Plastics and Fertility: The Impact of Microplastics on Male and Female Reproductive Health

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January 12, 2026

On January 12, 2026

Plastics have been getting a lot of bad press lately. Is it warranted? Are people overreacting? Let’s dive in and see the impact plastics have on our health, emphasizing male and female fertility.

You may have heard of the term microplastics. This is plastic debris that has degraded into small fragments, ranging from microparticles to nanoparticles. Microplastics are found in the ocean, our water supply, air, the dust that settles on crops, fertilizer from treated sewage, the fat and organs of animals, fruits and vegetables, packaged foods, cans, paper cups lined with plastic, household items and toiletries, synthetic fabrics as microfiber, and our bodies (accumulating in fat, kidneys, brain, liver, and plaque in arteries), dental material, and even in human placentas and umbilical cords. In the ocean, microplastics can be mistaken for prey, ingested, and eventually embedded into the tissues of animals. One of the ways they end up in our water is through clothes. Microfibers break off from clothing made from plastic (such as nylon, rayon, acrylic, spandex, and polyester) with every wash, ending up in the sewer system. Wastewater treatment plants aren’t designed to remove microplastics during the treatment process, which is how they end up in tap water. Additionally, tire dust particles are considered microplastic pollution, which impacts air quality and adds even more microplastic exposure to our daily lives.

A study commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature and carried out by the University of Newcastle, Australia, suggests that globally, on average, humans may be consuming 0.1–5 g of microplastics weekly (Kala Senathirajah et al., 2020). For reference, 5 g is approximately 1 credit card. That could potentially be one credit card a week! Shocking!

Without diving too deep into the weeds, let’s focus on the two most common plastic substances: phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA):

Phthalates are mainly used as plasticizers, substances that increase flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity, primarily in polyvinyl chloride. Phthalates essentially make plastics stronger.
BPA is a chemical compound used to harden plastic to make household items like baby bottles and food containers.

These molecules (phthalates and BPA) don’t form stable and irreversible bonds to the material they’re embedded in, so they can leak from the plastic and migrate into food and water. Adding heat further accelerates this process. We are mainly exposed to BPA and phthalates through consuming contaminated food, water, and air. More research needs to be done, but the effects of tire emissions are being studied. These compounds can migrate into organs and are then excreted in the urine (Canipari et al., 2020).

How do BPA and phthalates affect our health? The big concern with these substances is that they can mimic hormones and are what we call endocrine disruptors, which can cause various responses. They are potent endocrine disruptors and can bind to estrogen receptors (causing a potent estrogen effect), prevent our own estrogen from binding, and bind to androgen receptors, blocking our own androgen activity (Presunto et al., 2023). In very simple terms, they affect normal sex hormone function – increasing or decreasing estrogen and decreasing testosterone. In the male reproductive system, BPA is considered a “testicular toxicant” and is associated with increasing oxidative stress, impacting testosterone levels, which in effect negatively affects sperm development (Presunto et al., 2023). Phthalate levels have been found to be higher in infertile men. Phthalates affect testicle cells and have been shown to decrease sperm motility and concentration, increase abnormal sperm morphology, and reduce testosterone production and bioavailability. They can also cause changes in male external genitals and decrease the weight of the organ. A mother’s exposure to plastics has been correlated with testicular malformations in newborns due to the decrease in testosterone synthesis (Federica Arrigo et al., 2023). In the female reproductive system, exposure to phthalates is correlated with premature puberty, as phthalates are typically stored in adipose tissue, which tends to increase and is redistributed during puberty (Federica Arrigo et al., 2023). Phthalates can interfere with ovarian development and contribute to infertility. Higher levels of phthalates in urine have been associated with a significantly higher risk of implantation failure in IVF. High BPA levels have been linked to endometriosis and PCOS (Canipari et al., 2020). Phthalates may also cause pregnancy complications such as anemia, toxemia, and pre-eclampsia (Federica Arrigo et al., 2023). Apart from fertility effects, BPA can also impact the nervous system, pancreas function (influencing insulin and obesity), immune system, and development of certain types of cancer (Presunto et al., 2023).

The European Union has established a tolerable intake of 0.04 nanograms per kilogram of body weight per day. In 2014, the American FDA estimated that the average US resident consumes 200 ng/kg bw/day. That is 5,000 times the safety limit set by the European Union (EWG, 2022). This is significant considering BPA has been used since the 1950s and we are still learning what the long-term effects are. You may see BPA-free products being advertised, but those are also recommended to be avoided because bisphenol analogues used to replace BPA seem to have similar harmful effects, and some of them are even more toxic (Presunto et al., 2023). There are many plastic substances that are important to cover (especially their impact on our health), but this is a brief highlight.

It is impossible to avoid plastics. You can’t avoid them, especially when we eat out and travel. I recommend, to the best of your ability, lowering your exposure in your daily life and supporting your body’s intrinsic detoxification processes to lower the toxin burden that we are under at unprecedented levels. Daily coffee and tea runs from your local coffee shop in to-go plastic-lined paper cups with plastic lids may not be the best idea; however, it’s not something to stress about if done as a treat. Re-evaluate daily cumulative exposure and make switches but don’t obsess to the point that it impacts your mental well-being. This is the balance that we need to live by because, in all things, we need balance.

Here is a very brief list of lifestyle changes that can decrease plastic exposure:

Throw away your plastic cutting boards and replace them with wood, glass, stainless steel, or titanium. The cut marks that you see on the cutting board are microplastics that have gone into your food. A recent study looked at plastic cutting boards and found that cutting carrots can generate as much as 15 milligrams of microplastics per cut, or about 50 grams per year – roughly equivalent to the weight of ten plastic credit cards (Yadav, Himani, et al., 2023).
Ditch plastic water bottles and switch to glass or stainless steel water bottles. Plastic water bottles contain significantly more microplastics than tap water, which also contains microplastics.
Limit take-out and plastic-lined or plastic containers full of hot food (these are especially concerning).
Filter your water, and make sure that the filters you use have a pore size small enough to filter out microplastics.
Don’t microwave in plastic. Adding heat to plastics will increase microplastic release.
Avoid plastics to the best of your ability, and don’t fall for greenwashing of products that advertise BPA-Free.
Avoid cosmetics and body care products that contain phthalates.

If you are concerned and want to know what your exposure levels are, we have access to functional lab tests that can test urine for environmental toxin metabolites. There are also advanced blood tests that test for antibody response to plastics, which is a more serious involvement of the immune system and is implicated in certain disease pathologies. Book a free meet and greet with me to see how I can support you in your health journey.

Plastic exposure is all around us – we cannot control that. However, with mindful lifestyle changes, we can limit the impact that microplastics have on our day-to-day lives. In my own practice, I’ve seen patients who have made lifestyle changes to lower toxin exposure prior to even doing targeted nutrient therapy see noticeable improvements in their menstrual cycles, estrogen and testosterone levels on labs, and overall well-being. This is encouraging! Our bodies are designed to heal. A quote that I love from the late Naturopathic Doctor Jim Sensenig is, “Give the body what it needs, take out the garbage, increase the vital force, and get out of the way!

Author: Dr. Yelena Okhotin ND, LAc

References:

Canipari, Rita, et al. “Female Fertility and Environmental Pollution.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 26 Nov. 2020, www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8802.
Federica Arrigo a, et al. “Phthalates and Their Effects on Human Health: Focus on Erythrocytes and the Reproductive System.” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C: Toxicology & Pharmacology, Elsevier, 5 May 2023, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S153204562300100X#:~:text=Among%20the%20targets%20of%20phthalates,and%20concentration%20has%20been%20observed.
Kala Senathirajah a, et al. “Estimation of the Mass of Microplastics Ingested – a Pivotal First Step towards Human Health Risk Assessment.” Journal of Hazardous Materials, Elsevier, 6 Oct. 2020, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389420319944.
Presunto, Mafalda, et al. “The Effects of Bisphenol A on Human Male Infertility: A Review of Current Epidemiological Studies.” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 4, Aug. 2023, www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/15/12417.
Yadav, Himani, et al. “Cutting boards: An overlooked source of microplastics in human food?” Environmental Science &amp; Technology, vol. 57, no. 22, 23 May 2023, pp. 8225–8235, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c00924.