Among the reasons, links to ubiquitous chemicals in everyday life

During his press conference on Tuesday 16 January, Emmanuel Macron spoke about the future “The Big Plan” Against infertility. Among the causes of difficulty in conceiving a child, exposure to ubiquitous chemical substances in the domestic environment, the food chain or certain drugs have been established beyond reasonable doubt by hundreds of scientific publications. However, the number and variety of suspected molecules, the multiplicity of exposure routes (diet, inhalation, skin contact, etc.) as well as the sometimes long delay in exposure and identification of sterility make estimating the extent of these effects and identifying the main products responsible very difficult.

The best-established effects relate to male fertility – globally, the average concentration of sperm in human semen has halved in half a century, according to the latest analysis of all available data.

Published in June 2022, the first work attempting to establish a hierarchy of the main culprits for this decline suggests that podium bisphenols (present in rigid plastics and in contact with food), polychlorinated dioxins (emitted by household waste incinerators. of course) and Certain phthalates (present in flexible plastics). Parabens (present in certain cosmetics and hygiene products), as well as paracetamol (a widely used painkiller) were also highlighted by the researchers.

However, be careful: the main effects of substances occur after in utero exposure, by mothers, late in their pregnancy. These substances capable of disrupting the hormonal system (or “endocrine disruptors”) act especially during the formation of the reproductive system, and reduce the future fertility of the unborn child. The time for politics is not the time for biology: regulatory actions taken today to reduce population exposure to these endocrine disruptors will have significant effects on fertility for generations to come – although other effects may manifest in positive health conditions much earlier.

Agrotoxics and endometriosis

A summary of the available scientific literature published in November 2023 shows that, in part, exposure to pesticides from the organophosphate and carbamate families reduces sperm concentration in the semen of individuals, and not just in the uterus. .

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