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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Cannabis may affect male and female fertility Auslan Cramb Ananova Tuesday 12 Dec 2000 Scientists in the US say that smoking cannabis may seriously jeopardise the fertility of both men and women by giving sperm a huge hit on their way to the egg. A research team from four universities says it's discovered a complex and subtle system, working together in the sperm and the female reproductive tract, which relies on a cannabis-like substance naturally produced in tiny amounts in the human body. The team found that smoking cannabis is likely to overload that system. Higher than normal concentrations of a chemical in the body called anandamide - and of the very similar substance THC, the active ingredient of cannabis - inhibit sperm from swimming vigorously, according to Dr Herbert Schuel told the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco. Then, even if the sperm are not too doped to get to the egg, too much of either substance also inhibits the processes that normally allow them to penetrate it. The team made the surprising discovery that sperm have cannabis receptors some time ago. Now they have also found that both semen, and the fluids found in the egg ducts and follicles in the most fertile part of the female cycle, also contain the cannabis-like substance, anandamide. Put together, they say, these form a system which first triggers the sperm into swimming, then lets the woman's body control the rate sperm swim towards the egg, and finally enables the penetration of the egg by triggering the production of an enzyme in the sperm. The stages are controlled by tiny, local variations in the concentrations of the natural chemical, reports the London Evening Standard. Dr Schuel's team's findings explain the great loss of fertility previously observed in male marijuana users. "For heavy marijuana users, the study results raise the possibility they are jeopardising fertility by overloading this signaling system," he said. "The increased load of cannabinoids in people who abuse marijuana could flood natural systems in reproductive organs. This possibility may explain observations made over the past 30 to 40 years that marijuana smoke drastically reduces sperm production in males." The findings also suggest that defects in the newfound signalling system could account for certain types of infertility. Dr Schuel said. "A better understanding of these mechanisms might lead to the development of novel drugs useful in reproductive medicine." Dr Schuel and his team at Buffalo worked with colleagues from the Eastern Virginia Medical School and the universities of Connecticut and of California. A receptor for cannabinoids was found in the human brain in the late 80s, which suggested that the body must produce its own chemical version of THC, or cannabinoid, to activate these receptors. That turned out to be anandamide.
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