Endometriosis Journey

Journal Of Endometriosis

Mockingbird — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:46:40 +0000

http://www.j-endometriosis.com/public/je/default.aspx

Check out this journal, ‘Journal of Endometriosis’, if you are deeply interested in the highly medical and scientific aspects of Endometriosis. It’s a fairly new journal, so there aren’t a whole lot of articles just yet. If you feel it’s a helpful tool, let them know!

Happy New Year 2012!

Mockingbird — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:54:54 +0000

Caffeine Consumption & Infertility

Mockingbird — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:54:20 +0000

Caffeine Consumption Linked to Female Infertility, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (July 21, 2011) — Caffeine reduces muscle activity in the Fallopian tubes that carry eggs from a woman’s ovaries to her womb. “Our experiments were conducted in mice, but this finding goes a long way towards explaining why drinking caffeinated drinks can reduce a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant,” says Sean Ward, professor of physiology and cell biology, at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, who conducted the study.

Ward’s study was recently published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

Human eggs are microscopically small, but need to travel to a woman’s womb if she is going to have a successful pregnancy. Although the process is essential for a successful pregnancy, scientists know little about how eggs move through the muscular Fallopian tubes. It was generally assumed that tiny hair-like projections, called cilia, in the lining of the tubes, waft eggs along assisted by muscle contractions in the tube walls.

By studying tubes from mice, Ward and his team discovered that caffeine stops the actions of specialized pacemaker cells in the wall of the tubes. These cells coordinate tube contractions so that when they are inhibited, eggs can’t move down the tubes. In fact these muscle contractions play a bigger role than the beating cilia in moving the egg towards the womb.

“This provides an intriguing explanation as to why women with high caffeine consumption often take longer to conceive than women who do not consume caffeine,” said Ward.

Discovering the link between caffeine consumption and reduced fertility has benefits.

“As well as potentially helping women who are finding it difficult to get pregnant, a better understanding of the way Fallopian tubes work will help doctors treat pelvic inflammation and sexually-transmitted disease more successfully,” said Ward.

It could also increase our understanding of what causes ectopic pregnancy, an extremely painful and potentially life-threatening situation in which embryos get stuck and start developing inside a woman’s Fallopian tube.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Nevada, Reno, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

From: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110720142359.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

Merry Christmas!

Mockingbird — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:20:53 +0000

WiFi Laptops May Nuke Sperm

Mockingbird — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:47:58 +0000

By NEW YORK

updated 11/28/2011 6:36:10 PM ET

The digital age has left men’s nether parts in a squeeze, if you believe the latest science on semen, laptops and wireless connections.

In a report in the venerable medical journal Fertility and Sterility, Argentinian scientists describe how they got semen samples from 29 healthy men, placed a few drops under a laptop connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi and then hit download.

Four hours later, the semen was, eh, well-done.

A quarter of the sperm were no longer swimming around, for instance, compared to just 14 percent from semen samples stored at the same temperature away from the computer.

And nine percent of the sperm showed DNA damage, three-fold more than the comparison samples.

The culprit? Electromagnetic radiation generated during wireless communication, say Conrado Avendano of Nascentis Medicina Reproductiva in Cordoba and colleagues.

“Our data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs may decrease human sperm quality,” they write in their report.

“At present we do not know whether this effect is induced by all laptop computers connected by Wi-Fi to the internet or what use conditions heighten this effect.”

A separate test with a laptop that was on, but not wirelessly connected, found negligible EM radiation from the machine alone.

The findings fuel concerns raised by a few other research teams.

Some have found that radiation from cell phones creates feeble sperm in the lab, for example. And last year urologists described how a man’s sitting with a laptop balanced on his knees can crank up the temperature of his scrotum to levels that aren’t good for sperm. (See Reuters Health story of November 8, 2010, at http://reut.rs/gHmXpC.)

So between the heat and the radiation from today’s electronic devices, testicles would seem to be hard-pressed.

But that is not at all clear, said Dr. Robert Oates, who has managed to father two kids despite having both a laptop and an iPad.

The president of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology, Oates told Reuters Health he doesn’t believe laptops are a significant threat to male reproductive health.

“This is not real-life biology, this is a completely artificial setting,” he said about the new study. “It is scientifically interesting, but to me it doesn’t have any human biological relevance.”

He added that so far, no study has ever looked at whether laptop use has any influence on fertility or pregnancy outcomes.

“Suddenly all of this angst is created for real-life actual persons that doesn’t have to be,” said Oates, also of Boston Medical Center.

According to the American Urological Association, nearly one in six couples in the US have trouble conceiving a baby, and about half the time the man is at the root of the problem.

While the impact of modern technology is still murky, lifestyle does matter, researchers say.

Earlier this month, a report in Fertility and Sterility showed that men who eat a diet rich in fruit and grains and low in red meat, alcohol and coffee have a better shot at getting their partner pregnant during fertility treatment. (See Reuters Health story of November 18, 2011, at http://reut.rs/v9bobG.)

“You should be keeping yourself healthy,” including staying lean, eating healthy foods, exercising, not taking drugs and not smoking, agreed Oates.

And for those laptop worries, he mused, “I don’t know how many people use laptops on their laps anyway.”

From: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45469130/ns/today-today_health/t/wifi-enabled-laptops-may-be-nuking-sperm#.TtTT3_HA47A

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mockingbird — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:56:52 +0000

Safe travels this Thanksgiving!

Fertility Math: Most Women Flunk, Survey Finds

Mockingbird — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:49:16 +0000

By JoNel Aleccia, Health writer

TODAY.com

updated 11/15/2011 8:56:41 AM ET

From the outside, Holly Finn certainly looks fertile.

With shoulder-length dark hair, smooth skin and a slim but curvaceous figure, the San Francisco-area writer could be any young mom with a baby on her hip.

But at 43, Finn says, her ovaries know better — and she would have, too, if not for what she believes is society’s widespread ignorance about infertility.

“I really feel that there are important pieces of information that don’t get passed along,” says Finn, who has now tried for four years to conceive through in-vitro fertilization. “I actually think it’s quite a brutal dishonesty.

Most women aren’t taught — and don’t learn — basic facts about fertility and aging, says Finn, author of the e-book “The Baby Chase.” Instead, celeb moms the likes of Salma Hayek (a baby girl at 41), Marcia Cross (twins at 44) and Mariah Carey (twins at 41) make being an older mom look easy — and glamorous.

“It’s not that we’re stupid,” she says. “It’s that we’ve been misinformed.”

As proof, she points to a new fertility awareness survey sponsored by biopharmaceutical firm EMD Serono Inc., with investigators from RESOLVE, the National Infertility Association. It was presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine’s recent annual meeting.

The poll of 1,000 women ages 25 to 35 who had talked to doctors about fertility found that participants could correctly answer seven out of 10 basic questions less than half the time. The Fertility IQ 2011 Survey found that women were wrong most often about how long it takes to get pregnant — and about how much fertility declines at various ages.

“We were not at all surprised,” says Barbara Collura, executive director of RESOLVE. “This is what we experience every day.”

Most women simply don’t realize that at 30, a healthy woman has about a 20 percent chance of conceiving per month and by the time she reaches 40, her odds drop to about 5 percent, Collura said.

Instead, many of those surveyed thought that a 30-year-old woman would have a 70 percent chance of conceiving and that a 40-year-old’s chances could approach 60 percent.

They also believed that a 20-year-old woman might get pregnant in less than two months of unprotected sex, rather than the five months that is the average.

“It’s basic biology and basic knowledge of how age impacts your fertility if you’re a woman,” says Collura.

But most women aren’t getting those basics until it’s too late, said Dr. William Schoolcraft, medical director of the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine in Denver and two other locations.

“They don’t even come in for fertility treatment until they’re literally in their 40s,” he said. “Some come in and they have run out of time.”

In a country where sex education focuses primarily on avoiding pregnancy and preventing sexually transmitted diseases, most women believe that having a baby is inevitably easy.

But that neglects the reality that infertility affects some 7.3 million women in the United States, or 12 percent of the child-bearing female population, and about 1 in 8 couples, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After about age 35, fertility plummets, Schoolcraft said.

So when women decide they want to get pregnant and can’t, they’re stunned. Some of the shock is because of advances in health and beauty that allow women to look — and feel — younger, even as their reproductive systems march on.

“People kind of think now at 40 what they used to think at 30,” Schoolcraft said. “People do yoga and they run and they do all these healthy things. They assume that means ‘I’m not aging.’ But their eggs don’t know that.”

Part of the disconnect is because of advances in infertility treatment, which have helped boost the rates of births among women in their 40s, even as rates have dropped for younger moms. Between 2008 and 2009, births in women aged 20 to 24 reached a record low, falling 7 percent. At the same time, the rates for women aged 40 to 44 jumped 3 percent and births to women older than 50 climbed 5 percent.

Those numbers are exemplified by a series of high-profile births in older celebrities, including icons such as Kelly Preston (son at 48), Holly Hunter (twins at 47) and Jane Seymour (twins at 44.)

The famous mamas may or may not disclose whether they’ve used fertility aids, such as IVF or donated eggs, says Schoolcraft. That further contributes to the notion that it’s never too late to have a baby.

“It sends the message, if she can do it, then Miss Healthy Boring Me, I won’t have any trouble at 41 or 42,” Schoolcraft says.

The trouble is, such thinking can cheat a woman out of her options, Collura says. It’s one thing to postpone children in order to pursue education or a career, fully knowing it might be more difficult to get pregnant later. It’s another thing to be surprised by infertility.

“This is not about empowering women and women’s rights,” she says. “This is about science and biology 101.”

That is precisely Holly Finn’s point. She wishes she had realized earlier the effects that endometriosis and age might have on her ability to conceive. If she had her way, she’d tell women ages 26 to 34 one thing: “Start having babies now.”

After eight unsuccessful cycles, Finn is taking a break from IVF therapy, but she plans to pursue other infertility treatments or different paths to parenthood in the future.

“Giving up hope is almost impossible,” Finn says.

From: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45262603/ns/today-today_health/?ocid=ansmsnbc11#

Happy Halloween!

Mockingbird — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:18:58 +0000

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

11 Surprising Sperm Killers

Mockingbird — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:28:53 +0000

11 Surprising Sperm Killers that Could Leave Men Shooting Blanks

From food packaging to the food itself, men are inundated with sperm-slaying chemicals.

By Leah Zerbe

Eat organic, seek safer soap; opt out of reciepts and in for medical-grade silicone sex toys.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Sperm killers are everywhere. They saturate you in the shower, seep into your skin in the checkout line, and even ooze into the convenience food you grab on the run. No matter the point of entry, many everyday chemicals are zapping their sperm counts and even silently scrambling DNA sperm data for men all over the world. Some cause sperm mobility problems, leaving your swimmers not swimming so well. And since the last time we wrote about this, a few more sperm busters have crossed our radar screen.

You might already know that narrow bikes seats have been linked to erectile dysfunction, and maybe you’ve heard about the study connecting antidepressants to sperm DNA damage. But other everyday habits are acting as sperm slayers, too. Once you understand the scope of harmful products on the market, it’s easy to see why fertility clinics are packed with customers, both male and female. Though we’ve found eight more culprits to add to our list, the good news is these everyday toxins are easier to sidestep than you may think.

Cash-register receiptsCanned food

Sex toys

Your toxic shower

Chemical-laced produce

Heated car seats

Contaminated fish

Nonstick chemicals

Cosmetics and food preservatives

“Safer” flame retardants

Natural gas drilling

Cash-register receiptsThink how many times a day someone slips a cash-register receipt into your hand: Your morning coffee, your gas fill-up, your stock-up trip to the grocery store, your dinner and a movie. The transactions are endless. The problem is, about 40 percent of receipts today are coated with the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which has been linked to fertility problems and heart disease. A new study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility just discovered that men with higher BPA levels in their urine experienced low sperm countsand lower sperm quality than men with lower levels.Protect yourself: While there’s no direct evidence linking receipt handling to infertility, why take chances? Until electronic receipts become commonplace, say you don’t want a receipt at the point of purchase. If you do need one, store it in an envelope or folder, not in a pocket or in the wallet you’re constantly breaking open. Keep receipts out of the recycling bin, too; their BPA can contaminate water and recycled-paper products.

Canned foodMany researchers believe the biggest source of BPA contamination comes through food packaging. Sure, canned food is convenient, but almost all of those metal cans are coated with a BPA resin, which migrates into the food. Acidic canned products, such as tomato paste or sauces, are particularly saturated with BPA.Protect yourself: Choose fresh or frozen food instead of canned whenever possible, and buy foods like pasta sauce in glass jars rather than in cans.

Sex toysWe’re not telling you to send your entire adult toy box to the landfill, but to protect yourself and your partner, avoid dildos, vibrators, and male pleasure devices made of vinyl. This type of plastic unleashes phthalates, plastic-softening chemicals linked to cancer, allergies, birth defects, and infertility.Protect yourself: Safely spice up your sex life by investing in green foreplay products made of high-quality medical silicone, such as the We-Vibe. For nonplastic pleasure, try a glass dildo.

Your toxic showerPhthalates don’t just linger in your sex toys, but also in scented soaps, shampoos, and cleaners, and in vinyl shower curtains. (Ever noticed those things can give you a headache when you first hang them up?) And the heat from your shower makes it easier for the chemicals to be released.Protect yourself: Choose a simple soap-and-shampoo-in-one, such as plant-based, unscented Dr. Bronner’s Baby Mild. Even though it’s a kid’s soap, it does the job. Plus, it’s free of harmful phthalate-containing products. Avoid personal-care products that have a fragrance or scent. And invest in a long-lasting hemp shower curtain instead of buying vinyl curtains every month or two.

Chemical-laced producePesticides are designed to kill pests. Unfortunately, chemical pesticides don’t see much difference between your precious seed and a hornworm.Protect yourself: It’s helpful to always wash your produce, but pesticides aren’t just on food, they’re in the food, too. So eat organic whenever possible, and start planning your 2011 organic garden.

Heated car seatsFor a man enduring sub-par temperatures, there may be no greater luxury than a heated car seat. But that between-the-legs toastiness may come at a price: damaged sperm quality. Heated car seats, heating pads, and even prolonged time in a hot tub heat up testicular temperatures just enough to decrease sperm production.Protect yourself: Direct heat is the problem here, so if you’re cold in the car, just boost the heater and let the air circulate around the vehicle.

Contaminated fishPCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, a group of toxic compounds used extensively in the electricity industry, are banned, but the ones that are already out there will remain in the environment indefinitely, where they especially accumulate in fish. If you’re a fisherman, that doesn’t mean you have to give up eating your catch altogether, but you should look for cleaner waters and follow consumption guidelines to make sure you don’t ingest too many sperm-destroying PCBs.Protect yourself: If you’re craving fish, opt for wild Alaskan salmon or consult your locale’s fish-consumption advisories.

Nonstick chemicalsNonstick chemicals used in pots and pans and in raingear often contain perfluoroalkyl acids, known as PFAAs; common types include PFOA or PFOS. But all of those acronyms could be making it harder for couples to conceive. A 2009 Danish study published Environmental Health Perspectivesfound that men with the highest levels of PFOS (3M stopped making PFOS in 2005) and PFOA had half the number or normal sperm cells compared to men with smaller amounts of the chemicals in their bodies.Protect yourself: Once your nonstick cookware wears out, replace it with untreated stainless steel or American-made cast iron. Avoid store-bought microwavable popcorn, too. The bags are often coated with nonstick chemicals. Instead, pop your own using a microwave trick.

Cosmetics/food preservativesParabens are used in many cosmetics, cleaners, and even some processed foods as preservatives due to their cheap chemical antimicrobial activity. But lab and rodent studies have linked parabens to not only breast cancer, but also abnormal genetic changes in the sperm of male mice fed parabens.Protect yourself: Visit Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database to judge the safety of your personal-care products; eat organic, unprocessed foods as much as possible; and learn to make your own green cleaners.

“Safer” flame retardantsAs once-popular flame retardants polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) are phased out due to health concerns surrounding them, their replacements may cause their own issues. According to a study published in Environmental Health Perspectivesin 2010 of the “safer” flame retardant and plasticizer replacements—chemicals known as TDCPP and TPP—men living in higher household-dust concentrations of the chemicals displayed lower sperm counts and declining thyroid hormone levels.Protect yourself: Avoid furniture that meets California’s TB117 flammability law (usually found on a tag; you can also call the manufacturer) because the stuff is doused in flame-retardant chemicals. When buying furniture, request untreated foam, or, if you can afford it, purchase naturally flame-resistant furniture made of an organic cotton/wool combination. Further reduce your in-home exposure by cleaning with a high-rated vacuum cleaner.

Natural Gas DrillingThe industrial solvent benzene isn’t just a cancer causer, it’s also a sperm mutator. A study published in 2010 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectivesfound that at benzene exposure levels allowed in the workplace, benzene-exposed men exhibited significantly higher genetically damaged sperm compared to unexposed workers, increasing the risk for birth defects in their children.Even if you don’t work around benzene, your fertility could still be at risk, particularly if you live near natural gas drilling hotspots. Previously hailed as a clean energy source, researchers are finding that natural gas hydraulic fracturing compressor stations are emitting toxic air pollution, including high levels of benzene.

Protect yourself: Ask your elected representatives to remove the natural gas industry’s exemption from federal laws designed to protect public health. To protect yourself from other sources of carcinogenic benzene pollution, avoid scented candles and benzene-laced home cleaners.

From: http://www.rodale.com/sperm-1?cm_mmc=MSN-_-9%20Everyday%20Chemicals%20That%20Could%20Be%20Screwing%20with%20Your%20Fertility-_-Slideshow-_-11%20surprising%20sperm%20killers

Everyday Chemicals Linked To Infertility

Mockingbird — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:47:39 +0000

Everyday Chemicals Linked to Infertility

Infertility is far more common than most people think. According to the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, approximately 6.1 million couples in the U.S.—about 10 percent of the reproductive-age population—experience fertility problems. For these couples, becoming pregnant is far from easy. Ovulation and sperm deficiencies are the most common infertility problems, accounting for two-thirds of all cases. And as scientists are starting to discover, even tiny exposures to certain chemicals could throw reproductive systems into a tizzy.

Nonstick Chemicals

Sure, nonstick pots, pans, and baking gear are convenient and easy to clean. But the problem is, nonstick chemicals start leaching into your food once chips and scratches start showing up in the enamel. That chemical migration is problematic, since there’s a long rap sheet of health problems associated with nonstick chemicals, including baby-making problems for both men and women. Danish researchers found that men with higher levels of a common nonstick chemicals, perfluoroalkyl acids, had half the amount of healthy sperm of men with the lowest levels. Scientists have found it takes women who have higher levels of nonstick chemicals in the body longer to become pregnant.

Found in: Nonstick cookware; used as a grease barrier in some takeout containers and in microwavable popcorn bags.

Protect yourself: Stay away from drive-thru fast food joints, cook with untreated stainless steel, cast iron, glass, or stoneware, and make safer popcorn.

Glymes

Most of the population has never heard of “glymes,” solvent chemicals in the glycol ether family used in the manufacturing of microchips, circuit boards, and prescription drugs. In 2011, however, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the agency might start taking a stronger stance against the compounds, possibly banning them for new uses. Studies looking at workers in factories where glymes are commonly used have higher rates of miscarriage, and the EPA also warned consumers of the chemicals’ dangers.

Found in: Carpet cleaners, inkjet cartridges, paints, and lithium batteries.

Protect yourself: Steer clear of carpet cleaning products, and instead use nontoxic stain remedies like white vinegar and baking soda. Use your printer only when it’s necessary.

BPA

Bisphenol A, or BPA, is used in so many products that it’s now detected in sand, household dust, and water. Studies have found that men with high BPA levels in their urine produce lower-quality sperm, making it more difficult to reproduce.

Ladies aren’t immune from BPA’s ill effects, either. A 2010 University of California San Francisco study found that in women undergoing in vitro fertilization, those with the highest levels of BPA in the body produced less-viable eggs.

Found in: Most canned food, some No. 7 plastic, receipts (receipts with the red flecks on the underside are said to be BPA free).

Protect yourself: Opt for fresh or frozen food instead of canned, drink from a food-grade stainless steel or glass bottle, and say no to receipts for minor purchases.

Flame Retardants

Used in everything from car seats and carpet padding to electronics, a common class of flame retardants could be delaying pregnancies. In 2010, researchers published a study releasing some pretty alarming facts. For each tenfold increase of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) levels in the blood, women were likely to experience a 30 percent increase in the time it took to become pregnant.

Found in: Carpet padding, electronics, furniture foam, dust.

Protect yourself: Opt for natural surfaces, such as hardwood or bamboo, rather than carpet, and look for furniture WITHOUT tags that say “complies with California Technical Bulletin 117; use a daybed or futon in place of a couch, vacuum often, wipe electronics down with a damp cloth to prevent dust buildup, and buy new electronics from one of these companies vowing to phase out these flame retardants.

Phthalates

Perhaps one of the most ubiquitous household toxic compounds, phthalates are plasticizing chemicals found in vinyl products and products containing artificial fragrances (there are thousands).

Men with higher levels of phthalates pay for it in the sperm quality department: In studies, their sperm tested as abnormal or showed signs of suffering DNA damage. Phthalates act as a man-made estrogen in the body, which could be messing with a guy’s manhood.

Found in: Vinyl products, including shower curtains and faux leather; scented products like cologne, perfume, candles, air fresheners, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and fabric softeners; shampoo, soap, hairspray, body spray, lotion, deodorant, and other personal care items.

Protect yourself: Avoid vinyl products (try a hemp shower curtain), opt for beeswax candles when you need ambiance—they actually help clean your indoor air, not pollute it; choose unscented, plant-based laundry products, and use white vinegar as a fabric softener; read personal-care product labels and bypass ones that label “fragrance” or “parfum” as an ingredient. It’s a catch-all term for thousands of chemicals, including phthalates.

Pesticides

Pesticides have a bad habit of not staying put. In fact, atrazine, a common chemical weed killer used heavily in the Midwest, on Southern sugar cane farms, and on golf courses, has been detected in tap water. Its widespread use is not good news for couples trying to conceive, since it and other pesticides have been linked to miscarriage and infertility.

Found in: Residential and farming pest-killing products.

Protect yourself: Buy and grow organic and use organic lawn-care tips. If you live near a nonorganic golf course, orchard, or farm, consider installing water filters certified to remove pesticides.

PCBs

PCBs were used decades ago in the electric industry and are now banned, but they don’t break down easily and have built up in our waterways—and in the fish that swim in them.

Previous research linked PCBs to poorer sperm quality. In 2011, a National Institutes of Health–funded study found that concentrations found among the general U.S. population were associated with failed embryo implantations in women undergoing in vitro fertilization.

Found in: Certain types of fish, including farmed salmon (often found in grocery stores).

Protect yourself: Getting enough beneficial omega-3s is important when trying to conceive. To make sure you’re making sound seafood selections, read Want Health, Safe Seafood? Check local advisories if you fish and eat what you catch, so you know which to stay away from to avoid exposure to harmful contaminants like PCBs.

GMOs

Genetically engineered, or GMO, food has never been proven safe, although it’s infiltrated most of the U.S. food supply. GMO crops, particularly corn, soy, and canola, are genetically manipulated to withstand heavy dousings of toxic pesticides. (So much so that those pesticides often wind up inside of the food we eat.) A 2008 Austrian study found GMOs damaged lab animals’ ability to reproduce. The effects grew stronger in the third and fourth generations, possibly indicating that the great-granddaughter of a women who eats GMOs could suffer infertility.

Found in: Most nonorganic processed foods containing corn or soy; nonorganic canola oil

Protect yourself: Eat organic. Get your friends and family to eat organic. It’s that simple.

Nitrates

Pollution of drinking water supplies from the nitrogen and nitrates that seep out of fertilizers has been linked to reproductive problems, cancers, and spontaneous abortion. Based on the Rodale Institute’s Farming System Trial data, water leaching from chemical farms was more likely to exceed the legal limit for nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in drinking water compared to the organic systems.

Found in: Drinking water supplies in areas where chemical fertilizers are used heavily

Protect yourself: Check Environmental Working Group’s What’s in your water? tool if you drink municipal water. If you’re on well water, have an EPA-approved water-testing facility check for common well contaminants…nitrates is one of them.

To remove the nitrates in drinking water, you’ll need a home water-filter system that is certified to NSF 53, 58 or 62. For long-term protection, support organic farmers in your area to reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer and other toxic compounds washing away into streams and water supplies.

Although we encounter many of these hormone-disrupting chemicals unknowingly every day, there is some great news: Once you ID these infertility infiltrators, you can make smart, easy choices to cut them out of your life for good.

From: http://health.msn.com/pregnancy/9-everyday-chemicals-that-could-be-messing-with-your-fertility?gt1=31018