It’s Okay, Yoga Mats Won’t Spoil Your Fertility.
Infertility is crude enough and without headlines implying that your yoga practice is to blame. A recent study found that certain fire-resistant chemicals can make it difficult to conceive, but despite the pictures of dogs that are not true, yoga mats were not included in the study.
Headline : Yoga Mat Chemicals May Hurt Your Fertility (Forbes)
History : Things made from soft polyurethane foam often contain flame retardants, and scientists have found a disturbing link between these chemicals and fertility problems in animals and possibly humans. This study is the first to find a link between organophosphorus flame retardants (PFR) and human fertility, but more research will be needed to prove exactly what is happening.
Researchers looked for trace amounts of PFR in urine samples from women at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s reproductive medicine clinic . They had a lot of these chemicals in their bodies, just like all of us. PFRs are found in tons of different products, such as furniture cushions and baby products . There is so much of this around us that flame retardants can be found in house dust and even in the air we breathe .
Among couples undergoing fertility treatments, the study found that women with the highest levels of chemicals were 40 percent less likely to have a baby than women with the lowest levels. Such a study cannot confirm that PFR causes infertility, and we do not know what the risk to the general population is, as the study looked only at this group of mostly white, educated, high-income women in Boston.
The study’s author, Courtney Carignan, notes that the results are consistent with what we know about flame retardants and fertility from animal studies, so she thinks avoiding these chemicals is a good idea.
But how?
This is where yoga mats don’t fit. The study did not mention yoga mats at all, and Carignan is unaware of any yoga mats that use PFRs. However, the chemicals are found in the thick foam mats andfoam blocks that gymnasts use in the landing pits . When Harvard sent out a press release about the study, she said it seemed like they misunderstood the “gym mats” and illustrated the story with a photograph of a yoga mat. (They have since changed the photo to a sofa photo .)
According to her words, some yoga mats do contain phthalates, which cause fertility problems in men . So they are not completely confused. However, you can buy phthalate-free yoga mats.
According to Carignan, if you want to reduce your exposure to IPF, the first thing you should start doing is washing your hands before eating to avoid accidentally eating house dust that contains IPF. Using less nail polish can also help, as nail polish often contains phthalates or PFR. After that, your next steps will become a little less clear: PFRs are usually not listed on product labels, and they are often used as a substitute for even worse chemicals like PDBE flame retardants. This means that even a label that says a product is “free of harmful flame retardants” does not mean that you don’t know anything.
In Takeaway: PFRs May Affect Female Fertility, But More Research Is Needed To Be Certain. For now, stop worrying about your yoga mat and check out this list of furniture manufacturers that sell flame retardant products instead. Consider sending foam samples for your sofa to Duke University as well. They will test foam samples for free, but it will take six to eight weeks to get results.