TY - JOUR

T1 - Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index and pubertal development among sons

AU - Hounsgaard, M L

AU - Håkonsen, L B

AU - Vested, A

AU - Thulstrup, A M

AU - Olsen, J

AU - Bonde, J P

AU - Nohr, E A

AU - Ramlau-Hansen, C H

N1 - © 2013 American Society of Andrology and European Academy of Andrology.

PY - 2014/3

Y1 - 2014/3

N2 - Maternal overweight and obesity in pregnancy has been associated with earlier age of menarche in daughters as well as reduced semen quality in sons. We aimed at investigating pubertal development in sons born by mothers with a high body mass index (BMI). The study included 2522 sons of mothers that during pregnancy in 1984-1987 were enrolled in a mother-child cohort and gave information on their pre-pregnancy height and weight from which we calculated their BMI. Information on sons' pubertal development, assessed by age when starting regular shaving, voice break, acne and first nocturnal emission, was obtained from web-based questionnaires in 2005, when sons were 18-21 years old. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that sons of obese mothers on average started to shave regularly 8.3 (95% confidence interval: 2.5-14.0) months earlier than sons of normal weight mothers. For the three other indicators of pubertal development, results also indicated earlier pubertal development among sons of obese mothers. After excluding sons of underweight mothers in a subanalysis, we observed an inverse trend between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and age at regular shaving, acne and first nocturnal emission. In conclusion, maternal pre-pregnant obesity may be related to earlier timing of pubertal milestones among sons. More research, preferably based on prospectively collected information about pubertal development, is needed to draw firm conclusions.

AB - Maternal overweight and obesity in pregnancy has been associated with earlier age of menarche in daughters as well as reduced semen quality in sons. We aimed at investigating pubertal development in sons born by mothers with a high body mass index (BMI). The study included 2522 sons of mothers that during pregnancy in 1984-1987 were enrolled in a mother-child cohort and gave information on their pre-pregnancy height and weight from which we calculated their BMI. Information on sons' pubertal development, assessed by age when starting regular shaving, voice break, acne and first nocturnal emission, was obtained from web-based questionnaires in 2005, when sons were 18-21 years old. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that sons of obese mothers on average started to shave regularly 8.3 (95% confidence interval: 2.5-14.0) months earlier than sons of normal weight mothers. For the three other indicators of pubertal development, results also indicated earlier pubertal development among sons of obese mothers. After excluding sons of underweight mothers in a subanalysis, we observed an inverse trend between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and age at regular shaving, acne and first nocturnal emission. In conclusion, maternal pre-pregnant obesity may be related to earlier timing of pubertal milestones among sons. More research, preferably based on prospectively collected information about pubertal development, is needed to draw firm conclusions.

KW - Adult

KW - Body Mass Index

KW - Cohort Studies

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Obesity

KW - Pregnancy

KW - Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects

KW - Puberty

KW - Questionnaires

KW - Semen Analysis

KW - Sexual Maturation

KW - Young Adult

U2 - 10.1111/j.2047-2927.2013.00171.x

DO - 10.1111/j.2047-2927.2013.00171.x

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 24339440

VL - 2

SP - 198

EP - 204

JO - Journal of Andrology

JF - Journal of Andrology

SN - 2047-2919

IS - 2

ER -