From fetus to fatherhood: the role of endocrine disrupting compounds
January 2022 – December 2028
Background
It is estimated that 15-20% of all couples suffer from infertility, of which male factors are a major contributing cause. According to the testicular dysgenesis syndrome hypothesis, it has been proposed that male impaired testicular function can be of fetal origin and may be a result of testicular insults during early fetal development, including exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).
Aims and Study Design
The overall aim of the project is to determine the impact of exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals occurring prenatally and in young adulthood on testicular function (semen quality and reproductive hormones) and later fertility (children, use of fertility treatment). The primary target population is men who participated in the Danish Young Men Study (DYMS), a well-characterized cohort of more than 5,000 men with individual data on semen quality, reproductive hormone levels, anthropometrics and lifestyle collected from the men while being considered for military services around age 18-20 years. The cohort will be coupled with nationwide registries and unique maternal and adult serum samples stored in biobanks to quantify prenatal and adult EDC exposure. The project aims to provide empirical evidence crucial for understanding root causes of male infertility.
The Research Group behind EDC-TF
The international research group behind the study consist of leading scientist in multidisciplinary fields of male reproductive health, endocrinology, biostatistics, epidemiology, exposure assessment and analytical chemistry. Apart from participants from EDMaRC (Lærke Priskorn and Niels Jørgensen (co-PIs), Astrid Linnea Beck, Anders Juul and Anna-Maria Andersson) other partners include Elvira Bräuner, the Danish National Biobank (Karina Meden Sørensen), TC Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, USA (Russ Hauser) and Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland (Panu Rantakokko).
Funding
The project has received funding from The Independent Research Fund Denmark and Svend Anderssens Fund. Furthermore, PhD student on the project, Astrid Linnea Beck, has received a PhD scholarship from Rigshospitalet.
Key EDMaRC researchers involved in the project:

Niels Jørgensen (PI)
MD, PhD, Senior Researcher

Lærke Priskorn (co-PI)
MScPH, PhD


MDSc, Professor