Posted on 03/29/2022 6:53:44 AM PDT by Red Badger
A large cohort study found that babies born to men who took metformin during the period of sperm development were at increased risk for birth defects, specifically genital defects in boys. These finding suggest that men with diabetes who are taking metformin should talk to their doctors about whether they should switch to another treatment when trying to conceive a child. However, because diabetes control also affects sperm quality, discontinuing metformin treatment could also affect birth outcomes. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Diabetes increasingly occurs in people of reproductive age, compromises sperm quality, and is associated with impaired male fertility. Some diabetes drugs may also affect male reproductive health.
Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark and Stanford University studied data from nation-wide national registries of births, patients, and prescriptions to evaluate whether the risk for birth defects varied among offspring born to men treated with insulin, metformin, or sulfonylureas prior to conception. Babies were considered exposed to a diabetes drug if their father filled at least 1 prescription during the 3 months when the fertilizing sperm were developing.
The researchers compared birth defects in the babies across diabetes drugs, different times of taking the drug relative to development of fertilizing sperm, and with unexposed siblings of the babies. Babies whose fathers took insulin had no increased risk for a birth defect compared with the general group.
Babies whose fathers took metformin had an increased risk for birth defects. There were too few babies whose fathers took sulfonylureas to determine risks for birth defects with any certainty. Taking metformin before or after sperm development did not increase the risk for birth defects. Unexposed siblings were also not at increased risk.
According to the authors, the size of the diabetes pandemic suggests that treatment of prospective fathers with diabetes, including pharmacologic management and counseling on diet, physical exercise, and weight loss, should be subject to further study.
An editorial from Germaine M. Buck Louis, PhD, MS at George Mason University emphasizes the importance of corroborating the findings, given the prevalence of metformin use as first-line therapy for type 2 diabetes. The author also calls for guidance from clinicians to help couples planning pregnancy weigh the risks and benefits of paternal metformin use relative to other medications.
References:
“Preconception Antidiabetic Drugs in Men and Birth Defects in Offspring: A Nationwide Cohort Study” by Maarten J. Wensink, MD, PhD, Ying Lu, PhD, Lu Tian, PhD, Gary M. Shaw, DrPH, Silvia Rizzi, PhD, Tina Kold Jensen, PhD, Elisabeth R. Mathiesen, MD, Niels E. Skakkebæk, MD, DMSc, Rune Lindahl-Jacobsen, PhD and Michael L. Eisenberg, MD, 29 March 2022, Annals of Internal Medicine. DOI: 10.7326/M21-4389
“Paternal Preconception Diabetes Drugs and Birth Defects in Offspring: A Call for More Conclusive Study” by Germaine M. Buck Louis, PhD, MS, 29 March 2022, Annals of Internal Medicine. DOI: 10.7326/M22-0770
Thankfully my diabetes days arrived long after I was done with that other stuff....
WELL, YOU NEVER KNOW.......................
We all aren’t Vladimir Putin or Ed McMahon.
In my case, prostate cancer made it pretty much certain, LOL.
Same here. At 68 and a widower, this isn't something I'm not going to worry about. I'm perfectly happy with my successful RN daughter and 5 grandkids.
I worked for several years for a busy internal medicine practice and a lot of their patients were diabetics. I learned a lot about diabetes working for that place, that’s for sure.
But they gave Metformin to EVERYONE. The doctors had a high degree of trust in their medications. They also prescribed a lot of anticholinergics - for all different kinds of things, not just heart problems.
In prescribing Metformin the object is of course to bring the blood glucose into an acceptable range. Metformin was good at that. But are going to lose a few things taking it over a long period of time.
Most of the time the doctors would be responsible and promote healthy living, weight loss, a good diet, stopping bad habits like smoking, etc. They did all the right things. Every so often a patient would be able to reduce or completely go off of his diabetic meds because he followed the docs’ advice, but usually it was medicine....followed by more medicine.....followed by more medicine. And so on, and so on, and scooby-dooby-doobie.
Doctors in the US and their patients trust pills too much. We don’t WANT to exercise, diet, stop drinking, etc. WE WANT PILLS.
BigPharma knew it had us by the short and curlies some time ago. Over the last couple of years they started really putting the screws to us: “All right, you miserable, overweight sacks of garbage! Now you’re going to KNEEL AND KISS OUR BOOTS.”
Sometimes nothing one can do will halt the progress of diabetes. There are a lot of factors that play into it. Little kids are sometimes born with it. It’s not like there’s a really simple solution. (Except not going to the doctor! Which is sort of radical and I don’t recommend it.)
Good post.
I have read Dr. Fung’s book and agree with him.
I just don’t have the motivation to do his diet and fasting prescription.
Summary for Patients: Preconception Antidiabetic Drugs in Men and Birth Defects in Offspring
What were the limitations of the study? There are newer drug classes used to treat type 2 diabetes that were not studied. The study did not account for how well a father's diabetes was controlled during sperm development. The researchers were unable to determine whether fathers taking insulin had type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Metformin and sulfonylureas are only used to treat type 2 diabetes, so it is reasonable to assume that the fathers receiving these drugs had type 2 diabetes.
Well, those are some biggies to my mind.
Metformin, IIRC, is a lot less expensive than most of the other diabetes drugs I'm familiar with. Wonder if that figures into this at all ..
We all got to see in the last couple of years now products (think VACCINES) are rushed onto the market without being thoroughly tested. Sounds like the same is true of metformin. What a drag! Apparently it does control blood sugar quite well.
“I just don’t have the motivation to do his diet and fasting prescription.”
Yeah, I hear you. If you have a lot going on in your life - especially a family depending on you - it’s not going to be easy to make drastic changes. BigPharma has a solution for you! LOL!
Interestingly, Metformin is also used off label as an anti-aging drug.
Huuumpt! I just read on another thread where these things are White Supremist indicators.
There are studies that show Benfotiamine works just as well as metformin, without the numerous side effects.
There are studies that show Benfotiamine works just as well as metformin, without the numerous side effects.
Nasty stuff, Metformin. Always left me feeling like I’d swallowed an industrial floor cleaner. A happy day when I was told I could get off it and start injecting insulin.
What helped me was pushing breakfast off as long as possible. After a couple of weeks, I was skipping breakfast all together and pushing Lunch off an hour or so to lengthen the fasting window.
Early on, I got really motivated and managed to do one meal a day for a week. Nice drop in weight for that week.
As far as Diet, a lot of small changes can add up. I started using low carb tortilla's instead of bread for sandwiches.
If you're eating out a lot, find some low carb alternatives. Before covid, when I still drove to work, I'd pick up meat and vegetable dishes from Cracker Barrel. Or salads with pulled pork or chicken from Jim and Nick's BBQ.
You should have switched to extended-release. Doesn’t have the harshness of the other.
You should have switched to extended-release. Doesn’t have the harshness of the other.
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