Paracetamol use during pregnancy can affect future fertility of baby girls, a new study has said.

Published on Oxford Academic, the COPANA study was led by Dr Margit Bistrup Fischer, a postdoctoral researcher at Rigshospitalet (Copenhagen University Hospital) in Denmark.

The study “found that girls who had been exposed to paracetamol during fetal life had smaller ovaries, fewer ovarian follicles (the structures that contain immature eggs), differences in reproductive hormone levels, and reduced uterine size during infancy.” 

It added, “similar findings were observed in an independent group of participants followed to adolescence.”

According to the report, 302 healthy girls from a Danish pregnancy cohort were examined during infancy. 

It added, “Paracetamol exposure during pregnancy was assessed using both pregnant women’s reports of paracetamol use collected bi-weekly and measurements of paracetamol in their urine samples.”

However, the study calls for more research as it cannot prove that “paracetamol directly caused these differences, the findings are consistent with results from animal studies.”

“Further research is needed to determine whether these early-life differences have consequences for reproductive health later in life and to inform recommendations on paracetamol use during pregnancy.”

The COPANA study is said to be the first human study specifically designed to probe whether prenatal paracetamol exposure is associated with markers of ovarian development in daughters.