Menstrual blood concentrations of parabens and benzophenones and related factors in a sample of Spanish women: An exploratory study. Iribarne-Durán, Luz María Domingo-Piñar, Sarah Peinado, Francisco M. Vela-Soria, Fernando Jiménez-Díaz, Inmaculada Barranco, Enriqueta Olea, Nicolás Freire, Carmen Artacho-Cordón, Francisco Ocón-Hernández, Olga Benzophenones Menstrual blood Parabens Women Aim: To evaluate concentrations of parabens (PBs) and benzophenones (BzPs) in menstrual blood and explore related sociodemographic/lifestyle factors, and to compare between menstrual and peripheral blood concentrations in a subset of samples. Material and methods: Concentrations of 4 PBs [methyl- (MeP), ethyl- (EtP), propyl- (PrP) and butyl-paraben (BuP)] and 6 BzPs [BzP-1, BzP-2, BzP-3, BzP-6, BzP-8 and 4-OH-BzP] were determined in menstrual blood from 57 women and in both menstrual and peripheral blood samples from 12 women, all healthy Spanish women of reproductive age. Socio-demographic characteristics and lifestyle habits [diet and use of cosmetics and personal care products (PCPs)] were gathered using an online questionnaire. Spearman correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between menstrual and peripheral blood concentrations, while multivariable linear regression was used to identify potential explanatory variables for menstrual PB and BzP concentrations. Results: Globally, all menstrual blood samples had detectable levels of ≥3 compounds, and 52.6% of the samples contained ≥6 compounds. MeP, PrP, and BzP-3 were the most frequently detected compounds (detection frequencies >90.0%), with median concentrations of 1.41, 0.63, and 1.70 ng/mL of menstrual blood, respectively. Age, the use of PCPs, and consumption of some food items (meat, pasta, cheese, or dairy products) were related to the menstrual blood concentrations of some PBs/BzPs. Serum:menstrual blood ratios of PBs/BzPs ranged from 1.7 to 3.6, with no inter-matrix correlations. Conclusions: This study reveals, to our knowledge for the first time, the widespread presence of several PBs and BzPs in intimate contact with gynecological tissues, although their concentrations in menstrual blood were not correlated with those in peripheral blood from the same women. These results shed light on the information provided by the menstrual blood as a potential matrix for characterizing exposure to PBs and BzPs, whose consequences for women's reproductive health need to be addressed. 2024-02-01T13:00:35Z 2024-02-01T13:00:35Z 2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/article https://hdl.handle.net/10481/87944 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109228 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elsevier