Introduction

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are fluorinated organic compounds that have been used in a variety of industrial and consumer applications. Menstruation is implicated as a possible route of elimination for PFASs in women. The overall purpose of this study was to examine menstrual cycle characteristics as determinants of plasma PFAS concentrations in women.

Methods

Our study sample consisted of 1977 pregnant women from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort (MoBa) study. The women were asked about menstrual cycle regularity in the year before the pregnancy and typical menstrual cycle length as well as other demographic and reproductive characteristics in a questionnaire completed during the pregnancy. Blood samples were collected around 17–18 weeks gestation and PFAS concentrations were measured in plasma. We examined the association between menstrual cycle characteristics and seven PFASs (perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), perfluoroheptane sulfonate (PFHpS), and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)) using multiple linear regression, adjusted for age, pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking, education, income, parity, oral contraceptive use, inter-pregnancy interval, and breastfeeding duration.

Results

Irregular cycles were not associated with PFAS concentrations. Overall, we found no evidence of associations between menstrual cycle length and PFAS concentrations. In subgroup analyses we found some evidence, among parous women, of decreased PFHpS and PFOS with short menstrual cycles; we also found, among recent OC users (in the 12 months before the questionnaire) increased PFNA and PFUnDA with long cycle length. Limitations of our study include misclassification of menstrual cycle characteristics, small sample sizes in the sub-group analyses, and a lack of information on duration and volume of menses.

Conclusions

In the entire study sample, we found little evidence of menstrual cycle characteristics as determinants of PFAS concentrations. However, we observed some associations between cycle length and PFAS concentrations with some select PFAS compounds in subgroup analyses.

中文翻译：

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月经周期特征是挪威母亲和儿童队列中全氟烷基物质（PFAS）血浆浓度的决定因素（MoBa研究）。

介绍

全氟烷基物质（PFAS）是一种氟化有机化合物，已用于多种工业和消费应用中。月经被认为是消除女性PFAS的可能途径。这项研究的总体目的是检查月经周期特征，作为女性血浆PFAS浓度的决定因素。

方法

我们的研究样本包括来自挪威母婴队列（MoBa）研究的1977名孕妇。在怀孕期间填写的调查表中，询问了妇女在怀孕前一年的月经周期规律，典型的月经周期长度以及其他人口统计和生殖特征。在妊娠17-18周左右收集血样，并测量血浆中的PFAS浓度。我们检查了月经周期特征与七个PFAS（全氟辛酸（PFOA），全氟壬酸（PFNA），全氟癸酸（PFDA），全氟十一烷酸（PFUnDA），全氟己烷磺酸盐（PFHxS），全氟庚烷磺酸盐（PFHpS）和全氟辛烷）之间的关联磺酸盐（PFOS）），使用多元线性回归，并根据年龄，孕前体重指数进行了调整，

结果

不规则周期与PFAS浓度无关。总体而言，我们没有发现月经周期长度与PFAS浓度之间存在关联的证据。在亚组分析中，我们发现一些证据表明，在同龄妇女中，月经周期短的PFHpS和PFOS降低。我们还发现，在最近的OC用户中（在调查表发布前的12个月内），PFNA和PFUnDA的使用周期较长。我们研究的局限性包括月经周期特征分类错误，亚组分析中的样本量小以及缺乏有关月经持续时间和量的信息。

结论

在整个研究样本中，我们发现很少有证据表明月经周期特征是决定PFAS浓度的因素。但是，在亚组分析中，我们观察到了循环长度和PFAS浓度之间的某些关联以及某些选定的PFAS化合物。