[Cases of Down's syndrome in children of young parents with chronic inflammatory genital diseases and secondary disorders of spermatogenesis].

Nine births affected by Down's disease in young families are reported. The mean age of fathers was 28.5 years and that of mothers 25.2 years. History revealed no parental exposures to occupational or household adverse factors or nutritional contaminants. The parents had normal karyotypes. However, a history of urogenital disease 1-3 years before the affected births was elucidated in all 9 families: three cases of gonorrhea, one case of trichomoniasis and nonspecific inflammation in the rest. After visits to genetic counseling clinics torpid urogenital infections were identified in all 9 couples: nonspecific prostatitis and urethroprostatitis in fathers, hysterosalpingoophoritis and vaginal dysbacteriosis in mothers. Teratozoospermia and oligozoospermia with abnormal sperm cell proportions of 56 to 92% occurred in the fathers. It is suggested that infectious-toxic disorders of chromosomal segregation during the meiosis may be a paternal cause of trisomy 21. The same mechanism is feasible in mothers. After reversal of urogenital infections and normalization of spermograms normal infants were born in 7 of 9 families, the other 2 currently refrain from childbirth.