Microplastics and fertility
Studies show that all humans have microplastics, they have even been detected in the placentas and testicles. How did they get there? How do they affect us? What can we do to protect ourselves? Dr. Arturo Valdés, expert in Fertility, Dr. Carlos Monsalve, specialist in Maternal-Fetal Care and Rdn. Marisol Navarrete, clinical nutritionist explain everything you need to know, remember that #KnowledgeIsSuccess
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Introduction
A couple of months ago, in May 2024, the University of Oxford published a study in which, in short, they studied the testicles of 23 men, as well as 47 puppies and unfortunately, they found microplastics in each and every one. Similarly, in February of this year at the University of New Mexico, they studied 62 human placentas and found microplastics in all of them.
And how do these microplastics get into our body? Some of it is garbage that gradually wears out and ends up being consumed by animals or absorbed by plants. In some cases, ultraviolet rays cause such small wear that the particles end up floating in the air and we can breathe them in. However, the vast majority of microplastics come directly from the water we consume. The water tanks, pipes in your home, jugs and bottles of water are made of plastic and at a microscopic level they wear out and peel off easily, all that water enters our body carrying microplastics.
So, in this video we want to explain a little about how microplastics affect us, how we can detect them and what precautions we should take to protect not only fertility but also life. Remember that knowledge is success.
How do microplastics affect us?
Starting from a fertility standpoint, it is a fact that the number of sperm a man produces has decreased over the past 50 years. This decline most likely began a few decades earlier, but centuries ago there was no possibility of analyzing and counting sperm with high-powered microscopes.
The first study on the decline in sperm count was published in 1974 and many more studies have been conducted since then, however, an exact cause of the decline has not yet been determined. Pollution, smoking, drinking and being overweight certainly played or have played a role initially, but currently the main suspect is a chemical called Bisphenol-A or BPA. Bisphenol-A is a chemical used to coat the inside of cans of food and canned drinks, although it is also used in the production of various plastics and is so abundant that it has been detected in 90% of urine samples in various studies.
The problem is that BPA disrupts our body’s endocrine function. Simply put, our body confuses BPA with estrogen, and estrogen is a hormone that helps modulate sperm maturation. Our body thinks we have too much estrogen, so it stops releasing estrogen and there are no mature sperm.
Usually, the more BPA is detected, the fewer sperm are produced and they have less mobility. Fortunately, morphology is not affected and there does not seem to be damage to DNA quality or other parameters that increase the risk of miscarriage or birth defects. Therefore, it is more difficult to achieve pregnancy, but if it is achieved, the baby should be healthy.
Microplastics in the placenta or during pregnancy
Now, what about microplastics in the mother’s placenta? Technically, it is a good thing that the placenta has microplastics since it is working as a filter to prevent them from reaching the baby. In fact, babies’ feces have been analyzed to determine how much plastic they have and it is a minimal amount when they are newborns. Their exposure to plastic begins when they use pacifiers, bottles, clothes, blankets or fabrics made of synthetic fibers and of course, when they start putting everything they find around them in their mouths.
So, do not worry about plastics during pregnancy, you have to take good care of it once it is born. It is important to note that this recommendation or analysis is valid for now, the year 2024, because the amounts of microplastics are still small, unfortunately they are increasing every year and we know, from experiments carried out on rats decades ago, that high concentrations of plastic tend to cause cancer and failures in various organs.
Should I get tested for microplastics ?
As for fertility, in theory we can do biopsies and urine tests to detect if you have microplastics, but it doesn’t make much sense because we will most likely always detect them… We live in a world made of plastic. So, the idea is not to carry out studies to detect microplastics but to do studies to detect if they are affecting you.
The first step, especially if you have been trying to get pregnant for more than 6 months without success, would be to perform a seminogram. Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases, if there are few sperm, we can improve its production and motility with medication. Additionally, it would be recommended to completely abstain from canned foods and drinks bottled in plastic, at least until pregnancy is achieved.
Recommendations to avoid or reduce microplastics
What other precautions can we take? Even if you are not trying to get pregnant, we give you the following recommendations:
- Avoid using cutlery, plates or glasses made of this material.
- We recommend heating your food in glass containers and if they have a plastic lid, it is better to remove it.
- Please never heat plastic containers in the microwave, heat degrades plastics and your food will be contaminated.
- Avoid cooking with plastic utensils and instead use silicone ones that resist high temperatures.
- Likewise, there are these reusable silicone bags that are a much better option than plastic ones.
- If you have to bottle-feed your baby, it is advisable to heat the milk or formula in a metal or glass pot, allow it to cool a little and then pour it into the bottle.
- Avoid using cutting boards made of plastic.
- If you have plastic furniture or furniture upholstered with synthetic fibers, it is advisable to avoid exposing it to the sun.
- If you carry a water bottle everywhere, make sure it is made of glass or BPA-free metal. If possible, avoid Teflon-coated pans, look for ones made of cast iron.
- Try to let babies and children spend more time outside the house, unfortunately houses are full of synthetic materials.
- Vacuum your house often and instead of using a duster, use a damp cloth to remove dust from shelves and furniture.
- It is preferable to buy clothes made of natural fibers, especially scarves, hats or pillowcases, that is, materials that come very close to the face and whose particles we could inhale.
- Reduce your consumption of processed proteins such as ham, sausage and chicken nuggets, in general, the more processed a food is, the more plastic it contains.
Conclusions
For the moment that is all we can recommend, in general, the idea is to reduce the amount of plastic that enters our homes and prevent said plastics from heating up or being exposed to the sun.
Perhaps, just as we consume probiotics today to improve our intestinal flora, one day we will be able to consume anti-plastics because in fact some bacteria that disintegrate plastics have already been discovered, but we are still very far from that dream. For the moment, the best option is to be aware that this is a real problem and we must take some precautions.
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