"When I started looking at phthalates, around 2000, phthalate syndrome had been shown experimentally in rodents but not in humans. Mother rats given phthalates

"When I started looking at phthalates, around 2000, phthalate syndrome had been shown experimentally in rodents but not in humans. Mother rats given phthalates had male babies with a smaller penis and scrotum, their sperm counts were lower and their AGD was shorter. I ran a study where we measured the stored urine of pregnant women for phthalates and we measured their male babies’ and toddlers’ AGDs – a first – along with some other genital measurements. We found exactly what had been found in rodents: phthalate syndrome. I then did a study of college-age men, where we got them to give a semen sample and measured their AGD, and we showed that the shorter the AGD, the lower the sperm count. This is why I am confident: we have a direct link from phthalates to short AGD and then from short AGD to low sperm count, and those results have been confirmed by subsequent studies." From https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/28/shanna-swan-fertility-reproduction-count-down https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/28/shanna-swan-...