The incidence rate of reproductive disorders has increased in both sexes for decades. This is a global issue affecting societies and individuals. Exposure to environmental chemicals is recognized as being a contributing factor in the growing disease burden, with endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) believed to play a significant role.

It is well-established that EDCs can perturb sexual development by interfering with e.g., androgen, estrogen, or steroidogenesis modes of action. However, there are many unanswered questions as to how, both qualitatively and quantitatively, these modalities give rise to different diseases. Furthermore, our understanding of how EDCs can disrupt development by other mechanisms and disrupt other signaling pathways is very limited. Such knowledge is imperative for us to be able to safeguard human health in a future relying less on animal testing and more on alternative test methods for hazard identification and risk assessment.

The goal of this Research Topic is to promote emerging knowledge about how endocrine disrupting chemicals can perturb reproductive development and cause disease. Although extensive research has been conducted in this field over the past three decades, we still lack understanding about many fundamental mechanisms of effects in complex organisms, including humans. With regulatory toxicology moving towards greater reliance on non-animal testing of potentially harmful chemicals, it is imperative that our mechanistic understanding is clear to better inform on robust alternative test strategies capable of detecting harmful chemicals, either for regulation or further in vivo testing.

The scope of this Research Topic contains all potential endocrine disruptors that may impact reproductive development or subsequent function in males or females. Of specific interest are:
• Developmental exposure to endocrine disruptors with impact on reproductive systems
• Impact of exposure during fetal, perinatal, or prepubertal periods
• New mechanistic insights into causation of disease
• Insights into potential crosstalk between different endocrine signaling pathways/axes
• Data on non-classical endocrine modes of action (non-EATS modalities)
• Elucidation of inter-species differences and similarities in response to endocrine disrupting chemicals

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Frontiers in Endocrinology

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