Why You Should Minimize BPA to Optimize Fertility (& Health)
BPA is also known as Bisphenol-A. It's an industrial chemical most commonly used in the commercial manufacturing of plastics. It's added to many products like plastic water bottles, personal care products, baby bottles, food containers, aluminum cans, and other things.
Unlinked BPA molecules can leach out into whatever it's coming into contact with, like water, milk, soup...even our hands and into our bloodstream.
Why is this a problem? BPA mimics the structure and function of the hormone Estrogen, and can bind to its receptors. This can affect our hormonal balance and bodily processes, including thyroid and reproductive functions.
BPA was first created in 1981, but wasn't used for commercial purposes until later. As early as the 1930s, the estrogenic properties of BPA were discovered. This was by Edward Charles Dodds, who also discovered the similarly-structured synthetic estrogen known as diethylstilbestrol (DES), which was banned in 1971.
In the 1950s, BPA started to be used in epoxy resins, plastics, food can lining, adhesives, non-skid coatings, and piping. Use expanded to hard plastics, thermal receipt paper, electronics, and other daily items.
Females with BPA exposure can have increased fertility challenges.
∿There is an 83% risk of miscarriage during the 1st trimester for women with the highest levels of conjugated BPA.
∿Female offspring of women with high exposure to BPA have shorter anogenital distance (AGD).
∿Women with PCOS tend to have higher levels of BPA in their blood than those without.
∿Early and adult exposure to BPA correlates with poor egg quality, which is a possible cause of premature ovarian failure and early menopause.
Males with BPA exposure can have decreased sperm quality, genital changes, and decreased masculine behaviors.
∿Men with BPA in their urine were more than 4X likely to have lower sperm counts, more than 3X likely to have poorer sperm vitality, and more than 2X likely to have lower sperm motility than those without BPA in their urine.
CONTINUED IN COMMENTS 👇
∿Male offspring of men with high exposure to BPA have shorter anogenital distance (AGD).
∿In animal studies, offspring to who were exposed to BPA in the womb were found to exhibit increased female behavioral traits.
∿BPA is connected to hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children. In animal studies, transgenerational exposure to BPA may contribute to autism. Dr. Ray Peat has discussed estrogen's "excitatory" effects:
"When estrogen's effects overlap with the stimulating effects of other hormones, such as pituitary hormones, particular organs undergo something similar to “excitotoxicity.”
Could our estrogenic environment be contributing to hyperactivity in children?
BPA-Free ≠ Better. Analogues of BPA like BPAF, BPB, BPF, and BPS are often used to replace BPA in products that would like to market themselves as BPA-free. But these replacements can have similar or even stronger effects than BPA itself.
Research demonstrates that the Estrogen-like actions of BPA are extremely strong, even in small amounts. Lower doses are not necessarily safer than higher doses.
Making small lifestyle changes can help decrease BPA exposure.
What’s one thing you’re going to do today to decrease your own BPA exposure?
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Not medical advice. Credit to Shanna H. Swann’s “Countdown” and Dr. Anthony G. Jay’s “Estrogeneration” as primary sources.
Environmental Working Group. (2008). Timeline: BPA from Invention to Phase-Out. Retrieved from: https://www.ewg.org/research/timeline-bpa-invention-phase-out.
Haidut. (2019). Endocrine disruptors (BPA) can cause autism several generations later. Retrieved from: http://haidut.me/?p=215.
Jay, A.G. (2017). Estrogeneration: How Estrogenics Are Making You Fat, Sick, and Infertile. Tallahassee, FL: Pyrimidine Publishing Company, LLC.
Morgan, M. Doeraj, A. Felty, Q. Roy, D. (2017). Environmental estrogen-like endocrine disrupting chemicals and breast cancer. Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27717745/.
Peat, R. Estrogen and Osteoporosis. (2006). Retrieved from: http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/estrogen-osteoporosis.shtml.
Peat, R. (2006). Aging, estrogen, and progesterone. Retrieved from: http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/aging-estrogen-progesterone.shtml.
Shoemaker, SaVanna. (2022). What Is BPA? Should I Be Concerned About It?. Retrieved from: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-bpa.
Swan, S.H. Colino, S. (2020). Countdown: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race. New York, NY: Scribner.
Wolstenholme, J.T. Drobná, Z. Henriksen, A.D. Goldsby, J.A. Stevenson, R. Irvin, J.W. Flaws, J.A. Rissman, E.F. (2019). Transgenerational Bisphenol A Causes Deficits in Social Recognition and Alters Postsynaptic Density Genes in Mice. Retrieved from: https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/160/8/1854/5513493.
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