With the rise of women employment in workplaces requiring night shifts and heavy lifting, this also poses a new threat to women. A new study shows that strenuous jobs like the aforementioned can actually harm not just the physical health of a woman, but also her fertility.
According to an article in Huffington Post, a new study found out that heavy lifting jobs actually reduces some essential factors acquainted with a woman's fertility. This was observed among women undergoing fertility treatment. At the same time, the said observation also appeared among women who work the night shift.
Lidia Mínguez-Alarcón, one of the co-authors of the study and a researcher in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, shared in an interview that women who wanted to get pregnant should be aware of the effects of their job on their plans to have a child. In their study, they observed 500 women undertaking fertility treatment at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 2004 to 2015.
The researchers surveyed the women on their jobs and their reproductive health and it was found out that those who stated that they have heavy lifting jobs had 14 percent fewer mature eggs and only 5 percent fewer antral follicles. The women who work night shift also exhibited low mature egg count with only 24 percent fewer than the normal.
However, in an interview with Web MD, Dr. James Grifo, director of the New York University Langone Fertility Center, shared his concern over the results of the study. Although he's not part of the said study, he pointed out that the said results can be misleading and may lead some women to quit their jobs which included heavy lifting and night shifts. Grifo also further stated that such instance is only applicable to a certain measurement of fertility and may not apply to others.
Mínguez-Alarcón and other researchers also noted Grifo's concern that they are still working on further studies to fully prove their study's claims. At the moment, they are also seeking for answers whether the said results only apply to women seeking fertility treatment or if it could also apply to natural means of fertilization.
