Can Cannabis Use Disrupt Women’s Fertility? New Study Finds Strong Evidence

Sep 10 2025

New grounds shows that THC successful cannabis tin accelerate ovum maturation but summation chromosomal errors, reducing patient embryo improvement and raising concerns for women undergoing IVF.

Study: Cannabis impacts female fertility arsenic evidenced by an successful vitro investigation and a case-control study. Image Credit: SvetaZi / Shutterstock

In a caller article successful nan journal Nature Communications, researchers investigated really tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), nan main psychoactive compound recovered successful cannabis, affects women’s fertility. Their findings showed links betwixt THC vulnerability and outcomes applicable to reproductive health, including a affirmative relation pinch oocyte atomic maturation alongside little embryo euploid rates, chromosome segregation errors, and atypical spindle morphology.

Background

Cannabis usage has been rising worldwide, some for aesculapian and recreational purposes, pinch THC levels successful products expanding from astir 3% successful nan 1980s to arsenic precocious arsenic 30% today. This inclination raises nationalist wellness concerns, particularly for reproductive health, since nan endocannabinoid system plays a captious domiciled successful quality reproduction.

While galore studies person shown that THC negatively impacts antheral fertility, affecting nan methylation, concentration, morphology, and motility of sperm deoxyribonucleic acerb (DNA), its power connected female reproductive cells remains poorly understood.

Existing investigation connected women has focused chiefly connected gestation outcomes, placental function, and offspring health, leaving a awesome spread successful knowledge astir THC’s nonstop effects connected nan oocyte.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) offers a unsocial opportunity to study this process, arsenic oocytes are retrieved on pinch nan follicular fluid and surrounding supporting cells. Previous activity has shown that THC and its metabolites tin scope nan ovarian follicle, perchance altering nan microenvironment and affecting granulosa cells astatine nan molecular level.

Since oocytes are highly delicate to biology exposures and captious for fertility and early generations, knowing really THC affects their maturation and usability is essential.

About nan study

Researchers investigated nan effect of THC connected oocyte health, cistron expression, and chromosome segregation, combining laboratory experiments pinch objective data.

They utilized donated biologic materials, including follicular fluid (FF) and immature oocytes, from IVF patients who had provided informed consent. Patients pinch mediocre fertility outcomes, precocious age, aliases THC vulnerability were excluded to guarantee sample quality. THC and its metabolites were measured successful FF and serum.

For laboratory experiments, immature oocytes were divided into 3 groups: control, low-dose THC (reflecting physiological levels), and high-dose THC (based connected animal studies). Oocytes were cultured for 24 hours, pinch maturation and cardinal cellular events monitored utilizing time-lapse imaging.

Some oocytes underwent ribonucleic acerb (RNA) sequencing to place transcript changes, while others were immunostained to analyse spindle structure. Polar assemblage biopsies were besides performed for chromosome study utilizing whole-genome sequencing.

Data were analyzed pinch established bioinformatics pipelines and statistical tests, and objective IVF outcomes were compared utilizing a retrospective matched case-control design. All procedures followed ethical support and Canadian cannabis regulations.

Key findings

The researchers measured THC and its metabolites successful FF from IVF patients and recovered that 6% of samples were positive. Most contained nan metabolite 11-COOH-THC, while Δ9-THC and 11-OH-THC were often detected together.

Interestingly, 73% of THC-positive patients had not disclosed cannabis use. Concentrations of these metabolites were akin betwixt FF and serum. Statistical study revealed that THC metabolite levels were positively correlated pinch oocyte maturation rates but not pinch fertilization aliases blastocyst development.

In laboratory experiments, immature oocytes were cultured pinch physiologically applicable aliases higher concentrations of THC. While location was a non-significant inclination toward higher maturation, THC vulnerability did not change oocyte size, timing of cardinal maturation events, aliases polar assemblage extrusion.

However, transcriptome sequencing revealed important changes successful cistron expression. Low-dose THC vulnerability altered 316 genes (predominantly downregulated), while high-dose vulnerability affected 464 genes (predominantly upregulated), involving pathways related to inflammation, extracellular matrix remodeling, immune signaling, and chromosome segregation. Examples included downregulation of MMP9, a cistron progressive successful extracellular matrix remodeling.

Further analyses revealed that THC vulnerability accrued chromosome segregation errors, pinch much abnormal spindle structures (92% of high-dose oocytes vs 42% of controls) and an summation successful analyzable aneuploidy (42% of THC-exposed oocytes vs 0% successful controls).

Clinically, THC-positive patients had importantly little embryo euploidy rates and reduced likelihood of achieving favorable blastulation and euploidy outcomes during IVF. In elemental comparisons, location was nary important quality successful fertilization aliases blastocyst rates betwixt THC-positive and matched THC-negative cycles. However, adjusted models indicated little likelihood of achieving nan prespecified blastulation and euploidy thresholds successful nan THC-positive group.

Conclusions

This study shows that THC, nan main psychoactive compound successful cannabis, affects quality oocytes by altering maturation, transcript profiles, chromosome segregation, and spindle organization.

While THC appeared to accelerate oocyte maturation, it besides disrupted captious molecular pathways, reduced embryo euploidy rates, and accrued chromosomal errors, which whitethorn little fertility outcomes. These findings align pinch immoderate erstwhile animal studies but supply nonstop grounds successful quality oocytes, highlighting imaginable risks for group undergoing IVF.

A awesome spot of this investigation is its integrated approach, which combines retrospective objective information pinch elaborate successful vitro experiments and measures THC metabolites directly, alternatively than relying connected self-reports.

However, limitations see nan usage of immature oocytes from stimulated cycles, a deficiency of powerfulness to analyse effects by age, and missing information connected cannabis depletion habits aliases co-exposures.

Future studies should research dose–response effects, mechanisms of THC action successful oocytes, and semipermanent impacts connected embryo development. Clinically, these findings stress nan value of counseling patients astir imaginable fertility risks linked to cannabis use.