Overview
- An international nine‑author review in Reproductive BioMedicine Online says reproductive health beyond Earth has become an urgently practical issue as missions lengthen and commercial flights grow.
- The authors characterize space as hostile to healthy reproduction, citing cosmic radiation, microgravity and circadian disruption as key hazards to gametogenesis, pregnancy and offspring health.
- Human evidence remains sparse for long‑duration flights, with a critical knowledge gap on male fertility, while Shuttle‑era data suggest post‑flight pregnancy outcomes for women were comparable to Earth baselines.
- Assisted reproductive technologies such as gamete preservation, embryo culture and genetic screening are mature, portable and increasingly automated, making in‑space use technically foreseeable even though pregnancy is contraindicated and menstruation is usually suppressed on missions.
- The report, led by clinical embryologist Giles Palmer with senior author Dr. Fathi Karouia, calls for international collaboration, ethical oversight and industry‑wide standards to manage risks including inadvertent early pregnancy and to prevent irreversible harm as activity beyond Earth expands.