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Reproductive Hazards

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Summary

What are reproductive hazards?

Reproductive hazards are substances that affect the reproductive health of men or women. They also include substances that affect the ability of couples to have healthy children. These substances may be chemical, physical, or biological. Some common types include:

Alcohol
Chemicals such as pesticides
Smoking
Legal and illegal drugs
Metals such as lead and mercury
Radiation
Some viruses

You may be exposed to reproductive hazards through contact with your skin, breathing them in, or swallowing them. This can happen anywhere, but it is more common in the workplace or at home.

What are the health effects of reproductive hazards?

The possible health effects of reproductive hazards include infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and developmental disabilities in children. What type of health effects they cause and how serious they are depends on many factors, including:

What the substance is
How much of it you are exposed to
How it enters your body
How long or how often you are exposed
How you react to the substance

How can reproductive hazards affect men?

For a man, a reproductive hazard can affect the sperm. A hazard may cause a problem with the number of sperm, their shape, or the way that they swim. It could also damage the sperm's DNA. Then the sperm may not be able to fertilize an egg. Or it could cause problems with the development of the fetus.

How can reproductive hazards affect women?

For a woman, a reproductive hazard can disrupt the menstrual cycle. It can cause hormone imbalance, which can raise the risk of diseases such as osteoporosis, heart disease, and certain cancers. It can affect a woman's ability to get pregnant.

A woman who is exposed during pregnancy can have different effects, depending on when she was exposed. During the first 3 months of pregnancy, it might cause a birth defect or a miscarriage. During the last 6 months of pregnancy, it could slow the growth of the fetus, affect the development of its brain, or cause preterm labor.

How can reproductive hazards be avoided?

To try to avoid reproductive hazards:

Avoid alcohol and illegal drugs during pregnancy.
If you smoke, try to quit. And if you are not a smoker, don't start.
Take precautions if you are using household chemicals or pesticides.
Use good hygiene, including handwashing.
If there are hazards at your job, make sure to follow safe work practices and procedures.

Specifics

About Exposures and Reproductive Health (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Also in Spanish
Endocrine Disruptors (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)
How Smoking Affects Reproductive Health (Food and Drug Administration)
Radiation Exposure and Pregnancy (Health Physics Society) - PDF
Will Toxins in the Environment Affect My Ability to Have Children? (American Society for Reproductive Medicine)

Clinical Trials

ClinicalTrials.gov: Male Reproductive Hazards (National Institutes of Health)
ClinicalTrials.gov: Maternal Exposure (National Institutes of Health)
ClinicalTrials.gov: Pregnancy Hazards (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

Find an Expert

How to Find an Ob-Gyn (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)

Men

Paternal Exposures and Pregnancy (Organization of Teratology Information Specialists) Also in Spanish

Women

Avoiding Lead Exposure during Pregnancy (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
Mercury and Pregnancy (March of Dimes Foundation)
Using Household Chemicals during Pregnancy (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish

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National Institutes of Health

The primary NIH organization for research on Reproductive Hazards is the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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