~ Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/why-a-mans-health-before-pregnancy-matters-for-the-next-generation-278375
Authors
- Keith Godfrey Professor of Epidemiology and Human Development, University of Southampton
- Danielle Schoenaker Research Fellow, School of Human Development and Health, University of Southampton
When we think about preparing for a healthy pregnancy and baby, most advice focuses on women. Such advice might include good nutrition, taking dietary supplements, avoiding alcohol or smoking and managing their medications and health conditions. But growing evidence shows that men’s health also plays a vitally important role in pregnancy and child development.
In a new review of research on health before pregnancy and parenthood (referred to as “preconception health”), we found that the health and life experiences of boys and men can have important influences on pregnancy outcomes and the wellbeing of future children in several ways.
To understand the role of men’s preconception health, we reviewed studies published from 2000 to 2025 from fields including medicine, biology, psychology and social science. Rather than focusing only on the period just before pregnancy, we looked at research examining how men’s health and experiences throughout their lives – from their own time in the womb through to adolescence and adulthood – can affect families later on.
The research explored factors such as men’s physical health, their health-related behaviour, mental health, environmental exposures and social conditions. This included how fathers influence their partner’s health and the family environment their children grow up in.
This broader perspective shows that men’s influence on pregnancy and child outcomes goes far beyond simply providing half of the baby’s genetic inheritance.
The affect of men’s health
As set out in our review, one important pathway through which a father’s health can affect both pregnancy outcomes and the infant’s health is through sperm health.
Factors such as age, the father’s nutrition, whether he smokes, is overweight or obese, has an unhealthy alcohol intake, experiences stress and his level of exposure to pollution or chemicals can all influence so-called non-coding nucleic acid (RNA) signals carried in sperm. These signals can affect how genes act in the early stages of the baby’s development, which can subsequently impact long-term health outcomes in children.