Stress can cause permanent damage to a man's sperm - and affect the mental health of his children

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine conducted study on male mice Researchers found exposing mice to stress caused genetic sperm change This change caused their offspring to have a blunted reaction to stress
By Suzannah Hills PUBLISHED: 17:10 GMT, 13 June 2013 | UPDATED: 17:10 GMT, 13 June 2013

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Anxiety: Stress can cause a permanent genetic change to men's sperm and even alter how their offspring's brains develop (stock image)

Stress can cause permanent damage to a man's sperm and even stunt his children's brain development, a new study has found. Researchers have discovered that suffering anxiety or depression as an adult, teenager or even as a child could cause a lasting genetic change in a man's sperm. Scientists conducting a study on mice found that sperm damage caused by stress leads to offspring developing a 'blunted reaction to stress' - a trait associated with several mental disorders. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine say this is the first time a link has been found between stress-related diseases potentially being passed from a father to his children. Previous studies have concentrated on how environmental challenges - such as diet, drug abuse, and chronic stress - felt by mothers during pregnancy can affect their offspring's neurodevelopment and increase the risk of certain diseases. In this study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, male mice were exposed to six weeks of chronic stress, before breeding, either throughout puberty or only in adulthood. Examples of stress include suddenly being moved to another cage, being exposed to predator odour, noise or a foreign object in their cage. Male mice are ideal for such an experiment because they do not participate in offspring rearing, meaning any external factors outside of germ-cell formation are essentially eliminated. A team of researchers led by Professor Tracy Bale found that stress among male mice prompted a genetic change in their sperm that re-programmed a part of their offsprings brain.

They found that offspring from paternal stress groups displayed significantly blunted levels of the stress hormone corticosterone - in humans, its cortisol - in response to stress. Professor Bale said: 'It didnt matter if dads were going through puberty or in adulthood when stressed before they mated. Weve shown here for the first time that stress can produce long-term changes to sperm that reprogram offspring brains.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania carried out a test on male mice - finding that their sperm underwent a genetic change after they were exposed to stress

'These findings suggest one way in which paternal-stress exposure may be linked to such neuropsychiatric diseases.' But researchers also point out that a reduced physiological stress response may reflect some evolutionary benefit passed on to offspring to ensure survival in what is expected to be a more stressful environment. Professor Bale added: 'Whether such diminished stress reactivity would be detrimental or beneficial to offspring likely depends on the environment into which they were born, as well as genetic background factors.'

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Comments (35)
Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all Read it properly and you'll find it merely claims that male mice that have been subjected to stress will father offspring that are more resistant to stress than themselves. In effect, they improve the species by making it more resilient. Surely that's a good thing? - Red Arrow Machine , Plymouth, United Kingdom, 16/6/2013 01:53 Click to rate Report abuse Women have been stressed for years juggling family, home and job because the cost of living is so high and their husbands/partners don't earn enough money to support a family and men didn't care or notice because we just got on with it and now we hear men's sperm will be permanently damaged if they're stressed. What a load of made up crap. - Killing_Me_Softly , London, United Kingdom, 15/6/2013 23:42 Rating 2

Click to rate Report abuse

Rating 1

complex life =excessive thinking =strees =change in sperms =change in reproductevity..!!!life simple . - Paykan Aref , As sulaymaniah, Iraq, 15/6/2013 23:31 Click to rate Report abuse Obviously my ex-husband never suffered from stress then. Had no trouble luckily having my 2 kids before I went on the pill. - Mary H , Aylesbury, 15/6/2013 21:51 Click to rate Report abuse Well we are all doomed in the UK then - Ross , Brighton UK, United Kingdom, 15/6/2013 15:36 Click to rate Report abuse Maybe THAT explains why this planet seems to be turning rapidly into Bizarro World. - DrMallard , West Palm Beach FL USA, 15/6/2013 02:49 Click to rate Report abuse @GoodIdeaTom who says if you don't like it you know where the door is. That's correct and many women are doing it and initiating divorce. Just show that you care by helping her out once in a while. You know like rinse your plate or cup out, wipe the crumbs off the bread board if you're makinga sarnie, stuff like that and don't expect her to do it every time for you. Why is that so horrible for men to hear?? - Minnie the Minx , UK, 14/6/2013 22:59 Click to rate Report abuse My sperm swim around in circles.................so they're going nowhere ! - lol , manchester, 14/6/2013 11:54 Click to rate Report abuse presumably the researchers from pennyslvania had very stressful fathers. - anyman , uk, 14/6/2013 09:46 Click to rate Report abuse Thats life. Rating 5 Rating 7 Rating 3 Rating 7 Rating 6 Rating 1 Rating 1

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