The study will
be published online February 7, 2017 in Occupational and Environmental
Medicine. “Our study suggests that women who are
planning pregnancy should be cognizant of the potential negative impacts that
non-day shift and heavy lifting could have on their reproductive health,” said
Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón, research
fellow in the Department of Environmental Health and lead author of the study.
While previous
studies have suggested a link between work schedule, physical factors on the
job, and fecundity—the biologic capacity for reproduction—those studies didn’t
directly measure biomarkers of fecundity such as levels of reproductive
hormones or ovarian function, and therefore could only speculate on the
possible mechanisms underlying the associations. The new study is the first to
report associations between these biomarkers and occupational factors.
The researchers
studied nearly 500 women seeking infertility treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) from 2004–2015, which allowed
them to directly measure many biomarkers of fecundity that can’t be measured in
women attempting to conceive naturally.
The researchers
looked at several biomarkers of fecundity—including the number of antral
follicles (small structures in the ovary that indicate the number of immature
eggs remaining in the ovary); levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH);
estrogen levels; and the number of mature eggs that are capable of developing
into healthy embryos—and analyzed the association between these biomarkers and
the physical demands and schedules of the women’s jobs, which the women
reported on a questionnaire.
Moving or
lifting heavy objects at work was inversely associated with both the number of
antral follicles and the number of eggs among the women, the study found. Women
who reported moving or lifting heavy loads at work had 8.8% fewer total eggs
and 14.1% fewer mature eggs compared with women who reported never lifting or
moving heavy objects at work. The inverse association between heavy lifting and
mature egg yield was stronger among women who were overweight or obese and
those aged 37 or older.
Non-daytime
schedules—including working at night or working rotating shifts—were also inversely
related to egg yields. The researchers didn’t find any association between
occupational factors and either estrogen or FSH levels. The mechanism by which
moving or lifting heavy loads could affect egg quality is still unknown, the
researchers said. As for how working non-day shifts may affect egg yields, the
researchers speculated that it may have to do with circadian rhythm disruption.
“Our
study is the first to show that occupational heavy lifting and non-day shifts
may be adversely affecting egg production and quality, rather than accelerating
ovarian aging. Future work, however, is needed to determine whether egg
production and quality can be improved, and if so, how quickly, if these work
exposures are avoided,” said Audrey Gaskins, research
associate in the Department of Nutrition.
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