Taking paracetamol during pregnancy may reduce the fertility of your daughters by reducing the future eggs available for fertilization.

‘Rodents given paracetamol during pregnancy, at doses equivalent to those that a pregnant woman may take for pain relief, produced female offspring with fewer eggs.’

It is well known that exposure to some chemicals during pregnancy can cause developmental effects that may not manifest until much later in life. In rodents and humans, females are born with a finite number of eggs for reproduction in the future. In these reviewed studies, rodents given paracetamol during pregnancy, at doses equivalent to those that a pregnant woman may take for pain relief, produced female offspring with fewer eggs. This means that in adulthood, they have fewer eggs available for fertilisation, which may reduce their chances of successful reproduction, particularly as they get older. 




Dr Kristensen comments, "Although this may not be a severe impairment to fertility, it is still of real concern since data from three different labs all independently found that paracetamol may disrupt female reproductive development in this way, which indicates further investigation is needed to establish how this affects human fertility."
Although there are parallels between rodent and human reproductive development, these findings have yet to be firmly established in humans. However, establishing a link between paracetamol taken by mothers during pregnancy and fertility problems much later in the adult life of the child will be difficult. Dr Kristensen recommends that an inter-disciplinary approach be taken to address this, "by combining epidemiological data from human studies with more experimental research on models, such as rodents, it may be possible to firmly establish this link and determine how it happens, so that pregnant women in pain can be successfully treated, without risk to their unborn children."
Dr Kristensen states, "As scientists, we are not in the positon to make any medical recommendations and we would urge pregnant women in pain to consult with their general practitioner, midwife or pharmacist for professional advice."
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