Endocrine disrupting compounds and human fertility: Weight of evidence and current investigation techniques.

Running head : Endocrine disrupting compounds and human fertility

Endocrine disrupting compounds and human fertility : Weight of evidence and current investigation techniques

In the past 100 years , humans have introduced several hundreds of new compounds into the environment , which actually have affected the physiology of both plants and animals including humans (Propper , 2005 In most cases these deleterious effects are unintended and it was not predicted before that these compounds could have such effects on organisms . Therefore the actual mechanisms by which these compounds affect physiological functions of other organisms are not

yet properly researched . When such compounds affect the endocrine systems they are called endocrine disrupting compounds . These compounds would affect different hormonal pathways and physiological functions such as reproduction , development , metabolism and even the behavior of humans and other animals . The present essay is intended to identify some of the endocrine disrupting compounds that affect human fertility , the mechanism of affecting , to analyze the weight of different evidences available and to analyze the current investigation techniques

Endocrine disrupting compounds have been defined as "an exogenous agent that interferes with the synthesis , secretion , transport , binding action , or elimination of natural hormones in the body which are responsible for the maintenance of homeostasis , reproduction development and /or behavior (Kavloc et al , 1996 . The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA ) has accepted this definition as the most appropriate one in the year 2004 . These compounds are capable of interfering with normal signaling mechanisms of the endocrine system Either they could block or...