Male children conceived by parents who took over six months to conceive or by intrauterine insemination had the same semen quality and levels of reproductive hormones as those who were naturally conceived, a large cohort study has shown. 

Published in Fertility and Sterility the study also showed that sons conceived using IVF and ICSI had a higher semen concentration, higher percentage of sperm with normal morphology but slightly higher estradiol levels.

The 1058 men who took part in the study were born between 1998 and 2000 to mothers who took part in the Danish National Birth Cohort, and were recruited to the study between 2017-2019.

The findings of the study conflict with earlier data collected in a smaller study, Focus on Reproduction reported.