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Air pollution and fecundability: Results from a Danish preconception cohort study
Amelia K Wesselink1, Tanran R Wang1, Matthias Ketzel2,3
1Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Background:
Animal and epidemiologic studies indicate that air pollution may adversely affect fertility. Epidemiologic studies have been restricted largely to couples undergoing fertility treatment or have retrospectively ascertained time-to-pregnancy among pregnant women.
Objectives:
We examined the association between residential ambient air pollution and fecundability, the per-cycle probability of conception, in a large preconception cohort of Danish pregnancy planners.
Methods:
During 2007-2018, we used the Internet to recruit and follow women who were trying to conceive without the use of fertility treatment. Participants completed an online baseline questionnaire eliciting socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, and medical and reproductive histories and follow-up questionnaires every 8 weeks to ascertain pregnancy status. We determined concentrations of ambient nitrogen oxides (NOx ), nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3 ), particulate matter <2.5 µm (PM2.5 ) and <10 µm (PM10 ), and sulphur dioxide (SO2 ) at each participant's residential address. We calculated average exposure during the year before baseline, during each menstrual cycle over follow-up and during the entire pregnancy attempt time. We used proportional probabilities regression models to estimate fecundability ratios (FRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for potential confounders and co-pollutants. The analysis was restricted to the 10,183 participants who were trying to conceive for <12 cycles at study entry whose addresses could be geocoded.
Results:
During 12 months of follow-up, 73% of participants conceived. Higher concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 were associated with small reductions in fecundability. For example, the FRs for a one interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM2.5 (IQR = 3.2 µg/m3 ) and PM10 (IQR = 5.3 µg/m3 ) during each menstrual cycle were 0.93 (95% CI: 0.87, 0.99) and 0.91 (95% CI: 0.84, 0.99), respectively. Other air pollutants were not appreciably associated with fecundability.
Conclusions:
In this preconception cohort study of Danish women, residential exposures to PM2.5 and PM10 were associated with reduced fecundability.
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