New research from Harvard University has found that bisphenol A (BPA) exposure may affect a woman’s ability to become pregnant while undergoing fertility treatments. Researchers studied women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center in order to examine the relationship between BPA exposure and pregnancy success. All women were of a decent childbearing age (18-45 years), used their own eggs in the IVF procedure and most were Caucasian and non-smokers. Researchers followed this group of women through each IVF cycle until they delivered their baby or decided to stop the IVF treatment. After measuring BPA urine concentrations of the women, the researchers confirmed that women with higher BPA levels in their system were less likely to get pregnant while undergoing IVF than women with lower BPA levels. The more intense the fertility treatment, the greater the link to problems associated with BPA. In most cases, pregnancies failed because the embryos did not attach to the uterus. While this human study was small, other research with experimental animals also shows that BPA decreased embryo implantation success and reduced litter size. Clearly research like this reveals a growing trend that harmful chemicals are a major consideration if you’re attempting to become pregnant, especially since we know that most pregnant women carry a slew of chemicals in their bodies.
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