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Do paternal semen parameters influence the birth weight or BMI of the offspring? A study from the Utah Population Database

  • Reproductive Physiology and Disease
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To study the role of individual semen parameters on the offspring birth weight and body mass index (BMI) from a population of men evaluated in an assisted reproduction technology (ART) clinic compared to fertile controls.

Methods

We performed a retrospective study using a cohort with fertile, age-matched controls of men evaluated with semen analysis at the University of Utah Andrology Clinic from 1996 to 2011 and Intermountain Healthcare from 2002 to 2011. We use the offspring from both our sub-fertile cohort and controls using the Utah Population Database. The two main outcomes of interest were offspring birth weight and adolescent BMI.

Results

The offspring of men with impaired sperm parameters had significantly lower birth weight compared to fertile control offspring. Low-concentration offspring weighed 158 g less (95% CI − 278~− 38; p = 0.01), low total count weighed 172 g less (95% CI − 294~− 51; p = 0.005), and low total motility weighed 155 g less (95% CI − 241~− 69; p < 0.001) compared to those of the controls. When we controlled for the use of ART within the sub-fertile group, we found that there was a significant trend of increasing birth weight across levels of total motile count and total sperm count compared to the azoospermic group. We did not find any consistent significant differences between the subject and control adolescence BMI based on semen parameters.

Conclusions

Despite limitations within our population-based dataset, we found that poor quality semen analysis parameters pointed towards an association with low birth weight in the offspring of sub-fertile men compared to the offspring of normal fertile controls. However, in contrast to studies of ART effects on offspring, we did not find evidence of long-term associations between semen quality and offspring BMI.

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Funding

This investigation was supported in part by from the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through Grant 5UL1TR001067-02.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, 30 North 1900 East Rm #3B420, Salt Lake City, UT, 84132, USA

    Ross E. Anderson, Heidi A. Hanson, Diana Thai, Chong Zhang, Angela P. Presson, Kenneth I. Aston, Douglas T. Carrell, Ken R. Smith & James M. Hotaling

Authors
  1. Ross E. Anderson
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  2. Heidi A. Hanson
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  3. Diana Thai
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  4. Chong Zhang
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  6. Kenneth I. Aston
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  7. Douglas T. Carrell
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  9. James M. Hotaling
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ross E. Anderson.

Ethics declarations

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the University of Utah and Intermountain Health Care by the Utah Resource for Genetic and Epidemiologic Research (www.research.utah.edu/rge/) #IRB_00069711.

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Anderson, R.E., Hanson, H.A., Thai, D. et al. Do paternal semen parameters influence the birth weight or BMI of the offspring? A study from the Utah Population Database. J Assist Reprod Genet 35, 793–799 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-018-1154-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-018-1154-0

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