IS PLASTIC POLLUTION TO BLAME?

BRITISH experts are blaming the male fertility crisis primarily on boys suffering developmental damage in their mothers’ wombs — and pin the blame on chemical pollutants in our environment.

Phthalates are considered a key culprit. These are added to plastics to increase their durability and have become ubiquitous.

In 2015, Shanna Swan, a professor of reproductive epidemiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, found that mothers with high blood phthalate levels in the first trimester of pregnancy were much more likely to have sons with a significantly reduced anogenital distance (AGD) — measured between the anus and underside of the scrotum.

The researchers, writing in the journal Human Reproduction, said a shorter distance has been linked to low sperm counts later in life.

In another study, last year, obstetricians at the University of Western Australia compared the fertility of 900 men aged 20-22 with records of their mothers’ blood samples when they were pregnant.

Men whose mothers had high levels of phthalates between the 18th and 34th week of pregnancy tended to have small testicles and subsequently low sperm counts, the researchers reported i n the journal Frontiers In Endocrinology.

Another key pollutant appears to be perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), used as a stain repellent and formerly a key ingredient in fabric protectors. It’s called a ‘forever chemical’ because it persists for decades in the environment, often in drinking water.

Studies on mice (reported in 2017 i n the journal Environmental Science & Technology) found that pregnant females exposed to low doses of PFOS gave birth to male pups that grew up to have low sperm counts and testosterone.

Common painkillers taken in pregnancy may also affect a baby boy’s future fertility, according to a study last year led by Dr Rod Mitchell, a consultant paediatric endocrinologist at the University of Edinburgh.

When samples of human foetal testes were exposed to paracetamol and ibuprofen for a week, there were 25 per cent fewer testicular germ cells — the cells that give rise to sperm.

The study also tested the effects of painkillers on mice with grafts of human foetal testicular tissue. After one day of treatment with paracetamol, the number of spermproducing cells had dropped by 17 per cent. After a week there were almost one third fewer cells.

On a brighter note, a study last month in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that taking folic aci d during pregnancy may help protect baby boys against testicular damage from environmental pollutants.