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The Reproductive Body
Published in Roger Cooter, John Pickstone, Medicine in the Twentieth Century, 2020
Medical journals concerned with fertility and sterility are replete with articles condemning the reliability and validity of published results of tests of sperm density. Yet in the 1980s doctors began to claim that average sperm concentration and quantity of semen in each ejaculate had fallen dramatically over the past fifty years: men with sperm counts poised on the brink of fertility were being pushed towards infertility. Weakly estrogenic substances in the environment were — and remain — the most popular explanation of the apparent fall in sperm counts. In some quarters, their presence was explained by the vast quantities of estrogen ingested by women taking ‘the pill’ or hormone replacement therapy contaminating the water supply.
Long-Term Effects of Perinatal Treatment with Sex Steroids and Related Substances on Reproductive Organs of Female Mice
Published in Takao Mori, Hiroshi Nagasawa, Toxicity of Hormones in Perinatal Life, 2020
John-Gunnar Forsberg, Taisen Iguchi
It is of interest that treatment with coumestrol, estrogen isolated from the ladino clover, also induces irreversible changes in the mouse vaginal epithelium57 since this finding suggests the possible involvement of dietary estrogen in the production of human vaginal lesions.58,59 The predominant dietary estrogens to which humans are exposed are naturally occurring phytoestrogens, rather than synthetic estrogens, e.g., DES.60 Under certain circumstances, phytoestrogens may reach circulating levels high enough to exert effects on the vaginas in animals ingesting them. A well-known example is hyperestrogenization and subsequent infertility in sheep grazing clover.60-62 Some fungi produce estrogenic mycotoxins, e.g., zearalenone produced by Fusarium fungi infesting stored corn. The “moldy corn syndrome” observed in female pigs fed corn contaminated with Fusarium involves vaginal prolapse and infertility.59 It is worth noting that the presence of coumestrol and other naturally occurring estrogenic substances in food could contribute to potential hazard to humans.57,59
Menstrual Disorders and Menopause
Published in James M. Rippe, Lifestyle Medicine, 2019
It has been well characterized since 1940 that estrogenic substances could induce carcinoma of the breast,41 with an approximate 30% greater chance of breast cancer with long-term estrogen therapy. However, there is some evidence that a diagnosis of breast cancer while taking hormone replacement therapy is associated with a better prognosis. Historically, there was also a relative consensus among physicians that the cardiovascular benefits of hormone replacement therapy outweighed the increased risk of breast cancer.42
Quantification of the Androgen and Estrogen Receptors in the Penile Tissues of Hypospadias in Comparison with Normal Children
Published in Fetal and Pediatric Pathology, 2023
Sanat Khanna, V. Shankar Raman, Sonia Badwal, K. V. Vinu Balraam
Of the manifold factors which are thought to be incriminated in the etiopathogenesis of hypospadias, the commonest is in-utero exposure to estrogenic substances or any other form of endocrinal disturbances [8]. Estrogenic disturbances implicated in the development of hypospadias are believed to be the action on the androgen receptors (AR) and the estrogen receptors (ER) viz. ER-alpha (ER-α) and ER-beta (ER-β)) which vary in hypospadias in contrast to anatomically normal penile foreskins [9–11]. Scientific analyses globally have drawn attention to deficiencies in androgen metabolism and receptor mechanism as a possible reason, suggesting that the exogenous hormones can infringe and interfere with the endogenous hormonal functions and influence the in-utero development of male external genitalia [9].
A review of the evidence for endocrine disrupting effects of current-use chemicals on wildlife populations
Published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2018
Peter Matthiessen, James R. Wheeler, Lennart Weltje
In conclusion, with the exception of the estrogenic effects on fish of EE2 and related estrogenic substances in treated sewage, it appears that legacy chemicals have caused, and in some cases are still causing, much more severe and widespread damage to many wildlife species than current-use chemicals. This conclusion must, of course, be accompanied by a significant caveat concerning the need for continued monitoring and research on these issues. Furthermore, the advent of improved regulatory testing does not imply that releases of new chemicals with side-effects including endocrine activity are necessarily a thing of the past, although they will likely become less common as they will be picked up earlier (i.e. in the substance discovery phase).