Is it really in what we are eating!?

Everytime that I am in the office of my fertility specalist's I look around and I think, how can all these women have issues getting pregnant? Getting pregnant is one of the most natural things in our lives and it seems like there are so many couples that are having problems getting pregnant. There are four major fertility clinics in my town and they all have at least a two week wait to get an appointment, how is in one town that the clinics are that busy?

I wonder is it something we are eating or drinking, it is all the cell phone and laptop use?

I came across an article that talks about the chemiclas that are widely used in food packaging, pesticides and clothing that may reduce a woman's fertility. It states that exposure to perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) could influence how long it takes for a woman to get pregnant.

Researchers led by a team from the University of California in Los Angeles analysed data from 1,240 women in Denmark recruited between 1996 and 2002 who went on to give birth. They measured the level of two of the most common PFCs, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), in the women's blood. They then asked the women how long it had taken them to conceive.

The average age of the women was 31, and 15% of the group were over 35, which is the age at which fertility is known to decline. The researchers found that women who needed infertility treatment or took longer than 12 months to conceive had higher levels of PFOS and PFOA than those who conceived in under six months. They estimated that women with the highest exposure to PFOS were in fact 70% to 134% more likely to suffer infertility (defined as taking longer than 12 months or requiring infertility treatment) than women with the lowest exposure.

Meanwhile, those with the highest levels of PFOA were 60% to 154% more likely to be infertile than women with the lowest exposure.

The researchers said no conclusions could be drawn from the study on how the chemicals may affect women who could not get pregnant at all. But they said the effect of the chemicals on a man's sperm quality could impact on ability to conceive "since the couples may share similar aspects of lifestyle".

Here is a little background on PFOA. It is widely used in manufacturing and industry, including the production of non-stick cookware, heat-resistant materials and those used in waterproof clothing. PFOS has been used to treat surfaces and upholstery, some insecticides and fire extinguisher foam, although its use has been steadily falling since the late 1990s.


Tony Rutherford, chair of the British Fertility Society, said the results were interesting. "This research shows a tenuous link in the delay to conception in women with the highest levels of two commonly used perfluorinated chemicals," he added. "This is an important finding and certainly warrants further detailed research, particularly in those trying for a family. This study emphasises the importance of remaining vigilant to potential environmental factors that may impact on fertility."

I wish they had given some insight to how we can have less exposure to these chemicals. We use so many chemicals in order to make our life easier, but do we really know all the risks in making our lives easier? and is is worth jeopardizing your family over?