Tag: sperm

Healthy mom, healthy baby. Few would argue that a mother-to-be has the starring role in how a baby develops during pregnancy. However, recent research shows that in biological terms fathers shape their children’s development more than previously thought. Components of the male sperm have been linked with numerous pregnancy outcomes, from an increased risk of miscarriage to a predisposition for obesity in offspring.

At the moment of conception, the genetic contributions of the female and male are equal. However, research connects a mother’s experiences during pregnancy with her offspring’s long-term health.

Boys conceived through a common type of fertilization procedure may produce less sperm and experience more struggles with fertility than peers born the old fashioned way, a recent study suggests.

Researchers focused on 54 men conceived by what’s known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a technique developed in the 1990s to treat cases when infertility is tied to problems with a man’s sperm.

Compared to a control group of similar men conceived naturally, the ICSI group had much lower average sperm concentration, total sperm count and total motile or active sperm count.