Cannabis Use: A Risk to Fertility, Pregnancy, and Birth

According to the 2024 "Annual Report to Parliament on the Phenomenon of Drug Addiction in Italy", in 2023 550 thousand Italian students (22%) between the ages of 15 and 19 reported having used Cannabis at least once in the last year. For about 70 thousand students it was a frequent consumption (20 or more times in the month). A consumption, which continues in adulthood and sometimes even in pregnancy.

Alongside the well-known and dangerous effects on the brain of adolescents with the appearance of cognitive difficulties and neuropsychological deficits, even non-reversible, cannabis consumption can impact male and female fertility and, if consumed during pregnancy, the fetus. And, if in men the alterations induced by cannabis concern sperm parameters (number and concentration, morphological abnormalities, reduction of motility and vitality, inhibition of fertilizing capacity),  in women conditions of infertility and abnormalities of fetal implantation and development have been highlighted. Maternal cannabis use during pregnancy and lactation has been associated with adverse effects, infants for gestational age, premature birth, fetal neurodevelopmental consequences, and impaired social-behavioral and cognitive development of offspring.

If contrast interventions play an important role in the attempt to stem this phenomenon, it is more necessary than ever to work on prevention. Implementing knowledge and awareness about the risks of cannabis use is essential, although not sufficient. The perception of risky behavior often does not allow it to be represented in its actual severity, especially if accompanied by the feeling of pleasantness, euphoria and relaxation of a drug.
Prevention action must therefore necessarily be accompanied by the identification and minimization of the factors that lead to distorting the real representation of risk and by a widespread and constant educational action. Challenge and task not easy!

This will be discussed during the Cannabis and Fertility Conference, organized by the Center for Research and Studies on Procreative Health (Cerissap) of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome and the Paul VI International Scientific Institute (ISI) for research on fertility and human infertility for responsible procreation. The work of the Conference, which will be held on 28 March 2025 in the Sala Italia of the aforementioned University, will be opened by Prof. Massimo Antonelli and Prof. Maria Luisa Di Pietro and by the introductory speeches of H.E. Msgr. Claudio Giuliodori, the Undersecretary Dr. Alfredo Mantovano, Prof. Alessandro Sgambato and Dr. Giampaolo Nicolasi.

In the report session, Prof. Sabina Strano Rossi (Cannabis and derivatives: pharmacological and toxicological-forensic aspects), Prof. Antonio Lanzone (Cannabis and female fertility), Prof. Alfredo Pontecorvi (Cannabis and male fertility), Prof. Daniele De Luca (Cannabis in pregnancy: the consequences for the newborn), Dr. Marco Di Nicola (The effects of early exposure to cannabis on evolutionary trajectories) and Dr. Antonio Pignataro (Cannabis and contrast interventions).