Effect of Air Pollution on Menstrual Cycle Length—A Prognostic Factor of Women’s Reproductive Health

Anna Merklinger-Gruchala, Grazyna Jasienska and Maria Kapiszewska
Additional contact information
Anna Merklinger-Gruchala: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, 30-705 Krakow, Poland
Grazyna Jasienska: Department of Environmental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 31-531 Krakow, Poland
Maria Kapiszewska: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, 30-705 Krakow, Poland

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: Air pollution can influence women’s reproductive health, specifically menstrual cycle characteristics, oocyte quality, and risk of miscarriage. The aim of the study was to assess whether air pollution can affect the length of the overall menstrual cycle and the length of its phases (follicular and luteal). Municipal ecological monitoring data was used to assess the air pollution exposure during the monitored menstrual cycle of each of 133 woman of reproductive age. Principal component analyses were used to group pollutants (PM 10 , SO 2 , CO, and NO x ) to represent a source-related mixture. PM 10 and SO 2 assessed separately negatively affected the length of the luteal phase after standardization (b = ?0.02; p = 0.03; b = ?0.06; p = 0.02, respectively). Representing a fossil fuel combustion emission, they were also associated with luteal phase shortening (b = ?0.32; p = 0.02). These pollutants did not affect the follicular phase length and overall cycle length, neither in single- nor in multi-pollutant models. CO and NO x assessed either separately or together as a traffic emission were not associated with overall cycle length or the length of cycle phases. Luteal phase shortening, a possible manifestation of luteal phase deficiency, can result from fossil fuel combustion. This suggests that air pollution may contribute to fertility problems in women.

Keywords: air pollution; particulate matter; sulfur dioxide; carbon monoxide; nitrogen oxides; menstrual cycle; luteal phase; reproductive health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/816/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/816/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:7:p:816-:d:105347

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().