Children's Health Defense By
A new peer-reviewed Danish study found that pregnant women exposed to toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or “forever chemicals,” during early pregnancy were associated with lower sperm concentration, lower total sperm count, and a higher proportion of nonprogressive and immotile sperm in their adult sons.
The large-scale population-based study published Oct. 5 in Environmental Health Perspectives assessed semen characteristics and reproductive hormones in 864 young Danish men who were born to women who provided plasma samples primarily during their first trimester of pregnancy between 1996 and 2002.
Levels of 15 PFAS were measured from maternal samples and seven PFAS had high enough levels to be included in the study. Semen quality, testicular volume and levels of reproductive hormones and PFAS were then assessed in young men from the Fetal Programming of Semen Quality cohort established between 2017 and 2019…
