ArticleAndrology2023
Maternal intake of folate and folic acid during pregnancy and markers of male fecundity: A population-based cohort study.
Article in Andrology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations of folic acid supplements and dietary folate intake with gestational diabetes mellitus: complementary evidence from a multimethod investigation.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- Folic acid and sperm quality improvement: insights from snRNA sequencing and RNA splicing mechanisms.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Review
- Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and reproductive health in adult sons: a study in the Danish National Birth Cohort.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Determinants of Hemoglobin Among Pregnant Women at Agro-Pastoralist Communities in South Omo Zone, Ethiopia: Community Based Cross-Sectional Study, Nutrition Experience from Movable Community.Nutrition and metabolic insights · 2024Article
- Maternal intake of folate and folic acid during pregnancy and markers of male fecundity: A population-based cohort study.Andrology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPoor male fecundity is of concern, and a prenatal origin has been proposed. Folate, a methyl donor involved in DNA methylation, is essential for normal fetal development by regulating gene expression during different periods of fetal development. Thus, prenatal exposure to low maternal folate intake might have a programing function of the developing reproductive organs.
objectivesTo examine the association between maternal intake of folate from diet and folic acid from supplements during pregnancy and markers of fecundity in young men. MATERIALS AND
methodsWe conducted a follow-up study using a Danish mother-son cohort of 787 young men born 1998-2000. Percentage differences in semen characteristics, testes volume, and reproductive hormone levels were analyzed according to total folate calculated as dietary folate equivalents from diet and supplements in midpregnancy, using multivariable negative binomial regression models. Total folate was analyzed in quintiles, continuous per standard deviation decrease (SD: 318 μg/day) and as restricted cubic splines.
resultsLow maternal intake of total folate was associated with lower total sperm count (-5% (95% confidence intervals [CI]: -11%; 2%)), a lower proportion of non-progressive and immotile spermatozoa (-5% [95% CI: -8%; -3%]), and lower testes volume (-4% [95% CI: -6%; -2%]) per SD decrease in total folate intake. Spline plots supported these findings. DISCUSSION: The finding of a lower proportion of non-progressive and immotile spermatozoa, and hence a higher proportion of motile spermatozoa, in men of mothers with a lower intake of total folate in midpregnancy was surprising and may be a chance finding.
conclusionLower maternal intake of total folate in midpregnancy was associated with lower sperm count and lower testes volume, however, also with a lower proportion of non-progressive and immotile spermatozoa in adult men. Whether this actually affects the ability to obtain a pregnancy warrants further investigation.
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