Phthalates and sex steroid hormones across the perimenopausal period: A longitudinal analysis of the Midlife Women's Health Study

Background: The menopausal transition involves significant sex hormone changes. Environmental chemicals, such as urinary phthalate metabolites, are associated with sex hormone levels in cross-sectional studies. Few studies have assessed longitudinal associations between urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations and sex hormone levels during menopausal transition. Methods: Pre- and perimenopausal women from the Midlife Women's Health Study (MWHS) (n = 751) contributed data at up to 4 annual study visits. We quantified 9 individual urinary phthalate metabolites and 5 summary measures (e.g., phthalates in plastics (EPlastic)), using pooled annual urine samples. We measured serum estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone collected at each study visit, unrelated to menstrual cycling. Linear mixed-effects models and hierarchical Bayesian kernel machine regression analyses evaluated adjusted associations between individual and phthalate mixtures with sex steroid hormones longitudinally. Results: We observed associations between increased concentrations of certain phthalate metabolites and lower testosterone and higher sub-ovulatory progesterone levels, e.g., doubling of monoethyl phthalate (MEP), monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP), di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (EDEHP) metabolites, EPlastic, and EPhthalates concentrations were associated with lower testosterone (e.g., for EDEHP: -4.51%; 95% CI: -6.72%, -2.26%). For each doubling of MEP, certain DEHP metabolites, and summary measures, we observed higher mean subovulatory progesterone (e.g., EAA (metabolites with anti-androgenic activity): 6.88%; 95% CI: 1.94%, 12.1%). Higher levels of the overall time-varying phthalate mixture were associated with lower estradiol and higher progesterone levels, especially for 2nd year exposures. Conclusions: Phthalates were longitudinally associated with sex hormone levels during the menopausal transition. Future research should assess such associations and potential health impacts during this understudied period.