhere to some of those recommendations,” he adds.

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