Anogenital distance of women in relation to maternal prenatal exposures

Abstract

Anogenital distance (AGD) is a genital development marker which is a sexually dimorphic trait in mammals. Different experimental studies have shown that AGD at birth reflects the androgen exposure of the fetus during its in-utero development. The object of our study was to examine the relation between maternal prenatal exposures to different substances and compounds used on a daily basis during pregnancy and AGD of their daughters as an indirect marker of the intrauterine hormonal environment. This is a cross-sectional study of 100 healthy female undergraduates of ages ranging from 18 to 23. Every participant was subjected to a full gynecological examination, where two AGD variants were measured: AGD_AC (anus-clitoris) and AGD_AF (anus-fourchette). Both the young women and their mothers completed an epidemiological questionnaire on lifestyles, including prenatal exposure to products and gynecological history. Multiple linear and logistic regression analysis was used to study the relation between the mothers’ exposure to products and their daughters’ AGD. A longer AGD_AF in the daughters was significantly associated with a higher prenatal exposure of their mothers to insecticides/pesticides and solvents/degreasers (aOR: 3.9; IC 95%: 1.2, 12.7 and 3.8; IC 95%: 1.1-12.6, respectively). Our results show that certain prenatal environmental exposures of mothers might be associated with significant variations of their daughters’ AGD, a sensitive biomarker that reflects androgen fetal exposure during in-utero development.