David Møbjerg Kristensen

It is hoped that trials with fertilised eggs from mice and humans will help us understand whether headache medication plays a role when pregnancies terminate spontaneously in the early stages.

‘We know that around 40% of all human pregnancies end shortly after fertilisation, and the true number is probably even higher. Scientists have been trying to explain why this may be for over 30 years. The most popular explanation is that it’s all down to genetics – that there are genetic abnormalities which put a definitive end to the pregnancy shortly after fertilisation.

But genetics don’t explain everything,’ says David Møbjerg Kristensen, molecular cell biologist and research team leader at the Danish Headache Centre, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen.

‘Within the past ten years or so we’ve identified many different links between the mother’s consumption of headache pills during pregnancy and adverse impacts on the foetus, such as genital malformations in boys. So, it’s both logical and necessary to investigate whether the active agents in painkillers could be the cause of early-stage spontaneous abortions. And that’s what we’ll start working on now.’