Interaction between diet- and exercise-lifestyle and phthalates exposure on sex hormone levels

Phthalate can affect sex hormones secretion. Exercise and diet habits affect sex hormones levels. However, interaction of phthalates exposure and diet or exercise habits with sex hormones is unclear. We enrolled 106 residents aged 11-88 years (48 males and 58 females) from two communities, Wuhan city, China during the winter of 2014 and summer of 2015. Data were collected on socio-demographic characteristics and lifestyle by a questionnaire in two seasons. Participants provided the blood and urine samples over 3 consecutive days for measuring sex hormones and urinary phthalate metabolites. We assessed the associations of urinary phthalate metabolites levels, lifestyle with hormones levels, the interaction of phthalate exposure and lifestyle with hormones levels using multivariate binary logistic regression models. High urinary mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxyhexyl) phthalate (MEOHP) levels and no exercise had an additive interaction on abnormal serum progesterone (PROG) levels in winter as well as on abnormal serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) or luteinizing hormone (LH) levels in summer. High urinary MEOHP levels and red meat intake (>1 time/day) had an additive interaction with abnormal levels of serum FSH only in the winter. Phthalates exposure may confer differential susceptibility to abnormal hormones levels in individuals with no exercise or eating meat >1 time/day.