Urinary biomarkers of exposure to drinking water disinfection byproducts and ovarian reserve: A cross-sectional study in China

Experimental studies have demonstrated that disinfection byproducts (DBPs) can cause ovarian toxicity including inhibition of antral follicle growth and disruption of steroidogenesis, but there is a paucity of human evidence. We aimed to investigate whether urinary biomarkers of exposure to drinking water DBPs were associated with ovarian reserve. The present study included 956 women attending an infertility clinic in Wuhan, China from December 2018 to January 2020. Antral follicle count (AFC), ovarian volume (OV), anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were measured as indicators of ovarian reserve. Urinary dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) and trichloroacetic acid (TCAA) were assessed as potential biomarkers of drinking water DBP exposures. Multivariate linear and Poisson regression models were applied to estimate the associations of urinary DCAA and TCAA concentrations with indicators of ovarian reserve. Elevated urinary DCAA and TCAA levels were monotonically associated with reduced total AFC (− 5.98%; 95% CI: − 10.30%, − 1.44% in DCAA and − 12.98%; 95% CI: − 17.00%, − 8.76% in TCAA comparing the extreme tertiles; both P for trends ≤ 0.01), and the former was only observed in right AFC but not in left AFC, whereas the latter was estimated for both right and left AFC. Moreover, elevated urinary TCAA levels were monotonically associated with decreased AMH (− 14.09%; 95% CI: − 24.79%, − 1.86% comparing the extreme tertiles; P for trend = 0.03). These negative associations were still observed for the exposure biomarkers modeled as continuous variables. Our findings suggest that exposure to drinking water DBPs may be associated with decreased ovarian reserve.