Why men shouldn’t take ibuprofen if they want kids
Small study shows that heavy use of the pain medicine may be linked to testicular damage and infertility
A popular pain medication often popped by men who suffer minor aches and pains related to sports may be linked to infertility, according to a new study.
As USA Today has reported, the ibuprofen dosage commonly used by athletes can cause a testicular condition seen often in older men and linked to lower fertility. Those are the findings of a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which found that heavy usage of the everyday pain medicine “alters human testicular physiology” resulting in the disorder called compensated hypogonadism.
The study, which took place in Denmark and France, involved 31 men under the age of 35. Some took 1,200 milligrams of ibuprofen daily, the maximum limit as directed, over a six-week period, while others took a placebo.
Within just two weeks, the testosterone-producing hormones in the subjects became linked to the amount of ibuprofen in their blood. The ratio of these hormones to testosterone dropped, causing compensated hypogonadism, a disorder also linked to depression and strokes, the study’s authors noted.
While it is important to under-
stand that this was a small study, and more research is clearly called for, the fact that ibuprofen is so widely and casually used by so many men makes it a point of concern, particularly for those who intend to start a family.
While it is certain that the hormonal effects in the study participants who used ibuprofen for only a short time are reversible, as CBS reported, it is not known whether this is also true after long-term ibuprofen use, Bernard Jégou, director of the Institute of Research in Environmental and Occupational Health in France and co-author of the study, told CNN.
The new study is a continuation of research that first began with pregnant women, Jégou told CNN, in which researchers examined the health effects when a mother-tobe took one of three mild pain relievers found in medicine chests around the globe — aspirin, acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol and sold under the brand name Tylenol) and ibuprofen.
They found that all three drugs are “anti-androgenic,” meaning that they can disrupt male hormones, as David M. Kristensen, another co-author of the study and a senior scientist in the Department of Neurology at Copenhagen University Hospital, told CNN. In the wake of this research, they focused their investigation on ibuprofen, which seems to have had the strongest effects.
Before you raid your medicine cabinet, Advil and Motrin are two brand names for ibuprofen.
It should be noted that Bay Area doctors suggest that more studies must be conducted before any conclusion can be drawn.
“I do not think the message should be to stop taking ibuprofen,” said Dr. Michael Eisenberg, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford Health Care. “Rather this is an important but small study. Larger studies with more follow-up are needed to understand the implications of ibuprofen use . ... The work is very important, especially given the potentially increasing rates of male reproductive disorders; however, additional studies are needed.”