Maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy and pubertal development in children: A cohort study

It remains unsettled whether prenatal exposure to maternal coffee consumption affects human reproductive health. We investigated whether maternal coffee consumption during early pregnancy is associated with timing of pubertal development in daughters and sons. A total of 15,819 children (8123 daughters and 7696 sons) from the Puberty Cohort, born by mothers in the Danish National Birth Cohort from 2000 to 2003 were included. Mothers reported information on maternal coffee consumption during pregnancy in early second trimester. Information on the children's pubertal development was self-recorded half-yearly from 11 to 18 years or full maturity using web-based questionnaires. Outcomes were adjusted mean differences (in months) at attaining various pubertal milestones in daughters (i.e. age at menarche and Tanner stages 2, 3, 4 and 5 for breast development and pubic hair growth) and sons (i.e. age at voice break, first ejaculation and Tanner stages 2, 3, 4 and 5 for genital development and pubic hair growth). Moreover, we estimated a combined estimate for the average age at attaining all sex-specific milestones. We observed approximately 2 months earlier age of pubertal development (combined estimate: -2.1 (95 % CI: -3.9; -0.3)) among daughters of mothers consuming 8 or more cups of coffee per day than daughters of mothers with no coffee consumption. No differences in pubertal development were found when comparing sons of mothers with a daily coffee consumption with sons of mothers with no coffee consumption. In conclusion, daughters born of mothers with a high daily coffee consumption during pregnancy might experience earlier pubertal development.