Could Cosmetics Be Harming Your Fertility?
I remember the first time I bought perfume from Victoria’s Secret. I really thought I was doing something. Official high schooler status.
Before then, during grade school, I was a die-hard Bath and Body’ Works girl and my fav scent was Sweet Pea. It smelled so delicious, and I would use keep it in my purse or book bag and take it with me everywhere.
My daughter will never use any smell-good or personal care products from either of these stores.
Hidden in those yummy scents are dangerous, toxic chemicals with DOCUMENTED connections to cancer, hormone changes, and reproductive damage.
Since 2009, 595 cosmetics manufacturers have reported using 88 chemicals, in more than 73,000 products, that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm.
Women use an average of 12 products each day exposing themselves to 168 chemicals. And that’s on a good day. Add in hair relaxers, hair dyes, skin removal products, feminine wash, feminine products, and full makeup days the total chemical exposure can reach 515. And most of is inhaled and absorbed through the skin.
The personal care and cosmetic industry in the US have little to no oversight by the FDA. In fact, under the current law, “personal care products companies do not have to register with the FDA, do premarket testing, provide the FDA with ingredient statements, adopt Good Manufacturing Practices, or GMPs, report adverse events to the FDA, or provide the FDA with access to safety records.” (Environmental Working Group)
And by the way, that law was created in 1938 and hasn’t been changed since.
So where does that leave us…
At the mercy of the honor system and for a business worth $169 billion.
And the really messed up part is that other countries have banned 1,400 chemicals linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and neurological harm, while the US has only banned 11.
“Patient exposure to toxic environmental chemicals and other stressors is ubiquitous, and preconception and prenatal exposure to toxic environmental agents can have a profound and lasting effect on reproductive health across the life course.”
Quick list of the toxic stuff…
Formaldehyde: causes cancer
Found in hair straighteners/relaxers
Mercury: damages the kidneys and nervous system
Phthalates: disrupts hormones and damages the reproductive system
commonly used to make fragrances or most personal care items
Parabens: disrupts hormones and damages the reproductive system
Often used as preservatives in makeup and other skin care items
PFAS: causes cancer
This is the group of chemicals known as Teflon and they are highly toxic as “forever chemicals” because they do not breakdown over time
Found in cookware, personal care items, stain-resistant and waterproof items
M-phenylenediamine/O-phenylenediamine: damages DNA and causes cancer
Found in hair dyes
And don’t think that you can just scan the package and check for the baddies. That would be too easy. Companies aren’t required to list every ingredient. Instead, they can list ‘fragrance” and aren’t required to disclose everything because they say it’s proprietary info.
Protect your fertility. Protect your hormones.
I wish I could just give you a list of the companies and the products to avoid. But that would be tedious and exhaustive.
Instead, I highly recommend you doing your own research on the brand you have welcomed into your home and finding out how they rate.
Thankfully, there’s an app for that. Well, two actually.
EWG or Environmental Working Group
Think Dirty
With both of these, you can search a product or scan the barcode and they will show you how it’s been scored and how clean or toxic it is.
Detoxify
I’m starting to sound like a broken record…
But, you must support your body and help it rid itself of these harmful toxins before they can build to harmful levels. It’s the dose that makes the poison. One whiff of someone’s perfume or needing to borrow your sister’s lotion because you forgot yours isn’t where the danger lies. It’s in the fact that we start using these toxic chemicals at a young age. Starting with Lip Smackers and fruit-scented markers (not a cosmetic but you get my point).
Steps:
1. Reduce the toxins you can
Eliminate and replace products that score poorly in the above-mentioned apps
2. Eat healthy, nutritious foods that support your body and the mechanisms of detoxification
3. Add supplements
B-complex vitamins
Glutathione
4. Add specific supportive and detoxifying herbs to do a deep cleaning so to speak
Dandelion Root
Milk Thistle
I’m not sharing this info to beat anyone up over their purchases. You don’t know what you don’t know. And most of us have faith in those that are meant to protect us until realize that they can’t or won’t.
And I’m not saying throw out your whole makeup bag…technically.
What I am saying is that for women who have known period irregularities, difficulty getting or staying pregnant, and general hormonal and reproductive dysfunctions (fibroids, endo…) getting your nails done every 2 weeks and wearing toxic makeup every day may be a hidden source of harm.
Find clean, non-toxic products to still be able to wake up and slay every day!
In health,
Ericka XO
Reference:
ACOG Committee Opinion No 575 (2013). Exposure to toxic environmental agents. Fertility and sterility, 100(4), 931–934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2013.08.043Environmental Working Group. (2019, April 9). What are parabens and why they don’t belong in cosmetics? https://www.ewg.org/what-are-parabens
Environmental Working Group. (2020, May 5). The toxic twelve chemicals and contaminants in cosmetics. Retrieved from https://www.ewg.org/areas-focus/toxic-chemicals/pfas-chemicals
Environmental Working Group. (n.d.). PFAS chemicals. Retrieved from https://www.ewg.org/the-toxic-twelve-chemicals-and-contaminants-in-cosmetics
Hoffmann, D. (1998). The herbal handbook; A user’s guide to medical herbalism. Rochester, VA: The Healing Arts Press.
Huffpost. (2017, March 7). The average woman puts 515 synthetic chemicals on her body every day without knowing it: And 60 percent of what we put onto our skin is absorbed into our bodies. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/synthetic-chemicals-skincare_n_56d8ad09e4b0000de403d995
