This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Breast-feeding duration associated with anogenital distance in boys
In infant boys, full breast-feeding may protect against the reduction of anogenital distance at age 2 years, according to recent findings.
“[Anogenital distance] is considered a useful parameter of adult reproductive health,” Juan Antonio Ortega-Garcia, MD, PhD, of the pediatric environmental health specialty unit of the Institute of Biomedical research at Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca and colleagues wrote. “Consequently, any type of breast-feeding could be potentiating the fertility of future adult males. Taking the significance of its association with both [anogenital distance] measures into account, [full breast-feeding] could be an effective way of preventing [anogenital distance] shortening and promoting male fertility in future generations.”
Ortega-Garcia and colleagues analyzed data from 430 mother-child pairs participating in Medio Ambiente y Lactancia Materna (MALAMA), a follow-up study of two population-based cohorts in Murcia, Spain, from birth to age 2 years (120 children). Newborns were recruited in June and July 2009. Researchers collected data from medical visits and telephone surveys at 3, 6, and 12 months; WHO breast-feeding definitions were used. Researchers assessed anogenital distance (including anoscrotal distance, anopenile distance and anoclitoral distance) measurements in a subsample of 71 boys and 49 girls at the 2-year visit, and calculated associations between anogenital distance and breast-feeding duration using Pearson correlations and linear regressions, controlling for birth weight and weight and height at 2 years.
Within the cohort, mean anoscrotal distance was 4.4 cm; mean anopenile distance was 8.1 cm; mean anoclitoral distance was 6 cm.
Researchers found that duration of all types of breast-feeding, especially full breast-feeding, correlated with anogenital distance measures in boys only (P < .05). In addition, anoscrotal distance and anopenile distance were positively associated with full-breastfeeding (b = 0.004; 95%CI, 0.001–0.007 and b = 0.003; 95%CI, 0.000–0.007, respectively), whereas any breast-feeding was a predictor of anopenile measurement (r = 0.28; P < .05).
“The results suggest the existence of an association between breast-feeding duration and the [anogenital distance] measures of 2-year-old boys,” the researchers wrote. “According to the linear regression, both [anogenital distance] measures of boys would be increased by about 0.1 mm for each additional month of [full breast-feeding].”
The researchers noted that exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals was not measured at any time point in study participants, that there were no anogenital distance measurements at birth and that other confounding factors, such as estrogenic endocrine disrupting chemicals, can affect both breast-feeding and anogenital distance. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.