Women taking the painkiller in the first 24 weeks of their pregnancy may be reducing the store of eggs in the ovaries of their daughters, a study has found.
Mothers who take ibuprofen in the first three months of pregnancy may be harming the fertility of baby girls, a study has found.
Researchers analysed 185 foetuses and found evidence that women taking the painkiller in the first 24 weeks of their pregnancy may be reducing the store of eggs in the ovaries of their daughters.
Around 30% of women are estimated to use ibuprofen in the first three months of pregnancy.
Current recommendations are that the pain killer should not be taken after that time as it is known to increase the risks of foetal malformations.
There is currently no firm guidance on whether or not it is safe to take in the early weeks.
French researchers from the INSERM centre in Rennes obtained human foetuses between 7-12 weeks of development from legally induced terminations with the mothers’ consent.
Then they cultured the ovarian tissue in the laboratory. Part of the tissue from each foetus was exposed to ibuprofen and a second part (the control) was not.
Researchers also measured the quantity of ibuprofen in the blood in the umbilical cord in order to analyse how much the foetus would have already been exposed to.
Lead researcher Dr Séverine Mazaud-Guittot said: “Baby girls are born with a finite number of follicles in their ovaries and this defines their future reproductive capacity as adults.
“A poorly stocked initial reserve will result in a shortened reproductive life span, early menopause or infertility – all events that occur decades later in life.
“We found that two to seven days of exposure to ibuprofen dramatically reduced the germ cell stockpile in human foetal ovaries during the first trimester of pregnancy and the ovaries did not recover fully from this damage.
“This suggests that prolonged exposure to ibuprofen during foetal life may lead to long-term effects on women’s fertility.”
The study is published in the journal Human Reproduction.
