ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2003
The relationship between human semen parameters and environmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and p,p'-DDE.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 195 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of associations of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposure with declining semen quality in support of the derivation of reference doses for mixture risk assessments.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2022Pooled it
- The environmental and occupational influence of pesticides on male fertility: A systematic review of human studies.Andrology · 2022Pooled it
- The classic EDCs, phthalate esters and organochlorines, in relation to abnormal sperm quality: a systematic review with meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2016Pooled it
- Establishing the Mechanisms Involved in the Environmental Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in the Risk of Male Infertility.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2025Review
- Exposure to persistent organic pollutants in newborn dried blood spots and childhood acute myeloid leukemia.Environmental research · 2024Article
- Association of peripubertal blood lead levels with reproductive hormones and semen parameters in a longitudinal cohort of Russian men.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- The Impact of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in Male Fertility: Focus on the Action of Obesogens.Journal of xenobiotics · 2021Review
- Reproductive Health Risks Associated with Occupational and Environmental Exposure to Pesticides.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals and Reproductive Health in Boys and Men.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Review
- Peripubertal serum concentrations of organochlorine pesticides and semen parameters in Russian young men.Environment international · 2020Article
- Exposure to polychlorinated compounds and cryptorchidism; A nested case-control study.PloS one · 2020Article
- Pesticide interactions and risks of sperm chromosomal abnormalities.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2019Article
- Exposome-wide association study of semen quality: Systematic discovery of endocrine disrupting chemical biomarkers in fertility require large sample sizes.Environment international · 2019Article
- Reproductive Function in a Population of Young Faroese Men with Elevated Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Perfluorinated Alkylate Substances (PFAS).International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
- Hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyl metabolites (OH-PCBs), maternal smoking and size at birth.Reproductive toxicology (Elmsford, N.Y.) · 2017Article
- Integrated wetlands for food production.Environmental research · 2016Review
- EDC-2: The Endocrine Society's Second Scientific Statement on Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals.Endocrine reviews · 2015Review
- Dialkyl phosphate urinary metabolites and chromosomal abnormalities in human sperm.Environmental research · 2015Article
- Hepatotoxicity, Nephrotoxicity and Oxidative Stress in Rat Testis Following Exposure to Haloxyfop-Toxics · 2015Article
- Persistent organic pollutants and semen quality: The LIFE Study.Chemosphere · 2015Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Scientific and public concern exists about potential reproductive health effects of persistent chlorinated organic chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE, the most stable daughter compound of DDT). To explore the hypothesis that environmental exposures to PCBs and DDE are associated with altered semen parameters, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 212 male partners of subfertile couples who presented to the Massachusetts General Hospital Andrology Laboratory. Semen parameters were analyzed as both a continuous measure and dichotomized based on World Health Organization reference values for sperm concentration (< 20 million/mL), motility (< 50% motile), and Kruger strict criteria for morphology (< 4% normal). The comparison group for the dichotomized analysis was men with all three semen parameters above the reference values. In serum, 57 PCB congeners and p,p -DDE were measured by congener-specific analysis using gas chromatography with electron capture detection. There were dose-response relationships among PCB-138 and sperm motility (odds ratio per tertile, adjusted for age, abstinence, and smoking, and p-value for trend were, respectively, 1.00, 1.68, 2.35, and p-value = 0.03) and morphology (1.00, 1.36, 2.53, p-value = 0.04). There was limited evidence of an inverse relationship between sum of PCBs, as well as those PCBs classified as cytochrome P450 enzyme inducers, with sperm motility and sperm morphology, as well as limited evidence of an inverse association between p,p -DDE and sperm motility. The lack of a consistent relationship among semen parameters and other individual PCB congeners and groupings of congeners may indicate a difference in spermatotoxicity between congeners.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.