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Clinical Nutrition (Poster Session)

(P03-027-24) Associations of Pesticide Residue Exposure From Fruit and Vegetable Intake With Ovarian Reserve

Sunday, June 30, 2024
12:45 PM – 1:45 PM CT
Location: Poster Board 182

    Presenting Author(s)

  • MK

    Maryam Kazemi, PhD

    Postdoc
    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • YC

    Yu-Han Chiu

    Penn State College of Medicine, United States

  • MM

    Makiko Mitsunami, MD

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • LM

    Lidia Minguez Alarcon, PhD

    Research Scientist
    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • RH

    Russ Hauser, MD, ScD

    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

  • IS

    Irene Souter

    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States

  • Jorge E. Chavarro, MD, PhD

    Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Disclosure(s):
Maryam Kazemi, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: We have previously reported that intake of fruits and vegetables (FV) with high pesticide contamination in the US food supply is related to lower sperm counts. Whether the same is true for ovarian reserve is unknown. Our aim was to test the hypothesis that the intake of high pesticide residues FVs is associated with lower ovarian reserve.

Methods: Women (n=633, 21-45yrs.) seeking infertility treatment were recruited from the Environment and Reproductive Health Study at an academic fertility center in MA, USA. We combined surveillance data from the US Department of Agriculture and self-reported food intake data to characterize exposure to pesticide residues through FV intake. Poisson and linear regressions were used to evaluate associations of high-pesticide residue, low-pesticide residue, and total FV intake with markers of ovarian reserve (antral follicle count [AFC] by transvaginal ultrasonography, serum follicle-stimulating hormone [FSH], anti-Müllerian hormone [AMH] on cycle day 3) adjusting for potential confounders.

Results: There was no association of FV intake, overall or according to low or high pesticide residue status, with day 3 FSH or AMH in multivariable-adjusted models. FV intake, regardless of pesticide residue status, was inversely related to AFC. This pattern was magnified among women who had a fertility evaluation before joining the study. Among women who had not had a fertility evaluation before joining the study, however, there were diverging patterns of association for high- and low-pesticide residue FV intake and markers of ovarian reserve. In this group, day 3 FSH were 71.6% (95% CI: 39.5%, 111.2%) higher among women in the highest quintile of high pesticide residue FV intake than among women in the lowest quintile (p-trend < 0.001). Low pesticide residue and total FV intake were unrelated to day 3 FSH in women who had not had a fertility evaluation, with differences between top and bottom quintile of intake of -8.3% (-25.8%, 13.3%) and 7.5% (-13.8%, 34.0%), respectively.

Conclusions: High pesticide residue FV intake may be related to lower ovarian reserve, as captured by day 3 FSH, among women undergoing infertility treatment. Replication in studies with populations less susceptible to reverse causation is important.

Funding Sources: NIH (R01ES022955, R01ES033651, R01ES034700, R01ES009718, P30ES000002, P30DK046200, T32ES007069)