Tag: toxins

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KCTV5 Special Report: Association found between chemicals and early menopause

brigitte

KansasCity5FAIRWAY, KS (KCTV) – It was Benjamin Franklin who famously said, “The only things certain in life are death and taxes.” Women can add a third certainty to that list: menopause. There is no way around this body change that marks an end to a woman’s fertility.

For women like Olathe resident Michele Zook, menopause means learning to deal with an array of unpleasant symptoms including hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbances and mood swings.

“It’s crappy. It’s disruptive. It’s unpredictable. It sucks,” Zook said. Zook’s menopause kicked in at the expected time, her early 50s.

She is being treated by obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Danielle Staecker, a University of Kansas Hospital physician who’s been practicing medicine for two decades. In the last few years, Staecker says she’s noticed a shift in the women she sees for menopause.

“I’m definitely seeing more women having symptoms of menopause at an earlier age,” Staecker said.

Research conducted at Washington University in St. Louis is providing a possible first clue to those increased cases of early menopause.

Dr. Amber Cooper and a team of researchers studied the blood and urine samples of 5,708 women, looking at more than 100 different chemicals. They were able to make an association between women in early menopause and elevated levels of phthalates, man-made chemicals known to mimic estrogen. Read full article.

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Strong Action Needed to Combat Toxic Policies

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{WOMENSENEWS}–Over bagels and coffee last month, Drs. Linda Giudice and Tracey Woodruff flashed graphs and charts for female activists and philanthropists assembled at an upscale San Francisco hotel.

The meeting was hosted by a nonprofit that was commemorating the 50th anniversary of “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book on how pollution can affect human health.

Giudice and Woodruff had plenty to say about that. Using research they have compiled through their work at the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California in San Francisco, they discussed how bisphenol A in plastic, phthalates in makeup and other common chemicals can trigger health problems, including cancer in women and reproductive troubles in the children they bear. Read full article.

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Make-up Triggers Early Menopause

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CHEMICALS found in make-up, hairspray and food packaging are causing women to hit menopause early, researchers warn. Those exposed to high doses have been found to go through the change almost two and a half years before other women.

And in some cases, these chemicals may be causing women to stop having periods 15 years too soon, say scientists. Read full article.

 

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BPA May Worsen Women’s Fertility Problems

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Exposure to the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) may reduce fertility among women who already have fertility problems, a new study suggests.

The study involved women trying to conceive children through in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fertility treatment that includes taking hormones to stimulate egg production. These eggs are then collected, and researchers attempt to fertilize them in a laboratory.

In the study, doctors collected 24 percent fewer eggs from women with high levels of BPA in their bodies, compared with women who had low levels of the industrial chemical.

Women with high BPA levels also had fewer eggs that were successfully fertilized. Read full article.

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Want a Side of Infertility With Those Eggs?

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We all do it. The minute after we decide to move out to a home of our own, we’re tapping away at a registry imagining creating the perfect meal in the perfect kitchen outfitted with the perfect pots and pans.

For most of us — myself included — that means a 10-piece set that includes everything from a giant roasting pan to a teeny-tiny frying pan that goes from the box to the cupboard and never sees the light of day after that.

Typically, these inexpensive cooking sets are coated with a nonstick surface like Teflon. And we love them because we can make an egg and it’ll slide right off the pan onto the plate.

 But there’s something else that comes with those eggs: infertility.  Read full article.

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Ubiquitous exposure to two common toxins may diminish IVF success

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New research conducted at the University of Albany indicate that daily, commonly-occurring exposure to two toxic metals – mercury and cadmium – diminish pregnancy rates for women who have undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF). Mercury and cadmium are a constant presence in our air, water and food, at levels considered safe by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).

The UAlbany study, led by Michael S. Bloom and Dr. Victor Fujimoto, asserts that even at currently acceptable levels, these two toxins appear to have devastating effects on a significant percentage of clinical and biochemical pregnancies resulting from IVF, a widely utilized form of reproductive technology. Clinical pregnancies are those in which a gestational sac is present; biochemical pregnancies are defined as very early pregnancies diagnosed through a blood test.
While mercury and cadmium are natural elements found within the earth’s environment, levels of both toxic metals have become increasingly elevated over several decades. Attributing to the increased rate of mercury in fish for example, is coal-generated electricity, smelting, and incineration of factory waste products that find their way into our atmosphere, oceans and food chain.

Cadmium is secreted by cigarette smoke, certain types of fertilizers and organ meats such as liver. Waste products discarded from steel and iron factories are also a contributing factor; factory workers may be particularly vulnerable to cadmium exposure.

Read full article.

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More bad news about chemicals and fertility

Lorie A. Parch

cleaning-products

No one wants to hear it, but more disturbing news came out this week from the European Environment Agency (EEA) indicating that many household products, cleaners, cosmetics, and food contain chemicals that affect hormones — and not in a good way.  On May 10, the organization issued a release saying that “endocrine-disrupting chemicals” — meaning ones that affect the hormone system by either blocking the normal effects of hormones or mimicking hormones — seem to be a contributing factor to “significant increases in cancers, diabetes and obesity, [and] falling fertility.” Since reproduction and fertility are, of course, directly tied to hormones, the effects of these chemicals on a woman’s ability to conceive and a man’s ability to get a woman pregnant may be even more pronounced.

The release went on to list some possible effects of these chemicals, including some that lead to low-quality semen in men. Animal studies have shown the chemicals affect the reproductive systems of a wide variety of animals. It’s very difficult to test the effects of these chemicals, since they could have been involved — and hindered — early development of a person’s reproductive system (as well as brain, immune, and other bodily systems), but the effects wouldn’t be seen for many years or decades.

Just as worrisome, another report came out this week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives with the finding from a Harvard University study that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) may reduce a woman’s chances of conceiving if she’s undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). The study looked at 137 women who were having fertility treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center; the researchers measured BPA levels in the women at the time of treatment. What did they find? “The results show a clear trend of increasing implantation failure [in which an embryo doesn’t implant in a woman’s uterus] with higher BPA levels,” reported EnvironmentalHealthNews.org.

BPA is a very common chemical used in the manufacture of many plastics, including some water bottles, the linings of canned food, grocery store receipts, and other everyday items. The Environmental Working Group offers these tips to help lessen your exposure to BPA.

Fertility expert Dr. Robert Greene also offers this good advice about how to reduce your exposure to environmental toxins as you’re trying to conceive.

 

Author: 
Lorie A. Parch