Pfas alter the function of the uterus by interacting with progesterone and block the mechanisms that regulate the menstrual cycle, the implantation of the embryo and the course of pregnancy. As if that were not enough, they alter the regularity of the menstrual cycle and delay the onset of the first menstruation. The new study from the University of Padua.
Pfas compromise our reproductive system, particularly in women: the dangerous chemical compounds that have contaminated the aquifers of various areas of the Veneto alter the activities of a hormone essential for pregnancy, progesterone, and also block the mechanisms that regulate the menstrual cycle delaying the onset of at least six months.
To say it is a research by a group of scholars from the University of Padua coordinated by Carlo Foresta, carried out on twenty-year-olds living in the red area of Veneto, the most polluted one, presented at the 34th Reproductive Medicine Conference in Abano Terme.
There is therefore no hope on Pfas: the way in which they affect the sphere of maternal and child health has already been ascertained, it is also already in the fertile age of the youngest that they cause damage.
A systematic review
The Paduan team analyzed in vitro endometrial cells such as Pfas interfere with the activation of endometrial genes by progesterone. From the analyzes it emerged that out of more than 20 thousand genes analyzed, progesterone normally activates almost 300, but in the presence of Pfas 127 they are altered and among these precisely those that prepare the uterus forengraftment of the embryo.
It goes without saying that the failure of progesterone to activate these genes transforms the important functions involved in regulating the menstrual cycle and in the ability of the endometrium to accommodate the embryo and therefore can lead to a delay in pregnancy, polyabortivity and pre-birth. -term.
The clinical consequences of these results "were also confirmed by a recent study by the Veneto Region on maternal and neonatal outcomes, which reported an increase in edema or hypertension and diabetes in pregnant women, of those born with low birth weight, of congenital anomalies to the nervous system and congenital heart defects in the areas most exposed to Pfas, ”explains Foresta.
Menstruation comes later
An analysis of the reproductive health questionnaires in which 115 twenty-year-old girls residing in the Veneto red area took part, comparing the responses with a group of 1.504 young women of the same age not exposed to this pollution, revealed a significant delay in the first menstruation of at least six months and a greater frequency of alterations in the menstrual cycle with delays of 30% in the exposed compared to 20% of the average.
In the light of these results, in the future, the researchers conclude, we will focus on the mechanism of action of Pfas precisely on endometrial function.
Read also:
- Pfas seriously harm the health of newborns and pregnant women. The study conducted in Veneto
- Pfas: what they are, where they are and why they are dangerous
- Pfas in Veneto waters: state of emergency declared
- Pfas: the UN calls for a total ban
Germana Carillo
