(Meghan Holohan/ Today) — Many couples with infertility wonder why they struggle to become pregnant. A new study reveals one possible cause after it found that women with PFAS — also called “forever chemicals” — in their blood might experience difficulty becoming pregnant.
“What our data showed is that those who might have had exposure to certain PFAS, they had about a 40% reduced chance to become pregnant for one year,” Dr. Damaskini Valvi, an author of the study in Science of the Total Environment and assistant professor of environmental medicine and public health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, tells TODAY.com.
“Even when we evaluated in our study lower exposure, we saw an association between people’s exposure to PFAS and fertility. This is very alarming,” she added.
People are considered to have infertility after a year of trying to become pregnant by natural means and having no success. Study participants with PFAS in their blood had a tougher time conceiving. (…)