[joyguide]

I read somewhere recently that what you are doing during the 3 months before you ovulate can affect the health of that egg as it takes about 3 months to "ripen". Is this correct? I only wonder because in both my 2 most recent losses, my work environment was pretty toxic - asbestos spill, significant chemical fumes from a roofing project...and being on a campus where there had been a benzene spill several years earlier and there are still meters in the ground testing the toxicity. And that's just the beginning of the cr*ppy environment. Yuck. But anyway - I had been working there (unaware of most of the chemicals besides just air quality) when I was pregnant in September of 09 which I lost very early on...and then got pregnant in October of 2010 whihc I lost in December. I quit the place in September 2010 so actually being around the fumes and such wouldn't have impacted this second pregnancy, but I'm wondering if breathing all that cr*p in the months leading up to my pregnancy could have affected the quality of the egg.

I know I'll never know the reasons for the losses, but am curious if my environment may have had something to do with them.

[shen7]

Friendly lurker/TTCAL grad here... but I had to reply because I work in environmental risk assessment, and yes, a lot of toxins can affect reproduction. The 2 major types of toxicity that tend to be studied (besides acute poisoning reactions) are carcinogenicity (causes cancer) or teratogenicity (causes birth defects). They don't generally do studies to test effects on egg quality or fertility rates, and such studies would be especially tricky to interpret because it would be even harder to extrapolate from lab mice or other animals to humans. But some chemicals do have known health effects just from unfortunate accidental "experiments" (like women who have workplace exposures to X chemical had Y increase in miscarriage rates).

That's pretty general, but for the pollutants you mentioned: asbestos is a carcinogen, causes lung cancer and mesothelioma when in its airborne, breathable form. Roofing project fumes I assume would be mainly coal tar residues, which are also carcinogens, mainly for lung cancer. Those maybe aren't clear culprits. HOWEVER, benzene (which has LOTS of avenues of toxicity) IS associated with reproductive system effects and could quite conceivably have affected your fertility. It could also do so secondarily, via causing anemia.

CDC | Facts About Benzene

I'm glad you aren't working there anymore!!! And even after you've removed yourself from the exposures, it could still take some time for your body to process all the metabolites. Exercise, drinking lots of water, eating well and sleeping well will be the best way to support your body's natural removal mechanisms. And I would make sure you aren't anemic too, if you don't know that - if you are, you need to supplement your iron, B12, and folic acid.

Good luck and hope this helps - sorry it's so long!!!

[joyguide]

Thank you so much! I wondered about the benzene when I learned about it...the groundwater is contanimated and I know the topsoil is as well, and I worked in the basement of one of the buildings that used to house munitions back in the 40s for 2 of the 3 years I was there. I NEVER drank the water (it was oiften brown coming out of the faucets, which they said was still safe to drink) but obviously had to wash my hands in it. Yuck.

I did a dietary cleanse in the fall right before I quit and am about to start a heavy metal cleanse, both under the guidance of a naturopathic doctor - so hopefully I'll have a good chance to conceive moving forward.

Thank you again for your advice. Due to the fact that it is a government facility, its super hard to find any "evidence" of anything, as I discovered that a lot of the air quality and water quality reports are often "missing". Odd, eh? :-)

[Celena]

Yes it can effect your fertility, if you're exposed to highly toxic anything like say I had methotrexate injections which is chemotherapy that can damage future eggs... you're right it takes many months for the beginnings of an egg to ripen because they ripen only millimeters over days so it's an ongoing process over the years.

I watched a thing all about it one time... I hope that now that you're out of the toxic work environment that you conceive and keep your rainbow~