Environmental Toxins & Fertility: PFAS, Plastics, and What to Avoid

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In this episode of the Love & Science Fertility Framework, Dr. Erica Bove explores how environmental exposures may affect fertility, egg quality, sperm development, hormone production, and long-term ovarian health.

Environmental toxins and endocrine-disrupting chemicals are often overlooked in fertility care, yet growing research suggests they may influence IVF outcomes, fertilization rates, pregnancy rates, live birth rates, and even the timing of menopause.

In this episode, Dr. Bove discusses:

• how endocrine-disrupting chemicals may affect egg and sperm development
• the relationship between environmental toxins and infertility
• PFAS, phthalates, parabens, BPA, PVC, and other common exposures
• how these chemicals may influence hormone signaling, ovarian function, and reproductive longevity
• the association between toxic exposures and decreased egg yield, fertilization, pregnancy, and live birth in IVF
• the connection between environmental chemicals, early menopause, cardiovascular health, and longevity
• practical ways to reduce exposure in daily life, including changes to plastics, food storage, personal care products, processed foods, and household items
• occupational exposures in labs, farming, welding, plumbing, and other high-risk environments

Dr. Bove also reviews simple, practical steps to reduce toxic burden without becoming overwhelmed, emphasizing the importance of controlling what you can and letting go of what you cannot.

This episode is part of Season 1 of The Love & Science Fertility Framework: The Biology Beneath the Surface — a science-based series exploring the physiologic factors that shape fertility outcomes.

Transcript

Hello, my loves, and welcome back to the Love and Science podcast. Today, we're going to talk about a very important topic, which is environmental exposures, which are often overlooked. People ask me all the time, what can I do to improve my chances of this working? And, you know, when I see a patient for the first time, I always take a very thorough history and I want to know, like, what do they put in their bodies? What are their environments? Like, is there any secondhand smoke in their lives?
What are their environmental risk factors, right? Like, are they a basic scientist? Do they have lots of toxic chemicals? But I don't think a lot of us think hard enough about what to do in the situation of environmental chemicals, which can disrupt the process of egg development, sperm development, and the whole process of reproduction. So I will say when I trained, there was really not much talked about at all regarding this topic.
And as we have evolved, I'd say over the last five years or so, there has been more and more data published about the effect of toxins and endocrine disrupting chemicals on the whole process of fertility. So one thing that's been known for a while is that people who live close to a city have higher infertility rates compared to people who live in more rural environments. And everyone's like, oh yeah, all the pollutants, that makes sense. The air quality is bad, et cetera. Are people going to...
uproot their lives and live in the country for the sake of infertility? You know, most people would say no, but I think the concept has not been new, but I think the newer data about what actually makes a difference is fairly new. And so let's talk about what we know and what we don't know. They have seen that endocrine disrupting chemicals in the semen and the follicular fluid can have a dramatic effect on the development of the gametes respectively, right? The egg and the sperm.
The maturity and the competence of those very, very important cells reduced hormone production, right? Like in terms of testosterone, estrogen, LH, FSH, and also importantly, worse fertility outcomes. We've also seen both in animal and human data that the presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals can lead to early menopause. And so if you think about it, we think about ovarian function as being very important.
Sometimes we just focus on the fertility part of things, but if we are all interested in longevity, which I hope we are, right? We have to think about the lifespan of our ovaries and our ovarian function well beyond our fertile years as well. And so I want to do everything possible to keep my ovaries producing estrogen, to protect my heart from my brain, all those things. And so this is like a really important thing to think about. There's data, even from 2024, that in a study looking at
IVF patients, actually, in patients that had an elevated serum level of these chemicals. And we can talk about a little bit more what they are, but they had decreased egg yields in IVF, decreased fertilization rates, decreased pregnancy rates, and also decreased life birth rates, which is pretty interesting. And that was specifically for the per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or like the PFAS, as they are talked about in their abbreviations.
Also in 2024, there was a case control study looking at not just IVF patients, but women and their serum levels of these endocrine disrupting chemicals. The people who had higher serum concentrations of these chemicals had increased rates of infertility compared to the controls. And this was across the board. If I remember correctly, it was somewhere between like two and three and a half times.
you know, when we look at orders of magnitude. So really not just modest, but significantly increased issues, right, as we think about it. And so what can we do, right? I think my people are often at risk of like, oh, we're overdoing these suggestions. So I say this not to say you need to completely change your life and make this your entire focus, but I do think that there's some relatively simple things that we can do on a day-to-day basis to, you know, be more mindful and to reduce our risk.
So one of the things, and I'm sure you've heard this talked about, is to avoid plastics. It is so easy to grab a plastic water bottle, right? Especially when we can buy the big cases and everything like that. You know, it is just as easy to have your favorite water bottle that's stainless steel. I've also seen glass with the cases around that, that, you know, my mom, who is a nurse, you know, I worry a little bit more about that and the safety of that. But I love a good stainless steel water bottle. They're not that heavy.
There are so many more water stations around these days and it's actually less expensive over time. So, you know, I like the idea of not introducing all these chemicals. It's amazing. Even a plastic water bottle, especially if it's heated up, releases a lot of these toxic chemicals. And I just, I want to make sure I'm not putting that in my body whenever possible. Looking at fragrance-free soaps and candles and, you know, those sorts of, you know, cosmetics actually too, looking at what's in the cosmetics.
That can make a difference, especially since those things are technically optional. I like a good candle just like the next person, but I think looking at what's in those ingredients can be really important as we look at reducing our risk. Again, a lot of fertility is lining up the vectors in the same direction. And if we're doing so many other things, you know, in the right way, but we're also having a lot of these exposures, it just limits the highest potential that our treatments are going to work.
So limiting processed foods, you know, easier said than done, but taking that extra five to 10 minutes, packing a lunch, choosing the healthier option from the cafeteria, whatever it is, really making sure that processed foods are the small part of your diet. And most of your foods are fruits, veggies, whole foods, those sorts of things. We know to do it. It's a lot harder in real time, but there are data that these chemicals can be.
you know, in, in those foods and also organic foods. I know it's more expensive. I know the economy is hard right now, but I think about an investment in health and investment in fertility, really trying to make sure that our food is as organic as possible. What else? Okay. So what should we actually be looking for? Well, you know, if we have things that are in the labels on our products that we buy, let me give you an idea of some of the abbreviation to look out for.
So what I have seen is that there are fragrances and perfumes that have phthalates in them. What are phthalates? You can look for the abbreviations on your labels, BBP, DBP, DEHP, DEP, DIDP, DINP, DNHP, and DNOP. Also parabens are used as preservatives. And so you can look at like methyl, the methyl sort of stem, butyl, ethyl, and propylparaben.
Looking for PFAS and PFOA, which are often listed as like fluoro or perfluoro. Those are often in nonstick or water-resistant goods. BPA, we have heard of so often, right? So those are commonly found in hard plastics. Look at code seven. Also, the other plastics to avoid are the recycling number three, the PVC and the vinyl. In addition, try clothes sand and try...
And triclocarban, excuse me, those are often found in antibacterial soaps and toothpaste. And some chemical sunscreens actually have oxybenzone. I feel like I'm back in organic chemistry, which is kind of funny. But looking at chemical sunscreens and what they have in them as well. Hair dyes and topical acne treatments can have resourcenol. And also there's some antistatic agents called perchlorate as well.
really thinking about reducing the plastics that we expose ourselves to daily. I just went through and
took out all my plastic Tupperware and exchanged it for either stainless steel or, or glass actually. So there's some really good companies out there where you can buy different sizes, different shapes. And I feel better knowing that I'm not like going to work in microwaving something in a plastic that is then going to affect my overall health negatively. And, you know, like I said before about the longevity and the menopause, this is not really just about infertility.
they've actually shown that people who have high serum concentrations of phthalates have increased risk of cardiovascular disease and early death. And so, you know, sometimes infertility, it's like the herring, like it sort of is the thing that's getting our attention, but it's actually a much deeper problem in terms of longevity. We do see that frequently. Just like my good friend who's an eye doctor says, like you can see the whole body's health through the eye. Infertility sometimes can be like that too. And so really just, you know, being mindful.
taking simple steps, not going crazy over this, but making, taking small steps where we can. And then also, you know, if there are, you know, not just these endocrine disrupting chemicals that are on labels, but if there are toxic exposures in your life, like say you work in a basic science lab, I was in a basic science lab where they did an audit and there was over 20 times the concentration of anesthetic when we were doing animal surgery that should have been in there. And so my wonderful lab director, she invested in a scavenger system that was several thousands of dollars.
But then when she did that, like the entire lab felt better. They're like, oh my gosh, I'm not dizzy after a day of surgery. Like, again, we have OSHA, but sometimes certain things don't hit the attention. And so really being mindful of basic science exposures. I've also seen, you know, I have a lot of, I practice in Vermont, so I have a lot of farmers and there really can be a lot of chemicals that farmers are exposed to. Also people who work with heavy metals, like welders or plumbers, also something to think about in terms of like electricians.
those sorts of exposures and then what people can use for PPE to reduce those risks. So, you know, I am just amazed at the correlations that we're seeing between these EDCs and fertility outcomes. Like initially it was like, oh yeah, maybe this is, you know, related. And now study after study shows that there are associations. I've not yet seen a causal study.
But I think that we really have to think critically about something that is technically largely in our control, not entirely in our control. But again, I say control the things you can, let go of the things you can't. And I think we have a lot of room here to live our best lives and to have the highest chance of our treatments working. So I hope this was helpful. Stay tuned. More to come. You know, I love you. Bye.