Perfluoroalkyl acids and time to pregnancy revisited: An update from the Danish National Birth Cohort

Background We previously demonstrated an association between plasma perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and longer time to pregnancy (TTP) in a sample from the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC, 1996-2002). In this study we investigated this association in a new sample from the same cohort. Methods Sample 1 consisted of 440 women, and Sample 2 consisted of 1161 women from whom we previously published the associations between PFOS or PFOA and TTP. We performed sample-specific and pooled analyses using discrete-time survival analyses to estimate fecundability ratios according to PFOS and PFOA quartiles, adjusted for potential confounders chosen guided by a directed acyclic graph. We also estimated odds ratios for infertility (TTP > 12 months or infertility treatment) according to PFOS and PFOA by multivariable logistic regression. Results In Sample 1 PFOS was not associated with lower fecundability ratios or infertility, and there was a tendency towards longer TTP with increasing PFOA only in parous women. In Sample 2 previously reported associations were again seen. In the pooled analyses including both parous and nulliparous women fecundability ratios were 13-22 % lower for the three higher quartiles of PFOS or PFOA compared to the reference quartile. Conclusions The pooled analyses were driven by the larger old sample, but we did not corroborate our previous finding of an association between high PFOS and longer TTP in the new sample. The tendency towards an association for PFOA and TTP in parous women may be due to reverse causation. Results from the new sample are more in line with the recent literature. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12940-015-0040-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.