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Sperm counts down? Still not pregnant? Breast cancer on the rise? Chemical pollutants in our water and food may be the culprits.

It’s not a sci-fi scenario, nor a far-off reality. Manmade estrogen- mimicking chemicals in our environment, known as xenoestrogens, are reaching the forefront of scientific research. Their effects on health are not just a concern–they’re downright scary. Topics under investigation include infertility in both sexes, poor sexual development and testicular cancer in men, and endometriosis and breast cancer in women.

Hundreds of chemicals–found in pesticides, fuels, drugs and polycarbonate plastic baby bottles and food containers–either cause hormonal activity similar to estrogen, the human sex hormone, or alter the hormone’s effects. In fact, the vast majority of the 70,000 chemicals currently in use have never been tested for health risks. Yet they are in our soils as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers. They are in our water because of rain erosion runoff from landfills and agricultural lands. They are in our food supply–in animals, fish and grains. On the upside, many researchers are investigating prevention-oriented strategies to limit exposure to these chemicals. There are also many ways that individuals can avoid the health hazards associated with xenoestrogens.

Declining Sperm Counts

Contrary to popular belief, natural estrogen plays important roles in both men and women. In males, estrogen imbalances influence the reproductive systems in myriad ways. Many scientists believe that estrogenic pollutants underlie some disturbing trends such as decreasing sperm count and function, decreasing testosterone production and testicular malformations. Since 1938, sperm counts of men in 21 countries have plunged by an average of 50 per cent, reported Danish endocrinologist Niels Skakkebaek in 1991. He also found that testicular cancer had tripled. A coincidence? Possibly, but Skakkebaek suspects that the culprit in both cases is from men’s exposure (as fetuses and newborns) to estrogen-like chemicals found in their mother’s blood and breastmilk.

Female Hormone Havoc

Evidence is accumulating that, even at very low concentrations and exposures, xenoestrogens can cause "hormone havoc" in women. And that’s beginning to worry toxicologists (who study the effects of poisonous substances on living organisms) and epidemiologists (specialists in epidemic diseases) because factors that increase women’s lifetime exposure to estrogen can cause health problems such as infertility, breast cancer and endometriosis (a condition in which the tissue of the uterine lining grows outside the uterus on ovaries, ligaments and pelvic organs).

Dr. Devra Lee Davis, a toxicologist, and researchers from five medical centres have reviewed studies and concluded that estrogenic pollutants in our environment are inducing or promoting mammary cancers in lab animals. Both endocrinologists (specialists in disorders of endocrine glands such as ovaries and testes) and reproductive biologists have suggested that long-term exposure to xenoestrogens might underlie the apparent breast cancer epidemic in women.

A study in 1993 showed that rhesus monkeys developed endometriosis after being fed food that contained dioxin, a xenoestrogen, over a four-year period. A fact worth noting is that 70 years ago, when the environment was free of estrogenic pollutants, there were only 21 reported cases of endometriosis versus the current 5.5 million in North America alone.

The Good News

Dr. Stephanie Trenciansky is a naturopathic physician in Langley, BC, specializing in women’s health. She uses nutrition, botanicals, homeopathy, acupuncture and intravenous therapies such as chelation and ozone. Phone 604-534-5756.

Source: alive #240, October 2002