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If you’re pregnant or thinking of having a baby, you might want to take a look at some new research on the effects of plant estrogens, such as that found in soy, on a developing fetus.

According to Medical News Today1, a paper published in Biology of Reproduction2 suggests that exposure to estrogenic chemicals in the womb or during childhood has the potential to negatively affect a woman’s fertility as an adult.

This coincides with earlier research on neonatal effects of exposure to plant or environmental estrogens.  In studies with mice, researchers found that causes of infertility included:

 *Failure to ovulate 
 *Reduced ability of the oviduct to support embryo development before ovulation, and 
 *Failure of the uterus to support effective implantation of blastocyst-stage embryos

According to Medical News Today:

 
“The team now reports that neonatal exposure to genistein changes the level of immune response in the mouse oviduct, known as mucosal immune response. Some of the immune response genes were altered beginning from the time of genistein treatment, while others were altered much later, when the mouse was in early pregnancy.

 Together, those changes led to harmfully altered immune responses and to compromised oviduct support for preimplantation embryo development, both of which would likely contribute to infertility.”