Men Contribute More to the Health of a Pregnancy Than We Acknowledge

By: Dr. Denise Renye

Pregnancy is so often framed as a woman’s responsibility (or the birthing parent), yet rarely is it treated as her autonomous experience. Our culture obsesses over the “ticking biological clock,” the prenatal vitamin regimen, and the foods that must be eaten or avoided. The dominant narrative centers women while simultaneously burdening them them the full weight of reproductive success or failure, but we rarely talk about how men contribute to pregnancy.

As you may remember from school, 50% of genetic material comes from the egg and the other 50% comes from the sperm. That also means 50% of the epigenetic material comes from sperm. Epigenetics refers to the modification of gene expression, rather than the genetic code itself. In 2013, scientists discovered that certain odors with a traumatic history would trigger a stress response in mice of succeeding generations. Researchers subjected one generation of mice to odor fear-conditioning before conception and found that even their offspring two generations down had an increased behavioral sensitivity to the conditioned odor, but not to other odors. 

Also in 2013, an Israeli paper revealed the traumas of World War II show up in the genes of Holocaust descendants. “Instead of numbers tattooed on their forearms, they may have been marked epigenetically with a chemical coating upon their chromosomes, which would represent a kind of biological memory,” said the paper’s author, Natan Kellerman.

That means traumas from the father are also passed down to children. Conceiving a child is a partnership all the way through, and too much focus has been placed on the birthing parent. Even certain problems during pregnancy are influenced by sperm. For instance, preeclampsia, a dangerous pregnancy complication characterized by new-onset high blood pressure and, often, protein in the urine, isn’t “the woman’s fault.”

A 2019 study found, “Fetal HLA-G variants from the father increased the immune incompatibility with the mother and are also significantly associated with preeclampsia in multigravida pregnancies. An analysis of a group of Swedish pregnant women showed that the risk for preeclampsia is attributable to paternal factors in 13% of cases, which could be related to genetic interactions with maternal genetic factors.”

We don’t know what’s happening inside a pregnant person’s body, what genes are intermingling to cause certain conditions, and that’s the point. Instead of overly emphasizing the birthing partner, it’s important to recognize both partners contribute to the health of the baby. This is true even if the pregnancy doesn’t come to full term.

Miscarriage isn’t a personal failure. It’s a biological event that can be influenced by the health of all parties involved, and more often than we realize, it occurs due to factors no one could have predicted or controlled. Yet historically, the physical, emotional, and biological weight of pregnancy outcomes has been placed disproportionately on the person who is pregnant. This expectation isn’t just unfair—it’s inaccurate, and it perpetuates shame where there should be support and compassion.

A study out of Imperial College found that sperm from men with partners who had suffered recurrent miscarriage had twice as much DNA damage compared to the control group. The DNA damage may be triggered by “reactive oxygen species,” which are formed by cells in semen to protect sperm from bacteria and infection. However, in high enough concentrations, the molecules can cause significant damage to sperm cells and thus lead to miscarriage.

Many women think their body is “broken” and are filled with shame that they cannot carry a pregnancy to term but as the research shows, sperm also has a role to play. Reproductive health is not only the responsibility of the person who becomes pregnant. Men have an important role to play. Their health and choices impact outcomes as well.Their health is equally important for the health of the pregnancy and the child. Let’s remember that pregnancy is a partnership.

If you’d like mental and emotional support around your sexual health, reach out for an appointment.

References

Dias, Brian J; Ressler, Kerry J. “Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations.” Nature Neuroscience, December 1, 2013. https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3594

Galaviz-Hernandez, C., Sosa-Macias, M., Teran, E., Garcia-Ortiz, J. E., & Lazalde-Ramos, B. P. (2019). Paternal Determinants in Preeclampsia. Frontiers in physiology, 9, 1870. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.01870

Kellerman, Natan. “Epigenetic transmission of Holocaust trauma: Can nightmares be inherited?” The Israeli Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences. 2013, Vol. 50:1, pp. 33-39. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24029109/