14 DAY TRIAL // Women exposed to high doses of bisphenol A (BPA, for short) are more likely to miscarry, Stanford University researchers speaking at this year's meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the International Federation of Fertility Societies have argued.
The claim is based on data collected while looking into the health records of 114 women, all of whom were about 4 – 5 weeks pregnant at the beginning of this investigation.
Live Science tells us that, in order to determine how BPA influences miscarriage risk, the researchers collected blood samples from these women both at the beginning of their pregnancy and after delivery.
Based on how much BPA each of them carried in their bodies, the women were then split into four groups, the same source details.
It was thus discovered that, when compared to women with fairly low levels of blood BPA, those whose bodies contained the highest amounts of said compound were about 80% more likely to suffer a miscarriage during their first trimester.
For the time being, researchers are unable to say how and why BPA exposure ups miscarriage risk.
Given the fact that this compound has a structure similar to that of estrogen, they suspect that it toys with the body's hormonal balance, and that this is what causes women to miscarry.
On the other hand, the scientists who worked on this study wish to stress that that their findings are not bulletproof, and that it is also possible that the women who miscarried did so due to other health issues.
“I don't want to alarm prospective parents. Lots of women with detectable [BPA] levels have healthy babies,” Dr. Ruth Lathi with the Stanford University Medical Center reportedly said.
Specialists explain that BPA is commonly found in many plastics and the lining of canned foods. Therefore, it is virtually impossible for a person to completely avoid exposure to it. The good news is that, unlike other compounds, BPA does not take long to clear from the body.