Should Pregnant Women Eat Soy?
Posted on: Monday, 24 March 2003, 06:00 CST By Gary Gately, HealthScoutNews Reporter HealthScoutNews — A new study raises questions about whether eating soy during pregnancy could cause abnormal reproductive organs and sexual dysfunction among male babies. Male rats born to mothers whose diet during pregnancy included genistein, a chemical found in soybeans, never ejaculated while trying to mate with females, the Johns Hopkins researchers found. The male rats whose mothers ate genistein during pregnancy also had lower testosterone levels and a larger prostate as adults and, at puberty, smaller testes, compared with rats whose mothers had none of the chemical in their diets, the study says. Hopkins researchers stressed the findings do not indicate genistein has a similar effect in humans, but say they plan further research they hope will answer that question. “We found that these males were de-masculinized,” says researcher Sabra L. Klein. “This raises questions as to the effects that
