Skip Navigation



Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published online on November 29, 2006
Human Reproduction, doi:10.1093/humrep/del449
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF ) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
22/3/751    most recent
del449v1
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Asklund, C.
Right arrow Articles by Skakkebæk, N.E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Asklund, C.
Right arrow Articles by Skakkebæk, N.E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Twin pregnancy possibly associated with high semen quality

Camilla Asklund1,3, T.K. Jensen1, N. Jørgensen1, A. Tabor2, L. Sperling2 and N.E. Skakkebæk1

1 University Department of Growth and Reproduction 2 The Ultrasound Clinic, University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark

3 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: University Department of Growth and Reproduction, GR-5064, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail: camilla.asklund{at}rh.hosp.dk

BACKGROUND: Recent studies found an association between a long waiting time to pregnancy (TTP) and reduced probability of twinning and a reduced dizygotic (DZ) twinning rate in subfertile men. However, it remains unsolved whether semen quality is associated with twin offspring. We therefore studied the semen quality in a group of fathers of naturally conceived twins.

METHODS: In this study, 37 fathers of DZ twins and 15 fathers of monozygotic (MZ) twins participated, and 349 normal fertile men served as a reference group. All men delivered a semen sample, underwent a physical examination and completed a questionnaire.

RESULTS: After adjustment, fathers of DZ and MZ twins had 3.6 (95% CI 1.7; 5.4) and 4.6 (95% CI 2.0; 7.2) percentage points higher percentage of sperm cells with normal morphologic features and percentages of motile sperm cells were 11.5 (95% CI 7.2; 15.9) and 12.5 (95% CI 6.3; 18.6) percentage points higher than the reference group (P<0.01). Fathers of DZ twins and MZ twins had 24.7 (95% CI; –9.1; 71.3) and 17.0% (–25.2%; 83.0%) higher sperm concentration than the reference group.

CONCLUSIONS: Fathers of DZ twins had a better semen quality than the reference group, which supports the assumption that spontaneous DZ twinning rate can be used as a sensor of male fecundity of a population.

Key words: dizygotic twinning rates/semen quality/fecundity/twinning


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Hum Reprod UpdateHome page
C. Hoekstra, Z. Z. Zhao, C. B. Lambalk, G. Willemsen, N. G. Martin, D. I. Boomsma, and G. W. Montgomery
Dizygotic twinning
Hum. Reprod. Update, January 1, 2008; 14(1): 37 - 47.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.