Female fertility sensitive to chemicals in plastics

"Current regulatory guidelines often overlook women-specific risks, mainly due to a lack of knowledge about sensitive effects. This underlines the need to update and strengthen today's safety assessments for chemicals," says Antero Vieira Silva, postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of environmental medicine (IMM). 

Using advanced modeling, the researchers analyzed data from four animal studies in which adult female mice had been exposed to increasing doses of DEHP. The results show that female reproductive effects, such as progesterone levels and the number of follicles, are particularly sensitive. Despite this, these effects are not included as in the tests required to assess the impact of chemicals on female reproduction – meaning that important effects can be overlooked. The researchers also reviewed safety data for DEHP from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and found that the current risk assessments are mainly based on results from males. 

"We need to get better at protecting female fertility," says Antero Vieira Silva, first author of the scientific article. "Our results show that important parts of female reproduction are more sensitive to chemicals than what current regulations take into account." 

There is a large knowledge gap regarding how chemicals affect female fertility, and the research team hopes that the study will contribute to an update of safety standards to protect female reproductive health from chemical exposure.