More on Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) in pregnancy

Another study has confirmed earlier Danish findings that paracetamol use during pregnancy can have an adverse effect on male reproductive function.
FOR MORE ABOUT PARACETAMOL (ACETAMINOPHEN) PLEASE SEE MY POST OF 28TH MARCH 2015.

A team in Edinburgh have found that prolonged paracetamol use (aka acetaminophen or Tylenol) by pregnant women may reduce testosterone production in unborn baby boys.  The authors advise taking paracetamol only for the shortest time and the lowest dose during pregnancy.

This confirms earlier suggestions that the inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis caused by paracetamol has wider hormonal impact than has been thought.  The doses used by the Edinburgh team were close to the normal therapeutic dosage and this again suggests that paracetamol use in pregnancy and labour warrants more investigation.  So far scientists have looked at the effects on the unborn baby, but scrutiny of the effect on the mother and her labour is also overdue.

The Medical Research Council's press release can be found here: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/news-events/news/paracetamol-in-pregnancy-may-lower-testosterone-in-unborn-boys/

S. van den Driesche, J. Macdonald, R. A. Anderson, Z. C. Johnston, T. Chetty, L. B. Smith, C. McKinnell, A. Dean, N. Z. Homer, A. Jorgensen, M. E. Camacho-Moll, R. M. Sharpe, R. T. Mitchell. Prolonged exposure to acetaminophen reduces testosterone production by the human fetal testis in a xenograft model. Science Translational Medicine, 2015; 7 (288): 288ra80 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaa4097