Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2022) 84 OP02-10 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.84.OP-02-10

ETA2022 Oral Presentations Oral Session 2: Pregnancy (5 abstracts)

Phthalate exposure is associated with thyroid function during pregnancy through a novel pathway as a hcg disruptor

Arash Derakhshan 1 , Huan Shu 2 , Maarten Broeren 3 , Barbara Demeneix 4 , Christian H. Lindh 5 , Robin Peeters 6 , Carl-Gustaf Bornehag 2 & Tim Korevaar 7


1Erasmus University Medical Center, Erasmus MC, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands; 2Karlstad University; 3Máxima Medisch Centrum, Veldhoven, Netherlands; 4Muséum National D’histoire Naturelle/Cnrs, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Umr 7221 Evolution des Régulations Endocriniennes, Paris, France; 5Lund University; 6Academic Center for Thyroid Diseases, Department of Endocrinology, Erasmus, Department of Internal Medicine,, Rotterdam, Netherlands; 7Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Department of Internal Medicine, Academic Center For Thyroid Diseases, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Endocrinology, Rotterdam, Netherlands


Phthalate exposure is associated with thyroid function during pregnancy through a novel pathway as a hCG disruptor.

Objectives: hCG stimulates thyroid function in pregnancy and phthalates are known thyroid disruptors. We investigated if phthalate exposure could act as a thyroid disruptor through affecting hCG.

Methods: This study was embedded in the prospective Swedish Environmental Longitudinal, Mother and child, Asthma and allergy study. Pregnant women were enrolled at median gestational week of 10 (with 95% recruited before week 14). Urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolite, serum thyroid function measurements and hCG were measured. We used linear regression and causal mediation analysis to investigate the potential mediation by hCG in the association of phthalates with maternal FT4.

Results: In total, 2004 women were included. Out of the 14 phthalate metabolites, higher MEP, MBP, MBzP and all metabolites of DEHP (MEHP, MEHHP, MEOHP, MECPP and MCMHP) were associated with lower hCG concentrations, with the largest effect estimate corresponding to a 0.15 IU/l decrease in hCG concentrations per 1 log-unit increase in urinary MBP concentrations (µg/g creatinine). We identified that of the 5 phthalate metabolites (MEP, MBP, MEHHP, MEOHP and MECPP) which were previously shown to be negatively associated with FT4 concentrations, hCG mediated 34% (MEOHP, P=0.004) to 60% (MBP, P=0.03) of the association of all five phthalate metabolites with FT4.

Conclusions: This is the first study to suggest phthalates act as a hCG disruptor. We also show that higher phthalate exposure during early pregnancy is associated with lower hCG concentrations, resulting in lower FT4 concentrations which is likely mediated through reduced stimulation of the thyroid gland.

Volume 84

44th Annual Meeting of the European Thyroid Association (ETA) 2022

Brussels, Belgium
10 Sep 2022 - 13 Sep 2022

European Thyroid Association 

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