How wildfire smoke impacts fertility patients
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Researchers found that smoke from the 2020 Labor Day fires affected IVF patients. Photo: Rebecca Smeyne/Bloomberg
Unhealthy air quality due to wildfire smoke can negatively impact those receiving fertility treatment, according to a study from Oregon Health & Science University.
Why it matters: Human-caused climate change is leading to more severe and longer-lasting wildfire seasons across the West, while a growing body of research suggests exposure to harmful air pollution can lead to poor reproductive outcomes.
What they're saying: "I worry about how this will continue to affect not only patients undergoing fertility treatments, but all individuals who are trying to conceive," Molly Kornfield, a professor at the OHSU Center for Women's Health and study's lead author, wrote in a press release about January's study.
Driving the news: Much of Oregon — including eastern and southern parts of the state where large wildfires are currently burning — is under a moderate to unhealthy air quality advisory.
Context: Researchers connected with 69 patients who were undergoing in vitro fertilization or ovarian stimulation within six weeks of Oregon's 2020 Labor Day wildfires — when the skies were orange and the state's air quality was the worst in the world.
- The air quality index reading in Portland, where OHSU's fertility lab is located, was off-the-charts hazardous during that period, peaking at 516.
Between the lines: During fertility treatment, patients receive hormone injections for two weeks to stimulate egg production.
- Once the eggs are retrieved, they are injected with sperm and grown into blastocysts — the many-cell embryos that develop from a fertilized egg that are then frozen or placed into a uterus for pregnancy.
- Over 238,000 patients in 2021 received some kind of fertility treatment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What they found: The patients who were exposed to wildfire smoke yielded fewer blastocysts than the 44 patients who did not have wildfire smoke exposure.
- IVF patients usually need multiple embryos — and embryo transfers — to ensure just one healthy baby.
What's next: OHSU researchers plan to continue research on how wildfire-polluted air impacts miscarriage rates, sperm count and quality, plus pregnancy outcomes.