About this Research Topic

Background

With industrialisation and population growth, humans have released immeasurable toxicants into our environment that have resulted in global change. These toxicants include endocrine disruptors, such as plastics and pesticides, that accumulate in the atmosphere, soil, and water, and can pose direct or indirect (i.e. via climate change) adverse health consequences in women. The potential factors that may affect human health from these changes are widespread; ranging from impacts of changes in temperature, water and air quality, and extreme weather events, to altered sources of food production and consumption. Moreover, numerous tissue types within the female reproductive tract may be differentially affected by these exogenous environmental factors. For example:

• Chemicals like dioxin are associated with endometriosis via the induction of inappropriate estrogen production.
• Exposure to Phthalates, bisphenol A, pesticides and tobacco reduces the ovarian supply of oocytes resulting in premature ovarian insufficiency leading to an earlier age of menopause onset.
• Air pollution and increases in average ambient temperature have both been associated with preterm birth and low birth weight

The impacts of the changing global climate on human fertility and fecundity will have large consequences for population distribution over space and time. Developing a comprehensive understanding of the mechanistic underpinnings of the response to climate change will improve our ability to predict and to mitigate maladaptive biological responses to rapidly changing environments for generations to come.

The goal of this Research Topic will be to assess the current knowledge base and raise awareness of the potential impacts of global changes on female reproductive health and function.

We are interested in studies investigating a wide range of environmental factors that may affect the female reproductive tract and its function. This could include review articles, as well as cohort studies, or discovery science investigating mechanistic impacts of factors arising due to a changing global climate.

Studies may span, but are not limited to, impacts of:
- water quality and/or supply
- food quality and/or supply
- agricultural contaminants
- industrial contaminants
- air pollutants and/or quality
- altered temperatures
- climate change
- impacts of extreme climactic weather events
- impacts of natural disasters

Keywords: Environment, Climate change, Pollution, Pregnancy, Female fertility

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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