ArticleF&S science2026
Follicular fluid per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, metabolomics, and live birth after in vitro fertilization: a pilot study.
Article in F&S science, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the association between per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in follicular fluid (FF) and live birth after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and characterize the FF metabolome in relation to both.
designRetrospective cohort. SUBJECTS: Thirty-six women who underwent IVF treatment at 1 of the 3 centers in Eastern Massachusetts between 1999 and 2003. EXPOSURE: Twenty-four PFAS were measured in FF retrieved from the first follicle aspirated during the first treatment cycle. The 8 PFAS detected in >90% of samples were evaluated.
main outcome measuresWe analyzed the FF metabolome using untargeted liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry. We used linear regression to estimate associations between FF PFAS and metabolic feature intensities, and logistic regression to estimate associations of FF PFAS and metabolites with live birth, adjusting for age and infertility type. We subsequently conducted pathway enrichment analyses and used a meet-in-the-middle approach to screen for overlapping metabolic pathways associated with FF PFAS and live birth.
resultsHigher FF perfluoroheptanesulfonic acid (PFHpS) was associated with lower odds of live birth (odds ratio = 0.42 [95% confidence interval: 0.15-0.97]). All other FF PFAS, except perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS), were also inversely associated with live birth, although confidence intervals included the null value. We evaluated 27,903 features detected in >25% of participant samples. For PFAS-feature associations, the top 5% of features for each PFAS were enriched for bile acid biosynthesis. Thirty-eight FF metabolic pathways enriched for features associated with live birth (yes/no) overlapped with pathways enriched for features associated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), PFHpS, or perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS). These included pathways related to lipid (n = 11), carbohydrate (n = 9), and vitamin and cofactor metabolism (n = 6), among others.
conclusionHigher FF PFAS concentrations were associated with lower odds of achieving live birth, although most 95% confidence intervals included the null. Metabolic pathways enriched for features associated with live birth overlapping with those associated with FF PFAS were related to lipid, carbohydrate, vitamin, and cofactor metabolism. Although our sample size was small, our findings align with other studies characterizing environmental exposures in reproductive organs and using the metabolome to assess their impact on fertility.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.