The microplastics found in the follicular fluid of the human ovary for the first time

Microplastics have been found for the first time in the follicular fluid of the human ovary, raising a new round of questions about the potential impact of ubiquitous and toxic substances in the fertility of women.

The new peer -reviewed research published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety found that there are microplastics in the follicular fluid of 18 women undergoing reproductive treatment assisted in a Salerno, Italy fertility clinic, and detected them in 14.

Follicular fluid provides essential nutrients and biochemical signals to develop eggs. The authors contaminated this process with plastic bits have implications for general fertility, balance and general reproductive health.

The findings represent an important step in finding out how and why microplastics affect the reproductive health of women, but they are also “very alarming”, said Luigi Montano, a researcher at the University of Rome and author of the study.

“This discovery should serve as an important warning signal about the invadivity of these emerging pollutants in the female reproductive system,” says the study.

From the top of the MT Everest to the bottom of the Mariana trench, smaller microplastics and nanoplastics have been detected throughout the environment. It is believed that foods are a main way of exposure: recent studies found them in all meat and produce proven products.

Microplastics are especially dangerous because they can contain any number of 16,000 plastic chemicals. It includes highly toxic compounds such as PFA, Bisphenol and Ftalats, related to cancer, neurotoxicity, hormonal interruption and development toxicity.

Microplastics have been found throughout the human body and can cross the brain and placental barriers.

Montano’s latest work is part of a larger project that he has directed for which he has also detected microplastics on urine and human semen and examines the impacts on fertility. He said he suspects that microplastics are among chemicals that drive sperm count and a fall in the general quality of sperm.

“We have shown this descent, especially in areas where pollution is bad,” said Montano.

Although men are more susceptible to the toxic effects of the substance, he added, women are also affected. Animal research has linked the presence of microplastics to dysfunction and ovarian health problems, such as the reduced maturation of oocytes and a lower fertilization capacity. Another mice study showed alterations in ovarian tissue.

The article indicates a “possible correlation presence between the concentration of microplastics” and the reproductive health in the women who participated in the new study.

Montano added that bisphenol, ftaalats, PFAs and other highly toxic chemicals that use microplastics as “Trojan Horse” to enter the body and the ovaries are “very dangerous”. Chemicals are already known for interrupting hormones and harm the reproductive health of women.

The role of follicular fluid offers a “very important finding,” said Xiaozhong Yu, a Microplastical researcher at University New Mexico, but added that more work is needed to determine the dose and exposure level to which adverse effects are beginning to occur.

“This is the work in the following phase: we must quantify,” Yu said. Your team is also trying to answer some of these questions with broader epidemiological research.

The Montano team does similar work, and is conducting an investigation that seeks to determine the reduction in plastic use in the kitchen and eating an organic diet will reduce the level of microplastics in the body.

The ubiquity of substances hinders avoidance, but reducing the amount of plastic used in the kitchen, from packaging to storage to utensils, is likely to reduce exposure. Pesticides may contain microplastics or, in some cases, there is a form of microplastics, so organic eating can help.

Experts also advise people to avoid heating plastic or that they put hot foods and liquids in plastic.

Disposal paper cups, for example, can spose trillions of plastic when hot liquid is added. Similarly, tea bags can release billions of particles, and microwave plastic is also a problem. Plastic utensils that come in short contact with hot pans can also chemical leaching; Stainless wood and steel alternatives are less detrimental.