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Painkillers may pose risk to male sex drive

By Philip Cohen

29 May 2004

IF YOU are pregnant or breast-feeding, think twice before reaching for the aspirin or paracetamol. A study has shown that male rats exposed to such drugs in the womb or just after birth have little interest in sex as adults, raising the question of whether these drugs also affect human sexual development.

When newborn male rats were given two injections of a drug called indomethacin (Indocin), they had a much lower libido than normal when full-grown. Similar but milder effects were observed in male rats whose mothers drank water containing aspirin for seven days before birth and seven days afterwards.…

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