《中英對照讀新聞》Sons of fat mothers ’could be less fertile’胖媽的兒子「生育力可能較差」

http://libertytimes.com/2007/new/sep/15/today-int7.htm

《中英對照讀新聞》Sons of fat mothers ’could be less fertile’胖媽的兒子「生育力可能較差」

◎陳成良

A recent study has revealed that sons born to fatty women could be less productive and may have poorer quality sperm cells.

最近一項研究揭露，肥胖婦女所生的兒子，生育力可能較差，精子品質也可能較低。

Obesity is believed to have an effect on a woman’s possibilities of pregnancy, and the latest study is the initial to discover a relation between overweight and the fertility of the next generation.

肥胖據信會影響婦女受孕機率，這項最新研究則首度發現，體重過重與下一代的生育能力也有關聯。

The researchers tracked the health of more than 300 women and their sons. Although the majority of the women were of normal weight when they became pregnant, 25 had body mass indexes classed as overweight or obese.

研究人員追蹤逾300名婦女及其兒子健康狀況。雖然多數婦女懷孕時體重都正常，其中25名婦女的「身體質量指數」仍被歸類為過重或肥胖等級。

Tests showed their sons tended to have slightly lower concentrations of sperm, as well as fewer mobile sperm.

檢驗結果顯示，她們兒子的精子密度會有稍低的傾向，精子也較不活躍。

However, the differences were so small that the researchers could not be sure they were not due to chance. The team, from Aarhus University in Denmark, said further studies should be carried out.

然而，由於差距很小，研究人員無法確定是不是碰巧發生。 這個丹麥阿爾胡斯大學的研究小組認為，應該作進一步研究。

They said that it was possible that higher levels of the hormone oestrogen, associated with being overweight, might harm the development of male foetus reproductive organs.

他們說，這可能是因為（母體內）雌激素濃度較高，加上體重過重，也許會有害男性胚胎生殖器官發展。

新聞辭典

obesity：名詞，（過度）肥胖。形容詞為obese。obese和fat主要分別是，obese是較科學和嚴謹的說法，且包含「不健康」的意思；fat是一般描述，通常只是主觀感覺，不一定不健康。

body mass index ：身體質量指數（BMI）＝體重（公斤）除以身高（公尺）平方。依據世界衛生組織標準，BMI值25至29.9，為過重（overweight）；超過30，是肥胖（obese）。