233 3 S RATTAN and others Endocrine disruptors and 233:3 R109–R129 Review female fertility Exposure to endocrine disruptors during adulthood: consequences for female fertility Saniya Rattan, Changqing Zhou, Catheryne Chiang, Sharada Mahalingam, Correspondence should be addressed Emily Brehm and Jodi A Flaws to J A Flaws Department of Comparative Biosciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA Email
[email protected] Abstract Endocrine disrupting chemicals are ubiquitous chemicals that exhibit endocrine Key Words disrupting properties in both humans and animals. Female reproduction is an important f endocrine disrupting process, which is regulated by hormones and is susceptible to the effects of exposure chemicals to endocrine disrupting chemicals. Disruptions in female reproductive functions f adult by endocrine disrupting chemicals may result in subfertility, infertility, improper f female hormone production, estrous and menstrual cycle abnormalities, anovulation, and f fertility early reproductive senescence. This review summarizes the effects of a variety of Endocrinology synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals on fertility during adult life. The chemicals of covered in this review are pesticides (organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, pyrethroids, and triazines), heavy metals (arsenic, lead, and mercury), diethylstilbesterol, Journal plasticizer alternatives (di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate and bisphenol A alternatives), 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, nonylphenol, polychlorinated biphenyls, triclosan, and parabens. This review focuses on the hypothalamus, pituitary, ovary, and uterus because together they regulate normal female fertility and the onset of reproductive senescence. The literature shows that several endocrine disrupting chemicals have endocrine disrupting abilities in females during adult life, causing fertility abnormalities Journal of Endocrinology in both humans and animals.