"A study was performed in Denmark following births from 1997 to 2016. The goal was to evaluate whether the risk for birth defects in offspring varies with preconceptional pharmacologic treatment of fathers with diabetes.
Boys were more likely to be born with genital birth defects if their fathers took the commonly prescribed diabetes drug metformin in the three months before conception, according to a new study by Stanford Medicine investigators and their collaborators in Denmark.
Of the 1,116,779 babies included in the study, 3.3% had at least one major birth defect and 51.4% were boys. Among the 1,451 babies exposed to metformin, 49.4% were male and the rate of birth defects was 5.2%. In particular, genital birth defects were more common and occurred only in boys."
Wensink, M. J., Epidemiology, D. of, Lu, Y., Science, D. of B. D., Tian, L., Shaw, G. M., Pediatrics, D. of, Rizzi, S., Interdisciplinary Center on Population Dynamics and Department of Epidemiology, Jensen, T. K., Medicine, D. of E., Mathiesen, E. R., Centre for Pregnant Women with Diabetes, Skakkebæk, N. E., Centre, J. M., Lindahl-Jacobsen, R., Eisenberg, M. L., Surgery, M. R. M. and, Buck Louis, G. M., & Louis, G. M. B. (2022, March 29). Preconception antidiabetic drugs in men and birth defects in offspring: A nationwide cohort study: Annals of internal medicine: Vol 0, no 0. Annals of Internal Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-4389