Francesca Lyon, lead nutritionist at FUTURE WOMAN, gives her take on some exciting new research that highlights the possibility of extending fertility and potentially delaying perimenopause!
In light of menopause awareness month, I wanted to share some really interesting recent research that investigates possible interventions for supporting egg health and the potential knock on implications for delaying menopause and reducing menopausal symptoms.
You might think that the topic of egg quality or quantity is only relevant if you’re trying to get pregnant, but that’s not the case! In fact, your egg reserve and egg quality can determine not only your experience of perimenopausal symptoms but potentially even the timing of menopause itself!
Recent studies have highlighted an interesting connection between environmental toxins, egg health, and perimenopausal experiences.Â
Let’s take a look…
Environmental Toxins and Egg Health: What Does the Research Say?
I want to focus on 3 key recent research studies that point to a link between endocrine disrupting chemicals and both egg quantity and quality:
- PFAs, egg reserve and early menopause: A 2018 study published in the journal of Environmental Health Perspectives found that women with higher levels of certain environmental chemicals, specifically PFAs, had lower ovarian reserve markers and entered menopause earlier (Taylor et al, 2018).
- BPA, Phthalates, Dioxins and egg ageing: Similar findings also agree that the exposure to environmental toxins is linked to earlier onset of menopause and that the exposure to environmental toxins like BPA, Phthalates and dioxins may be accelerating the ageing processes in our eggs (Neff et al, 2022)
- BPA and egg reserve: Research highlights that even small amounts of BPA contributes to poor egg quality and fertility issues. A study by Peters et al (2024) showed that BPA had a direct impact on reduced (antral) follicle counts and even impacted the number of oocytes (eggs) yielded in a IVF cycle.
But what is actually driving this acceleration of decline in egg quality and quantity?Â
How Do Environmental Toxins Affect Egg Health?
Researchers have identified several mechanisms through which environmental toxins can impact egg health. Let’s explore the main ones:
- Oxidative Stress: One of the primary ways environmental toxins damage egg health is through the oxidative stress they create in the body. Many toxins can generate free radicals in the body which are unstable molecules that can damage the DNA within eggs, potentially leading to chromosomal abnormalities or accelerated egg loss (Agarwal et al, 2012).
- Hormonal Disruption: Environmental toxins can mimic or interfere with our natural hormones, potentially disrupting the delicate balance needed for healthy egg development and ovulation. This can lead to irregular cycles and perimenopausal symptoms such as poor sleep, anxiety, hot flushes and more (Gore et al, 2015).
- Mitochondrial Damage: Eggs are incredibly energy-demanding cells, relying heavily on their mitochondria (the cell’s powerhouses). Some environmental toxins can damage mitochondrial DNA, potentially compromising the egg’s ability to function properly and impacting ageing. This is linked to increased earlier age of both perimenopause and menopause (May-Panloup et al, 2016).
The Link to Perimenopause and Menopause
So how do these effects on egg health translate to our experiences of perimenopause and menopause?
It can lead to an earlier menopause.
The damage to eggs from environmental toxins may accelerate their loss, potentially leading to an earlier onset of both perimenopause and menopause.
It can lead to more severe perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms.
The hormonal disruption caused by these toxins doesn’t just affect our eggs. It can continue to impact our entire endocrine system, potentially leading to more severe or prolonged perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms like hot flushes, mood swings, and sleep disturbances.
Is the impact of environmental toxins reversible? Absolutely! Keep reading and I’ll share my top tips for reducing oxidative stress and inflammation as well as a recent client case study.
What can we do about it?
We have a lot more control than we think about our experience of perimenopause and menopause!
Let me share an inspiring story from one of my recent clients. When she first came to us, things weren’t looking great: she had low egg count (as seen on a scan), high oxidative stress, poor detoxification, and high toxin exposure. But by following her FUTURE WOMAN health plan and minimising environmental toxins, she saw dramatic improvements over the course of one year. She not only successfully increased her egg count, but she reduced her oxidative stress marker by half, and improved her detoxification capacity too. This likely increased her chance at pregnancy and also greatly improved her chances of a smoother perimenopause down the road.
So here are a couple of tips I’d recommend for any client going through perimenopause and menopause.
My top tips for improving egg quality and quantity
Firstly, it’s vital to test your oxidative stress and inflammation markers alongside your oestrogen and progesterone. You can do this in our Advanced Hormone Test. Depending on your results, we can assess your stage of perimenopause and also recommend some targeted supplements to reduce oxidative stress and therefore improve egg quality and quantity (alongside other aspects of your personalised plan). For example, a supplement we’re particularly excited about right now is NAD, which has been shown to extend fertility and potentially delay perimenopause.
Secondly, eliminating endocrine disrupting hormones from your daily life as much as possible needs to be a priority. This can feel overwhelming at first – these chemicals are in our makeup, beauty products, cleaning products, cooking equipment and even our clothes! But I always encourage clients to simply start with what they’re already throwing away – if you’re about to run out of washing up liquid, switch to a better alternative. We provide tons of toxin-free ideas every week in our newsletter and on our instagram, and you can even find a curated list of our favourite products on our Amazon Shop.
Reducing environmental toxins can also support oestrogen detoxification – another key driver of perimenopausal symptoms. But that’s a topic for another day…
Want to learn more?
If you’d like to explore more about perimenopause visit our Perimenopause Health Hub. You can also check out our guides to toxin free beauty and cleaning to get you started .
If you would like to know more about your hormones, stage of perimenopause and detoxification status then you can find out more about our comprehensive testing here.
References
Taylor, K. W., et al. (2018). Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Substances and Women’s Health: A Comprehensive Review. Environmental Health Perspectives, 126(9), 096002.
Agarwal, A., et al. (2012). The effects of oxidative stress on female reproduction: a review. Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, 10, 49.
Gore, A. C., et al. (2015). EDC-2: The Endocrine Society’s Second Scientific Statement on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals. Endocrine Reviews, 36(6), E1-E150.
May-Panloup, P., et al. (2016). Mitochondrial DNA in the Oocyte and the Developing Embryo. Current Topics in Developmental Biology, 119, 231-253.
Grindler, N. M., et al. (2015). Persistent Organic Pollutants and Early Menopause in U.S. Women. PLOS ONE, 10(1), e0116057.
Schug, T. T., et al. (2011). Endocrine disrupting chemicals and disease susceptibility. The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 127(3-5), 204-215.
Diamanti-Kandarakis, E., et al. (2009). Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement. Endocrine Reviews, 30(4), 293-342.
Neff, A. M., Laws, M. J., Warner, G. R., & Flaws, J. A. (2022). The Effects of Environmental Contaminant Exposure on Reproductive Aging and the Menopause Transition. Current environmental health reports, 9(1), 53–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-022-00334-y
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Gold E. B. (2011). The timing of the age at which natural menopause occurs. Obstetrics and gynecology clinics of North America, 38(3), 425–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ogc.2011.05.002
Peters, A. E., Ford, E. A., Roman, S. D., Bromfield, E. G., Nixon, B., Pringle, K. G., & Sutherland, J. M. (2024). Impact of Bisphenol A and its alternatives on oocyte health: a scoping review. Human reproduction update, dmae025. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/humupd/dmae025
