Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on October 7, 2008
Human Reproduction 2009 24(2):445-450; doi:10.1093/humrep/den366
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Parental infertility and sexual maturation in children
1 The Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Vennelyst Boulevard 6, DK 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark 2 Epidemiology Branch, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, MD A3-05, PO Box 12233, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA 3 Perinatal Epidemiological Research Unit, Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby, DK 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark 4 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, UCLA, PO Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, USA
5 Correspondence address. Tel: +45-89426074; Fax: +45-86131580; E-mail: zjl{at}soci.au.dk
BACKGROUND: The reproductive health of children born of infertile couples may be affected by infertility treatment or factors associated with infertility. We examined sexual maturation in children of parents with infertility.
METHODS: We used data from a follow-up of 3382 girls and 2810 boys born between 1984 and 1987 in the Aalborg–Odense Birth Cohort. We had mothers’ report of time to pregnancy (TTP) and infertility treatment (at the time, mostly hormonal) from the pregnancy questionnaire administered in 1984–1987, and the children’s report of their own sexual maturation from the follow-up questionnaire administered in 2005, when they were between 18 and 21 years old. Many reported age only in year when they had the events related to sexual maturation, and for each event, we imputed the month based on the median month at each year of age among those reporting both years and months.
RESULTS: In girls, the mean age at menarche was 13.3 years and, in boys, the mean age at appearance of acne, voice break, regular shaving and first nocturnal emission were 14.5, 14.5, 17.2 and 14.7 years, respectively. We saw no significant differences in age at these events among children born of either fertile (with TTP of 0–12 months and no treatment), untreated infertile (with TTP of more than 12 months and no treatment) or treated infertile couples (with a history of examination or treatment for infertility).
CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest no significant association between parental infertility or hormonal treatment and timing of sexual maturation in the offspring.
Key words: infertility/infertility treatment/puberty/time to pregnancy
Submitted on July 11, 2008; resubmitted on September 5, 2008; accepted on September 8, 2008.