Just before and during pregnancy, a vulnerability is established that can give the child diseases. These may be seen at the time of birth, or perhaps only appear later in life. In the research group for reproductive epidemiology, we aim to identify the most important factors that can affect the health and diseases of the child and the mother.

We have a special focus on risk factors such as smoking, medication consumption, obesity, family diseases, etc., and we are particularly interested in finding the causes of conditions such as malformations, premature/late or short/long puberty, reduced sperm count, miscarriage, endometriosis, infertility, obesity, cognitive development, mental health etc. in the child.

In addition, we will investigate the causes of reduced fertility in the mother or father.

Research areas

If we can obtain more precise knowledge about how behaviour before and during pregnancy can affect the health and development of diseases in the mother and child, we can both contribute to improving the possibilities of giving qualified counselling to pregnant women, and provide help to women or couples who wish to become pregnant but are having difficulty doing so.

Our research is to a large extent register- and cohort-based, and it includes projects within the following areas:

• Causes and consequences of endometriosis
• Causes and consequences of early/late age in puberty and short/long puberty
• The significance of prenatal exposure to environmental toxins and other environmental exposures
• Predictors for and consequences of metabolic disorders
• Cognitive development in children of parents with chronic diseases
• Causes and consequences of reduced sperm quality and disturbed hormonal balance
• Causes of infertility