Chemical Found in Soy Products, Legumes Could Damage Sperm, Impair Fertility, Study Says

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 27 Jun 2005 - 14:00 PDT

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The plant chemical GENISTEIN, which is found in soy products and legumes, could damage sperm and lead to fertility problems, according to a study presented on Wednesday at the... European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology's annual conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Reuters reports. Lynn Fraser, a professor of reproductive biology at King's College London, tested the chemical -- which can mimic the effect of the female hormone estrogen -- on human and mouse sperm (Reaney, Reuters, 6/21). Fraser found that human sperm were more than three times as likely to lose their acrosomes -- caps that enable them to penetrate an egg at fertilization -- an hour after genistein exposure than they were before exposure (Fleming, Daily Telegraph, 6/22). Although genistein affects sperm's ability to penetrate an egg, a woman's intake of genistein-containing foods likely has a greater effect on fertility than a man's consumption, according to the researchers (Reuters, 6/21). Fraser said that women trying to become pregnant might be able to increase their chance of pregnancy by avoiding foods with high concentrations of genistein during ovulation (Roberts, BBC News, 6/21).

Genetic Profile Key to Successful Births After Age 45, Study Says
Women over age 45 who are able to conceive more easily than most women their age seem to have a specific genetic profile that scientists someday might be able to detect with a test, allowing younger women to determine how long they will be fertile, according to a study presented at the conference on Tuesday, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. Neri Laufer, chair of the OB/GYN department at Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, and colleagues studied 250 Ashkenazi Jewish women who had given birth after age 45. Most of the women had at least six children and few had ever had miscarriages. The researchers compared the genes of eight women in the group to those of six women of the same age who gave birth for the last time at or before age 30. The eight women who conceived at a later age had a genetic profile that did not exist in the other women, including differences among the approximately 50 genes that protect the ovaries from DNA damage and early cell death, according to the study (Ross, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/22). Laufer also said preliminary findings from a follow-up study he is conducting among Bedouin women show that the genetic profile exists in about 2% of the approximately 100,000 women studied, the Scotsman reports. He has studied about 100,000 births in that study, which was not presented at the conference (von Radowitz, Scotsman, 6/21). Although some women are fertile later into life than others, those women do not have lower risks of problems associated with pregnancy later in life, such as miscarriage, diabetes, hypertension and maternal death (Fleming, Daily Telegraph, 6/22).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/repro The Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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