A new study identified two chemicals found in sunscreen that might impair men's fertility, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health and the New York state Department of Health's Wadsworth Center. Researchers have said that the results are only preliminary and need to be confirmed.
Benzophenone (BP)-type ultraviolet (UV) are composed of about 29 chemicals that are absorbed by the skin and can meddle with the body's hormones and endocrine system processes, the study suggested. Men with high exposure to UV filters BP-2 or 4OH-BP had a 30 percent reduction in reproductive ability, or "fecundity."
"In our study, male fecundity seems to be more susceptible to these chemicals than female fecundity," said Germaine Louis, director of the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, according to NIH. "The women participants actually had greater exposure to the UV filters overall, but their exposure wasn't associated with any significant pregnancy delays. Our next step is to figure out how these particular chemicals may be affecting couple fecundity or time to pregnancy-whether it's by diminishing sperm quality or inhibiting reproduction some other way."
The study recruited 501 couples who had not gotten a medical diagnosis of infertility and followed them up to a year of attempting to conceive, according to NIH. The women were between ages of 18 and 44 and the men were all over 18. All of the couples were also part of the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) Study. Factors such as age, body mass index and smoking were all controlled.
"The skin is the body's largest organ, and how we care for our skin matters in more ways than one," said Dr. Louis, according to NIH. "Sunscreen is important for sun protection, and we definitely encourage people to continue using sunscreen to avoid skin cancer. But men who are concerned about fertility may be interested in other ways to reduce their exposure to benzophenone UV filters - whether by cutting back on other products that contain the UV filters or by washing after returning indoors."
The study was published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology, according to NIH.
