[Significance of occupational factors for women's fertility and menstrual cycles]

Abstract

Reduced fertility is frequent, reflected by the fact that 15% of all couples desiring pregnancy try for more than one year without achieving it. Women at work are often exposed to chemical or physical agents, some of which are carcinogenic or teratogenic. Fertility seems to be affected by exposure to lead, mercury, solvents, textile dyes, noise and some pesticides. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current knowledge of the relations between fertility, menstrual irregularity and occupational exposures. There are still some methodological problems to be solved in relation to fertility. Waiting time to pregnancy seems to be an appropriate measure of fertility. The full distribution of time to pregnancy over months or menstrual cycles should be used in the analysis.