Infertility 'may be caused by household chemicals'

A study has discovered that household chemicals may be to blame for couples taking longer to conceive children.

The University of California's research looked into possible links between perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), which are present in many household products, and female fertility, reported MSNBC.

It found that of the 1,200 pregnant women it monitored, those with higher concentrations of PFCs in their blood were around 134 per cent less likely to become pregnant within six months than those with lower levels.

Chunyuan Fei, the lead researcher involved in the study, commented: "It's still too early to recommend that women who want to conceive try to avoid these products. Because these chemicals are widespread, I think it's important to conduct more stud[ies]."

Meanwhile, in one of the first studies of its kind, new research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine recently discovered a link between indoor air pollution and aggravated asthma symptoms in children.