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While all links worked when entries were posted to the database, different publishers
have different policies about retaining articles and providing access to archived material.
Thus some of the links, particularly older ones, may no longer be functional.
For links no longer working, you may be able to gain paid access to text via the publisher's site.
Consumption of beef during pregnancy may alter testicular development.
Son's born to mothers who ate more than seven beef meals a week during pregnancy had sperm concentrations that were 24% lower and were three times more likely to have low sperm concentrations less than 20 million/ml than son's of mothers who ate less beef. There was no association for the mother's consumption of other types of meat or the man's current meat consumption patterns. These data suggest that prenatal exposure to hormones or chemicals found in beef may affect a man's ability to reproduce later in life. Human Reproduction. 1 June 2007. More...
Men with diabetes have increased levels of DNA damage in their sperm.
Although there were no differences in conventional semen parameters, diabetic men had increased nuclear and mitochondrial DNA damage. Because incidence of diabetes is increasing in men of reproductive age, this study indicates they may have reduced reproductive capability. Human Reproduction 3 May 2007. More...
Women consuming large amounts of low-fat dairy are at a higher risk for anovulatory infertility.
In contrast, women who consumed high fat dairy products everyday had 25% higher fertility rates than women who consumed only one product per week. These fertility rates may reflect the overall amount of body fat in these women rather than a protective effect of consuming high fat dairy. Human Reproduction. 1 May 2007. More...
Emerging evidence indicates genetic variations in the estrogen receptor enhance the estrogenic effects of endocrine disruptors.
Genetic analysis of the estrogen receptor-alpha in Japanese men with reproductive abnormalities has demonstrated that certain haplotypes are associated with hypospadias and micropenis. A haplotype is a group of genes that are closely linked and inherited as a unit. Endocrine disruptors that bind to estrogen receptor are known to interfere with reproductive development and this new research demonstrates genetic variations in the receptor may affect an individual's susceptibility. Human Reproduction 1 May 2007. More...
A common component of tobacco smoke is found to be toxic to the ovary.
Cigarette smoke is known to decrease fertility rates but the mechanism for doing this is unknown. Rat ovaries exposed to levels of benzo(a)pyrene similar to those found in the blood and follicular fluid of tobacco smokers inhibited development of follicles (eggs)in the ovary. Human Reproduction 1 April 2007. More...
A large survey of international infertility rates finds over 70 million women are infertile.
Over twelve months, the prevalence ranged from 9-17% in more developed nations and from 7-9% in less developed nations. Worldwide, the average prevalence of infertility was 9%, a rate lower than those that have been previously reported. Human Reproduction 21 March 2007. More...
Exposure to phthalates is associated with increased DNA damage in human sperm.
Breakdown products of 2 phthalates, DEP and DEHP, were measured in urine and found to increase DNA damage with increasing levels of exposure. Although these measurements were made in men seeking care at an infertility clinic, their phthalate levels were similar to those found in the general population and raises concerns about population level effects. Human Reproduction 1 March 2007. More...
Mothers of naturally-occurring multiples are found to be have a shorter time to pregnancy than mothers of singletons.
From data collected from 1955-66, the US Collaborative Perinatal Project found women who became pregnant within the first six months of trying to conceive were nearly two times more likely to have a multiple birth than mothers who took longer than 6 months to conceive., Reasons for the heightened fecundity among mothers of multiples is largely unknown, but monitoring naturally-occurring multiple births could help track trends of reproductive health in the general population. Human Reproduction 1 February 2007. More...
Danish study finds that fathers of naturally conceived twins have better semen quality than fathers of singletons.
Twin fathers had higher percentages of motile sperm and morphologically normal sperm as well as higher sperm concentration and sperm count compared to fathers of singletons. Findings from this study and others support the hypothesis that spontaneous twinning may reflect population trends in male fecundity. Human Reproduction. 29 November 2006. More...
A study of all women registered in Denmark as working hairdressers does not find an increased risk of infertility.
This study might not reveal small risks in the entire group or high risks in small subgroups. Several chemical exposures in the work environment have been hypothesized to affect female reproduction, and some are present in products used in hairdressing and related trades. Human Reproduction. 19 November 2006. More...
The sex ratio at birth fell in New York City during January 2002 following the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
This decline was predicted on the basis of a similar decline noted in California. The results support the hypothesis that 'population shocks' like earthquakes or political or social upheavals lead to male fetal loss. Human Reproduction. 19 November 2006. More...
Despite the mounting evidence for links between chemical exposures and reproductive health effects, clinical providers have limited exposure to this information.
Whereas journals devoted to toxicology and environmental concerns have published much information on this topic, the mainstream obstetrics and gynecolgy literature does not frequently publish these types of studies. Health care providers should have more education on this topic so they can assist individual patients as well as proactively engage in public health education relating to the impact of toxic exposures. Human Reproduction. 1 July 2006. More...
Subtle changes seen in the testis of monkeys fed soy formula milk as infants.
As adults all of the males fed soy formula were fertile, however they had significantly smaller testis, an increase in Leydig cell numbers and low-normal testosterone levels. Similar changes may occur in adult men who were fed soy formula as infants. Human Reproduction 1 April 2006. More...
Study finds some evidence that organochlorines are linked to infertility in couples.
This study measured serum concentrations of the DDT metabolite, DDE, and a common type of PCB, CB-153. In men and women from Greenland, an increased time to pregnancy was associated with higher levels of these compounds. However, couples from Warsaw, Kharkiv, and Sweden were not found to have this effect. Human Reproduction 1 March 2006. More...
European men with higher levels of a persistent bioaccumulative contaminant, the PCB CB-153, are more likely to have sperm chromatin damage.
A study of over 700 men found a strong relationship between higher PCB levels and increased chromatin fragmentation. No association was seen in 193 Inuits from Greenland, nor was an association detected with DDE levels in any of the exposure groups. Human Reproduction. 24 November 2005. More...
Science Byte: Sons born to mothers exposed in the womb to DES are almost 5 times more at risk to hypospadias than sons born to unexposed mothers.
Paternal exposure to DES was not related. These results indicate third generation impacts of in utero exposure are of concern. Human Reproduction 23 November 2005. More...
New research of Italian women finds season of birth influences the timing of menopause.
Those born in March underwent menopause 15 months earlier at age 49 compared those born in October reaching menopause at over 50 years. These results leave open the question of whether environmental factors linked to seasons are capable of interfering with the timing of a woman's ovarian exhaustion by an action exerted in the prenatal period. Human Reproduction 1 August 2005. More...
The theory that finger length can predict male reproductive function is disproven.
Because genes controlling finger development also control differentiation of genitalia, it was proposed that finger length may correlate with testicular function. However, in a study of young, normal Danish men, no correlation was found. Human Reproduction. 8 July 2005. More...
Exposure to active or secondhand smoke increases the risk of failure in fertility treatments.
Despite similar embryo quality, women undergoing in vitro fertilization with exposure to tobacco smoke have one-half the rate of implantation as women not exposed to smoke. Pregnancy rates were 40% lower in smoke-exposed compared to non-exposed.. Human Reproduction 25 May 2005. More...
The definitions of subfertility and infertility are not standardized in many situations and make calculations of prevalence difficult.
Subfertility generally describes any form of reduced fertility with prolonged time of unwanted non-conception. Infertility may be used synonymously with sterility with only sporadically occurring spontaneous pregnancies.Under appropriate circumstances a basic infertility work-up after six unsuccessful cycles with fertility-focused intercourse will identify couples with significant infertility problems to avoid both infertility under- and over-treatment, regardless of age. Human Reproduction 1 May 2005. More...
Study of US men finds changes in reproductive hormones associated with phthalate exposure.
Increasing concentrations of monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP) were associated with a decrease in FSH and monobutyl phthalate (MBP) exposure was associated with an increase in inhibin B. Although associations were found, they were not in the expected direction and it is unclear whether these associations represent physiologically relevant alterations in these hormones, or whether they represent associations found as a result of conducting multiple comparisons. Human Reproduction 9 December 2004. More...
A study of US women finds exposure to PCBs is associated with a diagnosis of endometriosis.
Women in the highest tertile of anti-estrogenic PCBs had a 3-fold increase in risk of endometriosis. There was no association between serum levels of estrogenic PCBs and endometriosis in this study. Human Reproduction 28 October 2004. More...
In a study of Swedish fisherman, exposure to PCBs was weakly associated with poor sperm motility.
Subjects with the highest concentration (>328 ng/g lipid), tended to have decreased sperm motility compared with the subjects with the lowest concentration of PCB-153 (<113 ng/g lipid). The age-adjusted mean difference was 9.9%. There were no significant associations between p,p'-DDE and semen characteristics or reproductive hormones. Human Reproduction 1 September 2004. More...
A case-control study of Italian women finds an association between high levels of phthalates and endometriosis.
Women with endometriosis had significantly higher levels of the phthalate DEHP in their blood than women without endometriosis. Over 90% of the women with endometriosis had detectable levels of phthalates in their abdominal fluid. This is the first study to show an association between phthalates and endometriosis in women. Human Reproduction 1 July 2003. More...
Rats exposed pre-natally to dibutyl phthalate [DBP) have changes similar to those seen in testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS).
In rats, DBP exposure induces a high rate of cryptorchidism, hypospadias, infertility and testis abnormalities, similar to those in human TDS. TDS originates in fetal life but the mechanisms are not known, and discerning them requires an animal model. Human Reproduction 1 July 2003. More...
In a study of men from the Netherlands, decreased sperm counts are associated with elevated PCB levels.
Although there were no differences in PCB levels between men with poor semen quality and men with normal semen quality, in men with normal semen quality increasing concentrations of PCBs were associated with a significantly decreased sperm count. This study has implications for reports of declining sperm counts worldwide. Human Reproduction. 1 August 2002. More...
A case-control study of European women finds no association between endometriosis and exposure to dioxins or PCBs.
These results conflict with previous studies that have found an association. This study was limited because both the controls and cases had infertility, which also may be related to PCB or dioxin exposure. Human Reproduction 1 October 2001. More...
In a study of Argentinian men, exposure to pesticides and solvents is associated with primary infertilty.
This study compared men who had never fathered a child (primary infertility) to fathers with new fertility problems (secondary infertility). Men with primary infertility who had poor semen quality and elevated estrogen levels were more likely to have been exposed to pesticides. Exposure to solvents was less strongly associated with primary infertility. Human Reproduction 1 August 2001. More...
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