Pregnant women: beef may damage your son's sperm
Categories: Pregnancy & Birth, Safety
Attention men: if your mom ate lots of beef while she was pregnant with you, chances are, you have a lower sperm count.
Attention pregnant women: for the sake of future men everywhere, you may want to avoid beef for a few months.
All this according to a new study by the University of Rochester that found men whose mothers ate large amounts of beef during the pregnancy were three times more likely to have a sub-fertile sperm count.
The problem, they think, lies in the growth hormones the beef industry uses. Those hormones were banned in Europe in the late 80s, but the US -- although it banned some of the hormones in the late 70s -- still allows others, such as the sex hormones testosterone and progesterone.
A lead researcher on the study admits that other possible causes -- like exposure to pesticides, or lifestyle factors -- can't be ruled out, but adds: "Theoretically, the fetus and young children are particularly sensitive to exposure to sex steroids. Therefore, the consumption of residues of steroids in meat by pregnant women and young children is of particular concern."
Wow. Do doctors even bring this up? The only pregnancy I've been involved with took place mostly in England, so I wouldn't know, but it seems that this is information every pregnant woman should be aware of.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wendy 3-28-2007 @ 12:18PM
What do they consider a large amount of beef? Did they research the effects of organic beef? Did they find the same results?
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Ethel 3-28-2007 @ 11:04AM
And I read an article yesterday (that I can't find now) that links fertility treatment with lower sperm counts in males (they looked into Danish guys in the army and interviewed moms and sons). And another article I read a couple months ago that linked older moms of girls with those girls having earlier onset of menopause - along with identical twin girls having earlier menopause.
WHATEVER! Please take the articles with a grain of salt, we really need to let this finding stand up to the test of time and re-examination. If pregnant women don't get enough protein their babies are also more likely to be cognitively deficient, do you want stupid but fertile babies?
Or maybe one should eat more chicken, oops - chicken in this country are intensely farmed with massive amounts of antibiotics, hormones and things like trace poisons. What about pork? Same thing. Fish? Well, have to be quite careful there because of mercury and the cost might be prohibitive. Go vegetarian! Except most of us would not be successful at being a good vegetarian with balancing the different amino acids to make a well rounded palette of protein, never mind meat tastes great. And the steroid like molecules (phyto-estrogens) in soy.
This is just another red-herring and a great story for the readership since it freaks people out. Not that I don't think we keep messing with our food supply, but that's another story.
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Trisha 3-28-2007 @ 1:27PM
I agree with Ethel. I listened to the report on NPR this morning and I couldn't help but feel skeptical from the beginning.
The biggest thing for me was that they interviewed women about what they ate 20+ YEARS ago!!! Can any of you remember what you ate on a daily basis 20 years ago, specifically enough to hold water in a research study???
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Tracy 3-28-2007 @ 1:24PM
according to Reuters March 28, 2007 12:35:16 AM PST "They (researchers)believe pesticides, hormones or contaminants in cattle feed may be to blame. Chemicals can build up in the fat of animals that eat contaminated feed or grass, and cattle were and are routinely given hormones to boost their growth.
"In sons of 'high beef consumers' (more than seven beef meals/week), sperm concentration was 24.3 percent lower," the researchers wrote in their report, published in the journal Human Reproduction.
The team at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York studied data on the partners of 387 pregnant women in five U.S. cities between 2000 and 2005, and on the mothers of the fathers-to-be.
Of the 51 men whose mothers remembered eating the most beef, 18 percent had sperm counts classified by the World Health Organization as sub-fertile."
Well that seems to say that Organic beef, raised without hormones on feed that is raised without pesticides, is by definition, the answer. Hmmm, Europe has known this for years, yet the majority of consumers in the US are ignoring the facts and claiming that Organics are just hype and a fad. I can understand the big companies claiming this kind of thing, the bottom line for them is the money. But reasonable, smart American consumers still see this kind of research as sensationalistic and something that will go away in time. Yet these problems have existed for the entire time that pesticides and growth hormones have been around. Ever wonder why cancer, formerly a disease of adults, is striking down so many children and infants? That infertility has been on the rise since the 60's approximately 20 years after the introduction of many of these chemicals? Alzheimer's? ADHD? Depression? Better diagnosis or the genetic breakdown from multiple chemical agents routinely ingested or absorbed?
I for one will do anything in my power to protect my children from "possible" threats, and that includes eating and using organic products, just in case the government and it's ageincies are not quite doing a complete long term evaluation of the drugs and chemicals used in conventional products, food, cosemetics, household products, yard maintence products, and auto care. Somehow, it seems apparent to me that a company holding a check for tons of money versus the wellfare of a nation with a slight overpopulation problem, might just sway most research into the not-so-objective arena.
But I seem to be in the minority, for now...
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LS 3-28-2007 @ 6:49PM
I agree with Tracy - I started eating predominantly organic beef (and other organics, as well) during the Mad Cow scare. Not because I was afraid I'd get it, but because the farming tactics simply didn't make sense. Mad Cow comes from cows being fed proteins from grinding up the (how to be delicate?) remains of other cows, and adding it to the feed. Cows are herbivors, not carnivores. Their systems are not designed to handle meat, and thus, Mad Cow was "created". I also didn't like the ridiculous amounts of antibiotics and hormones. So it doesn't surprise me to see this study, or the ones that say that hormones in meat and milk may contribute to early puberty. It makes sense.
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