Divine Aleru, Microbiome Signatures Research Coordinator

This review reveals how vaginal microbiota dysbiosis underpins diverse gynecological diseases, highlights characteristic microbial signatures, and evaluates interventions—especially probiotics and vaginal microbiota transplantation—as emerging strategies to restore health and reduce recurrence.

This review summarizes clinical and mechanistic evidence for complementary and alternative medicine in COS infertility, highlighting CM, acupuncture, nutrient supplementation, and lifestyle interventions as effective, safe adjunct therapies with potential microbiome-mediated benefits.

This study explores the relationship between co-exposure to phenols and phthalates and infertility risk in women of reproductive age, highlighting significant associations with PA and EHP metabolites.

This study identified 27 follicular fluid metabolites differentiating infertile from fertile women, developed a predictive Biomarker Score, and demonstrated strong correlations with VF outcomes, providing a basis for personalized infertility management.

What was studied?This original research article investigated the association between blood levels of lead and cadmium (two common environmental heavy metals) and self-reported infertility among women in the United States. The study leveraged data from the 2013–2014 and 2015–2016 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HANES), focusing on reproductive-aged women. The researchers […]

Environmental pollution—including heavy metals, air pollutants, and endocrine disruptors—negatively impacts female fertility through hormonal disruption, oxidative stress, and epigenetic changes. The review emphasizes the clinical need for exposure assessment and mitigation strategies to protect reproductive health.

Infertile women in Taiwan showed higher blood lead and arsenic levels than pregnant women, mainly linked to frequent Chinese herbal medicine use. Physical activity may help lower lead accumulation, highlighting the need to evaluate traditional medicine risks in women planning pregnancy.

This review synthesizes evidence linking lead, cadmium, and copper exposure to male and female infertility, detailing mechanisms of reproductive toxicity, epidemiological patterns, and the potential role of microbiome alterations as mediators and biomarkers of reproductive risk.

This cross-sectional study in American women found that higher urinary arsenic—and, to a lesser extent, cadmium—were associated with increased infertility risk, with lead exposure linked to infertility in older or overweight women, supporting the need for environmental exposure monitoring in reproductive health.

This review explores how metabolic risk factors—obesity, the female athlete triad, and oxidative stress—contribute to female infertility, highlighting associations with COS, endometriosis, and idiopathic infertility, and calling for improved metabolic assessment and molecular diagnostics in clinical practice.