Metformin[/B], one of the drugs most commonly prescribed around the world for decades against type 2 diabetes, is linked to babies, especially boys, being born with birth defects when their fathers took the drug before the child was conceived, according to a major new Danish scientific study, the first to make this association. The risk is 1.4 times greater for these children.
The synthetic substance metformin, which lowers blood glucose by enhancing the body's sensitivity to the hormone insulin, is a generic first-line drug against diabetes mellitus that has been used since the 1950s. It is usually prescribed when it has not been possible to achieve blood sugar control through proper diet, weight loss and exercise and often before other more expensive drugs are prescribed.
Researchers at the Universities of Southern Denmark and Stanford California, who published the paper in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, according to Reuters and Science, analyzed data on nearly 1.12 million births in Denmark between 1997-2016, of which 3.3% of babies had one or more birth defects. 5.2% of the 1,451 babies with a father who had taken metformin in the previous three months after conception had birth defects (genital, digestive, urinary, cardiovascular or other), compared with 3.3% among other babies whose father had not previously taken metformin.
In particular, the risk of birth defects in the boy's genital organs was more than threefold higher when the father had taken metformin (0.9% versus 0.24% in babies who had not been exposed to metformin). If the father was taking insulin instead of metformin before conception or had taken metformin previously (e.g. a year before conception), the risk of having a boy with problems was not increased. It is thought that metformin may negatively affect the sperm of the prospective father (it is not yet clear by what biological mechanism) and this in turn may have an impact on the baby, particularly the boy.
The scientists said that the study should not prevent men with diabetes from taking metformin, as the results of the study should be considered preliminary and the issue needs further investigation in order for the findings to be confirmed. However, when a man is thinking about having a child, he could switch to another drug instead of metformin, but after consulting a doctor, according to Danish public health professor Maarten Wensink, who stressed that metformin is a safe drug, cheap and does what it needs to do. He added that any change to this drug is a complex decision that a couple must make together with doctors.
Given the widespread use of metformin as a first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes, confirmation of these findings is urgently needed. In the meantime, clinical guidance is needed to help couples plan for pregnancy by weighing the risks and benefits of metformin use by the father versus alternative medications, said Germaine Buck Lewis, professor of reproductive epidemiology at George Mason University in Virginia.
It should also be considered that, in addition to metformin, type 1 or 2 diabetes itself can disrupt male fertility, affecting both the hormone testosterone condition and sperm production, and can also cause erectile dysfunction.
Source: Cyprus Times
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