New Delhi, October 17 (IANS). Men suffering from type 2 diabetes who are planning a family can be assured that taking the drug metformin does not increase the risk of congenital deformities in their child, a large-scale research has said.
The findings published by BMJ looked at data from more than 3 million babies. It has been found that metformin is a suitable medicine to manage sugar levels in men who are planning to have children.
Metformin is used to treat type 2 diabetes patients. A recent Danish study suggested that male children born to fathers who used metformin may have some birth defects, especially those related to the genitals.
To understand this, researchers from Taiwan and Norway attempted to evaluate the relationship between the disorders and diabetes medication.
They used national birth registries and prescription databases and identified 619,389 infants with details of fathers born during the period of sperm development (three months before pregnancy) in Norway during 2010–21, and Taiwan during 2004–2018. Identified 25,63,812 infants.
Of these, 2,075 (0.3 percent) fathers in Norway and 15,276 (0.6 percent) fathers in Taiwan had used metformin during the sperm development period.
Looking only at men with type 2 diabetes and focusing on the father’s age and associated conditions, the team found no increased risk of any congenital malformation in children of fathers who used metformin in Norway and Taiwan during the sperm development period. Not there.
“These research results may help physicians make decisions about whether to choose metformin in the treatment of type 2 diabetes among men planning a family,” said the team from National Taiwan University and the University of Oslo.
–IANS
MKS/AKJ
