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- A new study looking at 322 mother-daughter pairs found that mothers who were more exposed to certain “forever chemicals” like PFAS were more likely to have a daughter with PMOS in her teen years later on.
- The new study just proves association and not causation.
- PFAS show up in lots of household items ranging from nonstick cookware to stain-resistant fabrics and food packaging—making them hard to completely avoid.
Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS, impacts up to 13 percent of women around the world. But even though it’s a relatively common condition in women, the exact cause of PMOS isn’t known. Now, new research suggests a link between exposure to so-called forever chemicals while in the womb and a higher risk of having PMOS down the road.
In case you’re fuzzy on the details, PMOS is a disorder that impacts your hormones. It causes symptoms like irregular periods, excessive hair growth, acne, and infertility, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Up until last month, the disorder was called polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS. The name was changed to more accurately reflect the syndrome—“PCOS” suggests that people with this condition had abnormal ovarian cysts, when plenty of people with the disorder didn’t have this specific symptom.
The study, which was published in the journal Environmental Research, doesn’t claim that in utero exposure to forever chemicals is the reason so many women develop PMOS. In fact, the researchers make it clear in the study that more data is needed. But it raises even more questions about how forever chemicals may affect our health.
Here’s what the study found, plus what ob-gyns and a toxicologist want women to keep in mind.
Meet the experts: Lauren Streicher, MD, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Christine Greves, MD, an ob-gyn at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, Florida; Jamie Alan, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University.
What did the study find?
For the study, researchers followed 322 mother-daughter pairs enrolled in Project Viva, a long-term study in the Boston area. The researchers tracked the mothers and their daughters from pregnancy through the daughters’ teenage years. Researchers measured levels of six different per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (aka PFAS or forever chemicals) in the mothers’ blood early in their pregnancy and then checked the daughters as teens for PMOS and related symptoms.
The researchers discovered that mothers who had higher levels of a forever chemical called EtFOSAA in their blood were 2.7 times more likely to have a teenage daughter with PMOS. Mothers who had higher levels of a different forever chemical, PFNA, were 2.3 times more likely to have daughters with moderate-to-severe acne, which can be a sign of PMOS. But the researchers didn’t find a link between mothers who had been exposed to all six PFAS together and a higher risk of having daughters with PMOS or related symptoms.
Why might forever chemicals influence PMOS risk?
It’s important to get this out of the way now: The study didn’t prove that PFAS exposure caused PMOS. It simply found a link. The study was also relatively small, making it hard to draw too many conclusions from the findings. Still, doctors say there may be important details from the study that are worth noting.
“These forever chemicals are known endocrine disruptors,” points out Jamie Alan, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University. “It would make sense that exposure to these substances could contribute to the development of PMOS.”
Lauren Streicher, MD, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, agrees. “This idea that if someone is exposed to something in utero may be a hormone disruptor later in life is certainly a biologically plausible concept,” she says.
What’s the takeaway?
Here’s the thing: These forever chemicals are everywhere. PFAS show up in products like nonstick cookware, stain‑resistant fabrics, and food packaging, where they can leach into your food and get into your body. They also build up in the environment and your body over time, making them hard to avoid.
In fact, research suggests that most of the population has traces of these forever chemicals in their blood. This is all to say that these chemicals can be really, really tough to avoid. “There’s only so much you can do, short of living in a cave,” Dr. Streicher says.
“The only thing we can do right now is to limit our exposure as much as possible,” Alan notes. “We can also develop and maintain other health habits in life. For example, diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices can improve the symptoms of PMOS.”
Again, there’s a lot more research that needs to be done on this topic. “It’s a small, limited study,” says Christine Greves, MD, an ob-gyn at the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, Florida. While it’s best to reduce your exposure when you can, Dr. Greves also suggests giving yourself grace in instances when you can’t control every factor.
Carina Hsieh, MPH, is the deputy features editor of Women’s Health. She has more than a decade’s worth of experience working in media and has covered everything from beauty, fashion, travel, lifestyle, pets, to health.
She began her career as an intern in the fashion closet at Cosmopolitan where she worked her way up to Senior Sex & Relationships Editor. While covering women’s health there, she discovered her passion for health service journalism and took a break to get her Masters in Public Health. Post-grad school, she worked as a freelance writer and as The Daily Beast’s first Beauty, Health, and Wellness Reporter.
Carina is an alum of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Yale School of Public Health. She and her French Bulldog, Bao Bao, split their time between Brooklyn and Connecticut. She enjoys reformer Pilates, (slow) running, and smelling the fancy toiletries in boutique fitness class locker rooms.
