Male infertility among many side effects linked to ibuprofen – New study reveals

As a man, the next time you decide to take ibuprofen when you have a headache, think twice as new study says the well-known painkiller could cause fertility issues in males.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), monitored 31 healthy white men aged 18 to 35. The volunteers were interviewed, completed a questionnaire assessing their physical activity, and gave a blood sample. The men were then divided into two groups, 14 in an ibuprofen group and 17 in a placebo group.

Those in the ibuprofen group were given two doses of ibuprofen a day. Each dose was 600mg, equivalent to three over-the-counter pills.

The researchers, from Denmark, France, and China, concluded that taking ibuprofen increases the risk of a condition known as compensated hypogonadism. The condition, generally associated with elderly men and linked to reproductive and physical disorders, including infertility, results in the body having higher levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) than testosterone.

This is a problem, as the function of LH is to stimulate the production of testosterone, and not to significantly surpass testosterone levels.

When the researchers measured the testosterone/luteinizing hormone (LH) ratio in the participants, they found that the ibuprofen group experienced an 18 percent ratio decrease after 14 days. That number rose to a 23 percent decrease after 44 days. "Taken together, these in vivo data suggest that ibuprofen induced a state of compensated hypogonadism during the trial..." the study states.

“We normally see this condition in elderly men, so it raises an alarm,” study author Bernard Jégou, of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, told the Guardian. “We are concerned about it, particularly for healthy people who don’t need to take these drugs. The risk is greater than the benefit.”

Source: Reuters