ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1608861

This article is part of the Research TopicAssessing Environmental Influences on Maternal and Infant Health Amidst Climate ChangeView all 3 articles

Association between endocrine disrupting chemicals and female infertility: a study based on NHANES database

Provisionally accepted
Zhu  HailunZhu Hailun*Chen  TingChen TingLuo  BingruLuo BingruZhang  ZheZhang ZheJiang  WenJiang WenZeng  QianlingZeng Qianling
  • Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, Changsha, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Controversy persists regarding the impact of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on female infertility, and the specific EDCs that cause female infertility remain unclear. This study aims to examine the associations between various EDCs metabolites and female infertility using data from the female population in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted betweenMethods: A cross-sectional study on reproductive-age women aged 18-45 years was conducted, with data retrieved from the NHANES database. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association between EDCs metabolites and female infertility. Subgroup analysis was applied to stratify by age and body mass index (BMI). Results were summarized using an odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI).Results: A total of 3,982 women were enrolled, comprising 463 infertile women and 3,519 control women. The results showed that increased exposure to EDCs metabolites (including DnBP, DEHP, DiNP, DEHTP, PAEs, Equol, PFOA, and PFUA) was significantly associated with female infertility, with odds ratios of 2.10 (95% CI:

Keywords: endocrine disrupting chemicals, PAEs, Equol, PFASs, Female infertility, NHANES

Received: 09 Apr 2025; Accepted: 22 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Hailun, Ting, Bingru, Zhe, Wen and Qianling. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Zhu Hailun, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, Changsha, China

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