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Maternal and infant characteristics influencing the anogenital distance and penile length in newborns
Author(s) -
Singal Arbinder Kumar,
Jain Viral G.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
andrologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1439-0272
pISSN - 0303-4569
DOI - 10.1111/and.12507
Subject(s) - anogenital distance , anthropometry , offspring , obstetrics , medicine , parity (physics) , pregnancy , gestational age , gynecology , prospective cohort study , fetus , biology , in utero , genetics , physics , particle physics
Summary Recent studies have suggested that maternal characteristics can affect reproductive health of offspring, possibly through pre‐natal hormonal influence. Anogenital distance ( AGD ) is an anthropometric measure which is a sensitive reproductive endpoint of masculinisation. It provides a read‐out of pre‐natal androgen exposure and has been associated with several reproductive health outcomes in humans. We studied AGD and stretched penile length ( SPL ) in a large, racially homogenous sample of consecutive newborns to understand their association with maternal and infant characteristics. A prospective cross‐sectional study involving measurement of AGD and SPL at birth was performed by a single trained observer. A total of 1077 newborns (553 males and 524 females) were included in final anthropometric analysis. The mean AGD of males was 2.56 ± 0.31 cm, and the mean AGD of females was 1.54 ± 0.17 cm. The mean SPL of males was 3.31 ± 0.38 cm. On multiple regression analysis, for both males and females, birthweight (β = 0.229, P < 0.001 and β = 0.135, P < 0.001, respectively) was modest but significant predictor for AGD . For SPL , only gestational age (β = 0.054, P < 0.001) was found to be statistically significant predictor. There was no significant association observed for gravidity, parity and maternal age with both AGD and SPL . Thus, no maternal characteristics (age, gravidity, parity) influence AGD or SPL in human infants.