A study has suggested that men who dose up on ibuprofen may be at a greater risk of infertility.
The research, conducted by teams in Denmark in France, analysed 14 males aged between 18 and 35. They were given 600 milligrams of the over-the-counter drug twice a day to represent the dosage athletes take to manage pain. A group of 17 other men took a placebo instead.
After just two weeks, researchers were concerned to discover that those being administered with ibuprofen developed a hormone imbalance.
The disorder, known as compensated hypogonadism, arises when the body steps in to boost levels of testosterone because normal levels of production have dropped.
'Our immediate concern is for the fertility of men who use these drugs for a long time', said the University of Copenhagan's David Mobjerg Kristensen.
'These compounds are good painkillers, but a certain amount of people in society use them without thinking of them as proper medicines.'
Bernard Jégou from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, is very much in agreement with his Danish co-author's statement.
'We normally see this condition in elderly men, so it raises an alarm', he told The Guardian.
'We are concerned about it, particularly for healthy people who don't need to take these drugs. The risk is greater than the benefit.'
The findings also highlighted that men who take ibuprofen for months on end may be more susceptible to other health issues such as erectile dysfunction and a reduced sex drive.
The news comes just days after Harvard Medical School suggested that an under-active thyroid might be to blame for the struggles some women face when trying to conceive.
The study concluded that ladies experiencing fertility issues were twice as likely to have a higher level of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), in their bloodstream than those who had difficulties getting pregnant as a consequence of their partner's low sperm count.
