Low sperm count and maternal smoking

Confounding from an uneven distribution of men with azoospermia was not present. Please enter your name here. The father's smoking is also linked to a shorter reproductive lifespan in daughters, so the notion that everything depends on whether the mother smokes or not doesn't seem convincing. Children of smoking fathers have up to four times as many DNA mutations in certain repeated regions than those with non-smoking fathers, which has consequential effects on the child's health. The same magnitude of lower birthweight in the two groups makes the presence of recall bias dependent on son's fertility status very unlikely. By posting a comment you agree to abide by the BioNews terms and conditions Syndicate this story - click here to enquire about using this story. The authors conclude that this could be because the fathers smoking causing genetic changes in his sperm that were then passed onto his son.