Metformin Prescriptions Linked to Sons’ Birth Defects

A new cohort study finds that boys whose fathers took the type 2 diabetes drug metformin three months before their conception were more likely to have a birth defect.

Written byDan Robitzski

| 2 min read

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Men who took the type 2 diabetes drug metformin three months before conceiving their children seem to have an increased risk of having sons with birth defects, new research finds.

The study, a retroactive analysis of Denmark’s federal registry of healthcare data that was published Tuesday (March 29) in Annals of Internal Medicine, found a significantly increased risk of genital birth defects among boys whose fathers had filled a prescription for metformin—commonly branded as Glucophage, Riomet, and Glumetza—about three months prior to conception, roughly the duration of time it takes for sperm to mature. A correlation between birth defects and paternal metformin prescriptions was not seen in girls, according to the study.

“This could be an extra reason to put more priority on paternal health,” study coauthor Maarten Wensink, a public health expert at the University of Southern Denmark,” tells Reuters.

The study looked at medical records of children born ...

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Meet the Author

Dan Robitzski
Dan is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles who joined The Scientist as a reporter and editor in 2021. Ironically, Dan’s undergraduate degree and brief career in neuroscience inspired him to write about research rather than conduct it, culminating in him earning a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University in 2017. In 2018, an Undark feature Dan and colleagues began at NYU on a questionable drug approval decision at the FDA won first place in the student category of the Association of Health Care Journalists' Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Now, Dan writes and edits stories on all aspects of the life sciences for the online news desk, and he oversees the “The Literature” and “Modus Operandi” sections of the monthly TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. Read more of his work at danrobitzski.com.
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