Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)

BACKGROUND: Inflammation may contribute to subfertility but this has not been well-explored in large prospective cohort studies. METHODS: We conducted a prospective 12-month cohort study of time to pregnancy in North Carolina, the Time to …

BACKGROUND: Menopausal estrogen-alone therapy is a risk factor for endometrial and ovarian cancers. When a progestin is included with the estrogen daily (continuous estrogen-progestin combined therapy), there is no increased risk of endomet…

BACKGROUND: Opioids are commonly prescribed to women of reproductive age, including after delivery and miscarriage. However, to our knowledge, opioid use has not been frequently studied in relation to the common reproductive complications o…

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of studies have linked air pollution to decreased fertility. Whether this is due to an effect on ovarian reserve is unknown. METHOD: Our study included 632 women attending the Massachusetts General Hospital…

BACKGROUND: Randomized trials of supplementation with antioxidant mixtures during infertility treatment show no benefit on pregnancy or live birth rate. However, the roles of individual antioxidants are poorly understood. We examined the as…

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with subfertility and prolonged estrus cycles in animals, but humans have not been well studied. METHODS: A prospective time-to-pregnancy study, Time to Conceive (2010-2015), collected up t…

BACKGROUND: Perfluoroalkyl substances have been associated with changes in menstrual cycle characteristics and fecundity, when modeled separately. However, these outcomes are biologically related, and we evaluate their joint association wit…

BACKGROUND: Phytoestrogen exposure from soy formula feeding during infancy may disrupt reproductive system development, resulting in altered menstrual bleeding in adulthood. METHODS: We investigated this relationship in a cohort of 1,696 y…

BACKGROUND: Animal studies demonstrate that several phthalates are embryofetotoxic and are associated with increased pregnancy loss and malformations. Results from human studies on phthalates and pregnancy loss are inconsistent. METHODS: W…

BACKGROUND: Because endometriosis is diagnosed predominantly in young women, exposures occurring during childhood or adolescence may have a major impact on the disease. However, potential risk factors during this time period have received l…

BACKGROUND: Aspirin, nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NA-NSAIDs) and acetaminophen all have biologic effects that might reduce the risk of ovarian cancer. However, epidemiologic data on this question are mixed. METHODS: A p…

BACKGROUND: Perfluorinated compounds are ubiquitous pollutants; epidemiologic data suggest they may be associated with adverse health outcomes, including subfecundity. We examined subfecundity in relation to 2 perfluorinated compounds-perfl…

BACKGROUND: Environmental chemicals may be associated with endometriosis. No published research has focused on the possible role of perfluorochemicals (PFCs) despite their widespread presence in human tissues. METHODS: We formulated two sa…

BACKGROUND: Understanding the health effects associated with environmental chemicals is challenging when individuals have concentrations at or below the laboratory limits of detection as well as when the values may round to zero or are pres…

BACKGROUND: Exploratory statistical analyses have been conducted on an epidemiologic data set in which the relationship was examined between exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) mixtures and risk of endometriosis in women. In that stu…

Assessing potential associations between exposures to complex mixtures and health outcomes may be complicated by a lack of knowledge of causal components of the mixture, highly correlated mixture components, potential synergistic effects of…

BACKGROUND: Pollution may play a role in population trends of declining semen quality and regional differences in time to pregnancy (TTP) in industrialized societies. Dioxins including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) have been su…

BACKGROUND: The goal of many studies in environmental epidemiology is to assess the relationship between chemical exposure and disease outcome. Often various assays can be used to measure a particular environmental exposure, with some assay…

BACKGROUND: Regular exercise has been associated with a 40%-80% reduction in risk for endometriosis in several case-control studies. However, women experiencing symptoms prior to their diagnosis may be less likely to exercise than healthy c…

BACKGROUND: Many studies have examined whether caffeine, alcohol, or specific beverages containing these substances affect fertility in women. However, most of these studies have retrospectively collected information on alcohol and caffeine…

BACKGROUND: Endometriosis, a dysplastic disease affecting approximately 5%-10% of US reproductive-age women, has been linked to exposures indicating high circulating estrogen levels. One such exposure may be night shift work, which has been…

BACKGROUND: Progression of endometriosis is considered estrogen-dependent. Dietary soy isoflavones may affect the risk of endometriosis, and polymorphisms in estrogen receptor genes may modify this association. We examined associations amon…

BACKGROUND: Although studies have found elevated risks of certain cancers linked to infertility, the underlying reasons remain unclear. METHODS: In a retrospective cohort study of 12,193 U.S. women evaluated for infertility between 1965 an…

Previous epidemiologic observations consistently suggest that suppression of ovulation, tubal ligation, and hysterectomy reduce the risk of ovarian cancer and that perineal talc use increases the risk. We examined these and other risk facto…