TIME TO PREGNANCY AND EXPOSURE TO PESTICIDES IN DANISH FARMERS

Objectives-Circumstantial evidence suggests that organic farmers may h ave higher sperm count than other men, but comprehensive epidemiologic al studies of male fecundity among farmers have never been carried out . A substantial increase of sperm count is expected to translate into a shorter time to pregnancy-the number of menstrual cycles or months i t takes a couple to get pregnant from discontinuation of birth control . Toxicological effects on spermatogenesis in humans and animals have been described after exposure to several pesticides. The aim of this s tudy was to examine time to pregnancy among farmers who used pesticide s (traditional farmers) and farmers who did not (organic farmers). Met hods-A total of 904 (84%) men, selected from the Danish Ministry of Ag riculture lists of traditional and organic farmers, participated in te lephone interviews. Information was collected on time to pregnancy for the youngest child, exposure to pesticides, and potential confounders . Results-With the discrete analogue of the Cox regression model (incl uding potential confounders: male and female smoking, female age, pari ty, and contraceptive method), the fecundability ratio between traditi onal farmers who used pesticides and organic farmers was 1.03 (95% con fidence interval (95% CI) 0.75 to 1.40). In the group of farmers who s prayed with pesticides, none of the characteristics related to the use of pesticides could account for the variation in time to pregnancy. C onclusions-No overall effect of pesticides on male fecundability was f ound in this retrospective study among Danish farmers. Also, we found no evidence of higher male fecundability in organic farmers.