Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

The role of environmental toxins in infertility: Insights from cutting-edge research

Researchers reviewed the effects of environmental toxins including bisphenol A, pesticides, heavy metals, microplastics, and electromagnetic fields on human fertility. The study found that these substances have been linked to both male and female infertility through various mechanisms, and highlights the need for greater awareness and regulatory action to reduce exposure to these reproductive toxicants.

2025 Scripta Medica 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental determinants of male infertility: emerging threats and technological interventions

This review examines how environmental contaminants, including microplastics, air pollution, heavy metals, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, may contribute to declining male fertility. The study suggests these environmental toxins can impair sperm function through oxidative stress, hormonal imbalance, and inflammation, and highlights the need for integrating environmental exposure data into fertility assessments.

2026 Frontiers in Medicine
Review Tier 2

Environmental and microbiome determinants of sperm quality: a narrative review on male health

This narrative review examines how environmental factors, including microplastics and other emerging contaminants, affect male sperm quality and fertility. The study suggests that pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides, phthalates, PFAS, air pollution, and microplastics can impair sperm parameters through various mechanisms, and highlights the role of the reproductive microbiome in mediating these environmental effects.

2026 Translational Andrology and Urology
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Fertility

This paper reviews the growing body of evidence linking microplastic exposure to impaired human fertility, covering how microplastics and associated chemical additives can disrupt reproductive hormones and damage sperm and egg quality. It highlights the need for further research to establish dose-response relationships.

2024 Exon Publications eBooks
Article Tier 2

Implications of environmental toxicants on ovarian follicles: how it can adversely affect the female fertility?

This review examines how environmental toxicants, including endocrine disrupting chemicals, heavy metals, agrochemicals, and chemicals used in plastic and cosmetic industries, can adversely affect female fertility. Researchers found that these substances can interfere with follicle development and lead to conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome, premature ovarian insufficiency, and meiotic defects. The study highlights the difficulty of isolating individual risk factors since multiple toxicants often share common pathways of reproductive harm.

2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 61 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics May Be a Significant Cause of Male Infertility

This review examines the potential link between microplastic exposure and the decline in male fertility observed over recent decades. Researchers reviewed evidence showing that microplastics can accumulate in reproductive tissues and may damage sperm quality through oxidative stress, hormonal disruption, and inflammatory responses. The study suggests that microplastics deserve serious attention as a possible contributing factor to rising male infertility rates.

2022 American Journal of Men s Health 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Disruptors on Male Reproduction – Emerging Risk Factors

This review of emerging risk factors for male infertility covers endocrine-disrupting chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, radiation, and pharmaceuticals, including a section on microplastics and the plastic-associated chemicals that have been linked to hormonal disruption and reduced sperm quality. While microplastics are one of several disruptors discussed rather than the sole focus, the paper is relevant because it places microplastic exposure within the broader context of the global decline in sperm counts and male reproductive health over recent decades.

2023 Bangladesh Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism
Review Tier 2

"Unseen Dangers: The Effects of Micro- and Nanoplastics on Human Reproductive Health - A Narrative Review"

This review examines the effects of micro- and nanoplastics on human reproductive health, covering evidence from in vitro, animal, and epidemiological studies showing that plastic particles can disrupt hormone signaling, sperm function, ovarian development, and placental integrity.

2025 Recent Advances in Inflammation & Allergy Drug Discovery
Article Tier 2

Male infertility and its link to microplastics: A sterile future

This review examines the link between microplastic exposure and male infertility, summarizing evidence that microplastics and their chemical additives disrupt reproductive hormones, sperm quality, and testicular function in animal models and human studies.

2024 Journal of Biomedical Sciences
Article Tier 2

Microplastics Exposure Is Harmful to Male Reproductive Health

This chapter reviewed evidence on how microplastic exposure may harm male reproductive health through multiple pathways including ingestion and inhalation. The study examined mechanisms by which microplastics may disrupt reproductive function, including hormonal interference, oxidative stress, and inflammation in reproductive tissues, suggesting that widespread environmental microplastic contamination warrants attention as a potential factor in male fertility concerns.

2025 IntechOpen eBooks 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and endocrine disruption: Emerging risks for human fertility

This short communication reviewed emerging evidence that microplastics and nanoplastics disrupt endocrine function and reproductive health, highlighting effects on hormonal regulation, gametogenesis, and fertility outcomes. The authors called for more epidemiological studies to establish links between human microplastic exposure and fertility decline.

2025 Journal of Biomedical Sciences
Article Tier 2

Climate change, microplastics, and male infertility

This brief commentary discusses how climate change and exposure to environmental pollutants, including microplastics and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, may be contributing to the documented decline in male fertility over recent decades. While the exact causes remain unknown, the authors highlight the need for more research into how these environmental factors affect reproductive health.

2024 Current Opinion in Urology 16 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

The effects of exposure to microplastics on female reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This meta-analysis pools data from multiple studies to assess how microplastic exposure affects female reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes. The findings suggest that microplastic accumulation may be linked to adverse effects on fertility and pregnancy, highlighting an important and underexplored area of concern for women's health.

2025 Reproductive Toxicology 7 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Exposure to microplastics and human reproductive outcomes: A systematic review

This systematic review examined evidence linking microplastic exposure to reproductive health problems in humans. While early findings raise concerns, the review emphasizes that more high-quality studies are needed to clearly establish how microplastics affect fertility and reproduction.

2024 BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Innovations in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery: Benefits and challenges

This review examines how environmental factors—including endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are commonly associated with plastic additives and microplastic particles—impair reproductive health in both males and females and reduce the success of assisted reproductive technologies. The findings highlight microplastics and their chemical cargo as a meaningful contributor to the global rise in infertility.

2023
Article Tier 2

Adverse effects of microplastics and nanoplastics on the reproductive system: A comprehensive review of fertility and potential harmful interactions

This review summarizes how microplastics and nanoplastics can harm both male and female reproductive systems by disrupting hormone signaling, damaging sperm and egg cells, and causing inflammation in reproductive tissues. Smaller nanoplastics are especially concerning because they can cross biological barriers more easily and reach the testes and ovaries. With global infertility rates rising, the authors highlight environmental plastic exposure as a factor that deserves more research attention.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 99 citations
Article Tier 2

Toxicological effects of micro/nano-plastics on human reproductive health: A review

This review summarizes research on how micro- and nanoplastics affect human reproductive health in both men and women. Evidence from animal and lab studies shows that these particles can accumulate in reproductive organs, disrupt hormones, damage eggs and sperm, and cause inflammation and oxidative stress. While human studies are still limited, the growing body of evidence suggests that microplastic exposure is a potential threat to fertility that warrants further investigation.

2025 Toxicology Letters 7 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Reproductive and developmental implications of micro- and nanoplastic internalization: Recent advances and perspectives

This systematic review documented the detection of micro- and nanoplastics in human semen, placenta, and ovarian follicular fluid, and found evidence linking exposure to impaired sperm quality, disrupted ovarian function, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. In animal models, MNPs caused developmental toxicity and transgenerational effects, with oxidative stress, inflammation, and epigenetic modification identified as key mechanisms.

2024 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 23 citations
Review Tier 2

Mitigation of Environmental Exposure, Pollutants, and Endocrine Disruptors to Reproductive Health: A Literature Review

This PRISMA-compliant literature review synthesized evidence on how environmental pollutants including PM2.5, heavy metals, microplastics, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals affect women's reproductive health. All pollutant categories were associated with hormonal imbalances, menstrual irregularities, infertility, and adverse pregnancy outcomes through mechanisms including oxidative stress and epigenetic modifications.

2025 Caring Indonesian Journal of Nursing Science
Article Tier 2

Adverse health effects of exposure to plastic, microplastics and their additives: environmental, legal and policy implications for Israel

This review examines the health effects of plastic and microplastic exposure, with a focus on Israel as a regional pollution hotspot. Plastics and their chemical additives can leach into food and beverages, act as hormone disruptors, and have been linked to fertility problems, metabolic disorders, and cancer -- prompting calls for stronger regulation and reduced plastic use.

2024 Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 29 citations
Article Tier 2

What is driving the global decline of human fertility? Need for a multidisciplinary approach to the underlying mechanisms

This paper examines the many factors driving the worldwide drop in human fertility rates, including delayed childbearing, obesity, and environmental toxicants such as nanoplastics and air pollution that harm reproductive health. The authors warn that these trends could have devastating public health consequences for our species if the underlying causes are not addressed.

2024 Frontiers in Reproductive Health 47 citations
Article Tier 2

The Microplastics and Human Health: Focus on the Reproductive System

This review examined evidence that microplastics accumulate in human reproductive tissues and evaluated their potential effects on fertility and reproductive health. The authors found microplastics detected in testes, ovaries, placenta, and semen, and summarized mechanistic evidence linking them to hormonal disruption, oxidative stress, and impaired gamete function.

2025 Quality in Sport
Systematic Review Tier 1

Impact of microplastics on female reproductive health: insights from animal and human experimental studies: a systematic review

This systematic review of 15 experimental studies found that microplastic exposure significantly impairs ovarian function, decreases fertility rates, and disrupts hormone levels in female subjects. Several studies also reported negative effects on embryo development and offspring health, though study quality varied and more rigorous research is needed to confirm mechanisms.

2025 Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Pollution, Endocrine Disruptors, and Metabolic Status: Impact on Female Fertility—A Narrative Review

This narrative review synthesizes evidence on how environmental pollutants—including fine particulate matter, BPA, phthalates, PFAS, and microplastics—impair female fertility by reducing ovarian reserve, implantation rates, and assisted reproductive technology success, particularly when combined with metabolic conditions.

2025 Reproductive Medicine