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Join us as we explore the world of microplastics with fertility specialist Oluyemisi (Yemi) Famuyiwa. Learn about microplastics, how they permeate our environment, and their potential effects on human health and fertility. Yemi will share insights from recent studies, including the presence of microplastics in reproductive organs and their implications for sperm quality and ovarian function. We’ll also discuss practical tips for reducing exposure and the importance of advocacy for stronger regulations.

Oluyemisi (Yemi) Famuyiwa is a renowned fertility specialist and founder, Montgomery Fertility Center, committed to guiding individuals and couples on their path to parenthood with personalized care.

She discusses the KevinMD article, “Microplastics and fertility: Uncovering the hidden risks to reproductive health.”

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Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast, and get CME for this episode by clicking on the CME link in the show notes. Today we welcome Yemi Famuyiwa. She’s a fertility specialist, and today’s KevinMD article is “Microplastics and fertility: Uncovering the hidden risks to reproductive health.” Yemi, welcome to the show.

Yemi Famuyiwa: Thank you, thank you, Kevin.

Kevin Pho: So let’s start by briefly sharing your story and journey.

Yemi Famuyiwa: So I’m originally from Nigeria, came many, many moons ago to go to, we call it seeking the golden fleece, from Nigeria. And I went to Kent State, and from there I went to Emory in Atlanta, had a great time. And from Atlanta came over to Georgetown in D.C., did my residency in OB/GYN, and I really love the area so I stayed in the area. I went to NIH for my fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility.

And I love science, love being in the lab, doing great bench work research. But then I really like people, I like interacting with people, so I felt, you know, it was a time to go more into what I love, which is just really, really helping my patients.

Kevin Pho: Wonderful. And you’re a fertility specialist. Tell us about some of the rewards and challenges of the field today.

Yemi Famuyiwa: Oh wow, yeah. Well, rewards is just self-evident, you’re helping people develop, build their families. I tell you, I also tend to be close to my patients, so I get involved, not involved, they invite me to certain milestones. Last year I got invited to two, one set of twins, they had their high school graduation and full scholarships to college. And the fact that they still, you know, it’s like you’re part of their life now.

I was walking in the hospital the other day and this lady called, Dr., Dr.! Her baby was from 16 years ago. Or I live in a small community, so sometimes I’ll go for a coffee or go to a Starbucks or whatever and I’ll run into my old patients. So you see them at different milestones of their lives, and it’s the feeling, you never get over it.

There’s, for instance, you know, to do fertility you go through OB/GYN, you deliver babies. I’ve delivered thousands of babies before I did my fellowship, and there’s a certain rush, there’s a certain joy of the moment when you birth a life. Well, that joy just multiplies when you see a life come into being right in front of your eyes. That’s what fertility is. And to me there’s nothing like that in the world.

So I tremendously really love my patients and love helping them. And I see a lot of patients from diverse communities. I’m originally from Nigeria like I said, so I have a lot of Africans, I have a lot of Asians, a lot of South Americans, and the cultural view that I bring to the practice. Because some of my patients, they’re afraid, they don’t know where to seek for help, they don’t know how to navigate the system. So helping them navigate the system and seeing them build their families is really truly rewarding.

What are the challenges? Insurance. Going to battle with insurance companies, yeah, that’s one of the big challenges.

And another challenge is, for some of my patients, not all, getting the word out so they don’t feel intimidated about access to care. You know, I’m sure you’ve read all the literature coming out saying that people of minority background sometimes get the short end. And that is true, because they’re intimidated, they may not know where to seek care. And that’s my job, that’s my job to bring the message to them, to help them navigate, to treat them in a fair manner, and make sure that they feel, oh my gosh, I know where to go.

And then the other half is, I also take care of a lot of physicians, because believe it or not, physicians were busy taking care of patients, right, we don’t stop to take care of ourselves. So I want to spread the message to my fellow doctors, to extend that hand of grace, to say I hear you, I feel you, I’ve been there, I’ve done that, let me show you the way, so that you also have a good ending.

Kevin Pho: All right. So let’s talk about your KevinMD article, “Microplastics and fertility: Uncovering the hidden risks to reproductive health.” For those who didn’t get a chance to read your article, tell us what it’s about.

Yemi Famuyiwa: OK, so my article focused on the presence of microplastics in fertility. And you know, why would I even be interested in that? We know fertility is declining. It used to be one in eight, now they say one in six. By the way, in physicians it’s one in four, or one in three female physicians have fertility issues. We have whole countries now, South Korea, the fertility rate is below replacement right now.

When I started years ago, I can even within my practice see a steady decline in semen quality. What happened over the last, you know, 20, 30, 40 years? Why is fertility declining? Men today are less fertile than their grandparents. What’s going on? And then you see young women coming in. You know, you used to think that women over the age of 40 were the ones that have abnormal egg quality. Not anymore, you’re seeing that younger and younger age.

And so getting involved and reading about what is going on, what is in the environment, why are we seeing some of these things. So as I read different articles, there was an article that came out and said, wow, they found microplastics, they found microplastic in semen, right? They found in the testes and whatnot. So you start reading more articles and you start to see what’s going on, why is this happening, is what I start looking at.

And then you see that there are articles now saying that there are nanoparticles and microparticles, showing that there are a lot of plastics, like polyethylene, PVC particles, present in either the sperm or in the testes or in the eggs, and it’s affecting the quality of what’s going on. So we’re seeing more and more of that.

Kevin Pho: So just to give a definition, so all my listeners are on the same page, what exactly is a microplastic, how is that defined?

Yemi Famuyiwa: Yeah, so a microplastic is a plastic particle that is less than 5 millimeters. And then the particle that’s less than 0.5 or 0.1, right, you’re starting to see more and more in not just testes alone, but in the semen. Right? So is there a bridge, is there something going on? Is the microplastics that we see, is it affecting fertility?

It’s so pervasive, people don’t even think about, for instance, the way people use plastics. They might wrap their food in plastic containers. If they heat food in plastic containers, it leaches the plastic, it leaches plastic into the food. So they have to be careful about what kind of particles are in the food that they eat.

For instance, you look at not just plastics in food, but in what they inhale. What kind of fibers are they exposing their body to, and how is it affecting. Is it, I don’t think we can blame that only for fertility issues, but there is something to be said for the number of plastics in the environment, and is it decreasing the success rate of fertility that we see.

Kevin Pho: So you mentioned a couple of examples, microwaving or heating up food in plastic containers, mentioned something like fibers. So are you talking about clothing and packaging? And there would be some other exposure to microplastics that we ordinarily wouldn’t think about?

Yemi Famuyiwa: I think fiber, for instance, the synthetic materials that patients wear in their clothing. There’s now been studies where people are recommending, well, the government is trying to advocate changing the filters in the washing machines, right? How can you filter the clothing coming through the washing machine? For instance, some materials leave microfibers.

I think one of the biggest ones is the fact that a lot of people don’t realize that if you heat food in plastic, you’re leaching so much plastic into that. I mean, granted, you know, plastics are everywhere, but there are some things we can do to decrease how much plastics we’re using.

People don’t realize that when you drink hot beverages, now I don’t advocate people drink a lot of coffee when they’re trying to get pregnant, that’s another topic, but if you’re drinking coffee out of those K-Cups and whatever, and you heat up the water to go through the K-Cups, you’re drinking some plastic with your coffee, right? So maybe you shouldn’t be doing that.

And I know in the African community a lot of people eat fufu, for instance, but they package it in plastic, and that’s how it’s packaged and sold. And then some people, when they warm it, they just throw it in the microwave and heat it up with the plastic. Some of that plastic outright just melts in the food, and they don’t think anything of consuming that, right?

So I think that my goal is to just make people more aware. Pay attention to what you’re putting in your body, what’s around you, because that may have an impact on fertility.

Kevin Pho: Now, are there any studies that look at the mechanism by which the accumulation of these microplastics in reproductive organs actually happens?

Yemi Famuyiwa: I think most of the studies have looked at what environmental exposure, what’s the food that you eat that may have plastic contaminants. I know a lot of the microplastics has to do with artificial fiber of clothing, for instance. So a lot of that fiber from clothing, that maybe your non-cotton clothing has a lot of microplastics in it.

So I think that if you look at what do you eat, what do you put on your body. Also things like BPA, right, or the phthalates. People don’t consider that’s highly present in makeup, and a lot of women just slather the makeup on. And I always tell them, read the fine ingredients.

I had a patient just today who’s pregnant, who said, oh, can I show you something I’m using for my face? It’s a lightening cream. I’m like, well, let me see what that is. And I looked at the ingredient and it’s a carcinogen, right? It’s a carcinogen. And I had to show that to her, like, I don’t think this is a good idea.

So most people are not paying attention, or they’ll use a deodorant that has aluminum in it, and then you have to tell them maybe you don’t want to use an aluminum containing deodorant, for instance. Even dryer sheets, right? If you’re using dryer sheets, it has a lot of phthalates in there. So I tell my patients, can you avoid using dryer sheets, because it does have a lot of phthalates.

One of the books that I like to recommend to a lot of my patients is called It Starts with the Egg, where it breaks down all these materials that are present in either the environment or in food, and helping patients make wise choices so that they decrease the contamination to their body.

Kevin Pho: So when patients come to see you for fertility issues, do you devote a segment of time specifically addressing their potential exposure to microplastics?

Yemi Famuyiwa: I devote a certain amount of my time, not just to microplastics. I talk about what’s in their environment, I talk about what kind of makeup they use, I talk about things around their house. So that it’s more like, to me, an awareness, not just microplastics. That’s one of the things I talk about, but I devote a whole segment of my consultation to make them aware of what’s in the environment. That’s part of my consultation, it’s more holistic.

And another part of my consultation is I’m going over what kind of food is healthy for you. And I do give my patients a brochure. So the diet that I advise patients to follow is more like the Greek diet, where it’s more plant-based. Now, I don’t tell people to go off protein at all, in fact I think fish is very healthy. But eating healthy vegetables, healthy fruits, nuts, and making sure that if you’re eating fruits you want to avoid the ones that are heavily laced with pesticides. So I see myself more just advising patients on better lifestyle.

Kevin Pho: What are some practical steps that patients can take? You suggested so many things that they can do, but what are some practical steps they can do to reduce their exposure to microplastics in their daily life?

Yemi Famuyiwa: I would recommend my patients pay attention to what kind of food that they’re eating, look at what kind of fiber clothing do you have. You know, not only just look at what kind of makeup that they use. I always tell them, what kind of makeup are you exposing yourself to, does it have a lot of phthalates in there? You cannot totally decrease the amount of phthalates you have, but you can decrease the quantity by a certain amount. So my goal is mostly just education, just educating my patients on the best practices for them.

Kevin Pho: And then how about from a policy standpoint? Are there any government initiatives that you see going forward that would reduce the number of microplastics that’s being produced?

Yemi Famuyiwa: I think there’s an initiative out there now. I think there’s a policy to push towards having filters on dryers. I think that’s more and more of the policies, you’re seeing more and more of that, to filter out the dryers. If you can put filters on the dryers, you drastically cut down the number of microplastics.

And another thing too, for people who drink hard water or tap water, they can boil it. Because, and it doesn’t work for soft water, if you boil hard water, the calcium in it binds up the microplastics and you can filter it out. So those are simple ways that you can use to decrease the plastic exposure.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Yemi Famuyiwa. She’s a fertility specialist. Today’s KevinMD article is “Microplastics and fertility: Uncovering the hidden risks to reproductive health.” Yemi, we’ll end with some of your take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Yemi Famuyiwa: I think what I want to leave with my audience, please pay attention. Pay attention to what you put in your body, pay attention to what you put on your body, pay attention to your environment. And maybe we can start to reverse some of this decline of fertility that we’re seeing worldwide, not just in one country, worldwide.

Kevin Pho: Yemi, thanks again for sharing your perspective and insight, and thanks again for coming on the show.

Yemi Famuyiwa: Thank you so much, Kevin.