WEDNESDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) -- Men whose mothers consumed high amounts of beef during pregnancy have lower sperm concentrations and are more likely to have a history of subfertility than those without a maternal history of beef consumption, according to study findings published online March 28 in Human Reproduction.
Shanna H. Swan, Ph.D., from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, N.Y., and colleagues examined semen quality in 387 males who were partners of pregnant women. The men asked their mothers to complete a brief questionnaire on their food consumption during pregnancy.
The researchers found that sperm concentrations were inversely related to the mothers' beef consumption. Men whose mothers reported eating more than seven beef meals per week during pregnancy had sperm concentrations that were 24.3 percent lower than other men. They were also three times more likely than other men to have sperm concentrations below 20 million per ml (17.7 versus 5.7 percent) and to have a history of subfertility, according to the study.
"These data suggest that maternal beef consumption, and possibly xenobiotics in beef, may alter a man's testicular development in utero and adversely affect his reproductive capacity," Swan and colleagues conclude.
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