Microplastics also found in human reproductive fluids

After the brain, liver and kidneys, where they were also found in high concentrations, microplastics are also appearing in human reproductive fluids: a group of researchers led by Next Fertility Murcia , a Spanish clinic for fertility and assisted reproduction, analyzed samples from 29 women and 22 men, finding fragments of different types of plastics in 69% of the female samples and in 55% of the male samples. The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction and presented at the 41st annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) held in Paris, raises important doubts about the potential risks to fertility and health.

"Previous studies have already shown that microplastics can be present in various human organs," comments Emilio Gomez-Sanchez, who led the researchers. "Therefore, we were not entirely surprised to find them in human reproductive fluids, but we were struck by how common they were. What we know from animal studies - continues Gomez-Sanchez - is that in the tissues where they accumulate, microplastics can induce inflammation, free radical formation, DNA damage, cellular senescence and endocrine disruption: it is possible that they could compromise the quality of eggs or sperm in humans, but we do not yet have enough evidence to confirm this."

The samples of follicular fluid, crucial for the maturation of the egg and for its quality, and of seminal fluid, which contains the spermatozoa, have highlighted the presence of a wide range of different plastics: the most abundant is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), better known as Teflon, which coats non-stick pans, but there is also the classic PET which plastic bottles are made of, polystyrene, nylon, polypropylene very common in packaging and fabrics, and polyurethane.