What are the causes of hypospadias in babies?

At present, among the common men's diseases, the occurrence of hypospadias is mostly caused by abnormal position of the patient's urethral opening. Usually, people with hypospadias symptoms have this disease as a congenital defect, and the probability of babies developing hypospadias is also very high. So, what are the causes of hypospadias in babies? Let me introduce it to you below.

Hypospadias is a congenital defect in which the male urethral opening is located abnormally. The urethral opening may be located on the line from the normal urethral opening to the perineum. Most patients may have a ventral curvature of the penis.

In hypospadias, the penile fascia and skin fail to develop normally on the ventral side of the penis during the 8th to 14th week of pregnancy. Hypospadias may form when the urethral groove is not fully fused. At the same time, the corpus spongiosum is also underdeveloped, forming a cord at the distal end of the hypospadias, which can cause penile curvature. Most cases of hypospadias have no clear cause, and most scholars believe that multiple factors are involved in the formation of hypospadias. A small number of cases may be caused by single gene mutations, while most cases reported in the literature are related to advanced maternal age, endocrine levels, ovulation-inducing drugs, anti-epileptic drugs, low birth weight, preeclampsia and other environmental factors.

In recent years, the etiology research on hypospadias can be summarized into several aspects.

1. Endocrine factors

Some cases of androgen receptor and 5α-reductase deficiency. It was also found that after HCG stimulation, the androgen increase response of patients with hypospadias was significantly lower than that of the normal control group, suggesting that the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis of patients with hypospadias is abnormal.

2. Environmental factors

Studies have found that the incidence of hypospadias is higher in newborns who have used progesterone to maintain pregnancy in early pregnancy. At the same time, studies have shown that the levels of estradiol and estrone in patients with hypospadias are increased. These studies suggest that estrogens antagonize the effects of androgens.

3. Chromosomal abnormalities

The chromosomal aberration rate in patients with hypospadias is significantly higher than that in the normal population, including autosomal aberrations and sex chromosome aberrations.

4. Gene mutation

It was found that patients with hypospadias may have mutations in the androgen receptor gene, sex determination gene, 5α-reductase gene, anti-mullerian hormone gene, and CYP21B gene.

From the above, we can see that the cause of babies suffering from congenital defects such as hypospadias is mainly related to endocrine dysfunction, chromosomal abnormalities, gene mutations, and the use of certain drugs during pregnancy. Therefore, in order to prevent babies from suffering from hypospadias, women must not take ovulation-inducing and anti-epileptic drugs during pregnancy.