I think it is important that these results are replicated in other studies, as it is also important to determine whether the effects on sperm quality translate into observable effects on fertility.

Jorge Chavarro

Categorized in : Health

While previous work had linked occupational exposure to pesticides to impaired sperm production I was skeptical that pesticide residues in food could have a similar effect, i think this study opened a lot more questions than I had anticipated.

I don't think there is a strong reason to believe this relation would be different in men. However, there were no men in our study so we reported exactly what we found, we do have a parallel cohort of men, but unfortunately we do not have information on mode of delivery in that study.

We know these differences are observable in infants and very young children but whether these differences persist throughout life or are able to reprogram how individuals metabolize food is unknown.

The biggest limitation of our data, by far, is the fact that we did not have access to labor and delivery records of our study participants and therefore we do not know what the exact indication for cesarean was, nor the timing of cesarean delivery in relation to onset of labor which could have clarified some important questions.