Atmospheric pollution could be harmful for menstrual cycle
Kathmandu, December 18
Researchers claimed that exposure to the atmospheric pollution could disrupt women's menstrual cycle function.
Researchers of the French Institute for medical research Inserm recruited 184 women, who did not use hormonal contraception and agreed to collect samples of urine at least every other day to allow examining their exposure to pollution over the course of a 30-day period preceding a menstrual cycle.
As per the APF Relax News, the researchers examined a potential link between exposure to particulate matter and a longer follicular phase in menstrual cycles.
Environmental levels of particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide pollution were established on the basis of the home addresses of participating women and data from permanent monitoring stations.
The researchers observed a correlation between an increased concentration of particulate matter in the air and the duration of the preovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle, called the "follicular phase" (as opposed to the luteal phase, which corresponds to post-ovulation). The hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, the brain's transmission chain of hormonal information between the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland (gland below the hypothalamus) and the ovaries, ensures the proper regulation of these phases.
The study claimed that the follicular phase tends to increase with pollution levels. Indeed, each 10 µg/m3 increase in particulate matter concentration in air over a 30-day period before the cycle was associated with an increase in the duration of the follicular phase of about 0.7 days, or just under one day. However, no net change in the duration of the luteal phase or the total duration of the cycle was observed.
"These results are consistent with the more fundamental data suggesting that air pollution can disrupt the axis that controls the menstrual cycle and stress hormones such as cortisol, which can also influence it. It will probably take some time to refute or confirm this new hypothesis with larger population samples, given the cost and effort involved in such studies," explained Rémy Slama of the Grenoble University Institute of Advanced Biosciences who supervised the research, in a press release published on the Inserm website.
