Test-tube boys could inherit their father’s infertility--study

Doctors have long suspected that test-tube baby boom started in the 1990s, could be storing up graver problems for the future.

Lead author Alastair Sutclife, a pediatrician at the Institute of Child Health, said, “This is the first study of this kind on these children.”

“We don’t yet know the implication of the findings because the children are very young, but we need to inform people [about the possible risks of the ICSI procedure].”

Details of the study
To come up with these findings, Sutclife and colleagues focused on 211 six-year-olds boys conceived through a fertility technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a treatment in which single sperm is injected directly into the female sperm.

These babies were then compared with 195 naturally conceived boys of the same age.

Finger length and fertility
The researchers noted that children in the ICSI group were more or less similar to the naturally conceived children.

However, boys conceived using ICSI, had significantly shorter ring fingers, indicative of the fact that they have inherited fertility problems from their fathers.

It is a known fact that men with less sperm count have ring fingers of the same length as their index fingers, and have a higher incidence to suffer from fertility problems compared to fertile men whose ring fingers are longer.

According to experts, finger length sets in within the 14 weeks of pregnancy, and is linked to testosterone (male hormones) exposure in the womb. It is also linked to depression, and aggression in the offspring.

Though the children studied were very young to draw any concrete conclusions, yet the findings seemed concerning, the researchers stated.

The results of the present study seem worrisome as they raise the prospects of a new generation who may be less likely to have their own kids, they warned.

“This [research] is telling us that we should only use ICSI when it is absolutely necessary,” said John Manning, an evolutionary biologist at Southampton University who has examined the link between finger length and fertility, and who is one of the co- authors of the latest study.

“We know the extraordinary depression and pain that childlessness can cause and we have a responsibility to ensure that the focus on the wellbeing of the children born as a result of these techniques is as high as it can be.”

The findings have been published online in the Journal Reproductive Biomedicine.