Associations between paternal urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations and reproductive outcomes among couples seeking fertility treatment

Introduction: Limited evidence suggests that male exposure to ubiquitous environmental phthalates may result in poor reproductive outcomes among female partners. Methods: This analysis included male female couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and/or intrauterine insemination (IUI). We evaluated associations between the geometric mean of paternal specific gravity-adjusted urinary phthalate concentrations prior to the female partners' cycle and fertilization, embryo quality, implantation, and live birth using generalized linear mixed models. Results: Two-hundred eighteen couples underwent 211 IVF and 195 lUI cycles. Trends were observed between paternal urinary mono-3-carboxypropyl phthalate (MCPP; P=0.01) and mono(carboxyoctyl) phthalate (MCOP; P = 0.01) and decreased odds of implantation. MCPP and MCOP were also associated with decreased odds of live birth following IVF (P = 0.01 and P = 0.04, respectively), and monobutyl phthalate above the first quartile was significantly associated with decreased odds of live birth following IUI (P= 0.04). However, most urinary phthalate metabolites were not associated with these reproductive outcomes. Conclusion: Selected phthalates were associated with decreased odds of implantation and live birth. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.