(LifeSiteNews) — You’ve surely noticed that leggings have become women’s go-to replacement for jeans in major U.S. cities for years now. Almost no place seems off limits: The grocery store, casual restaurants, the local boulevard … young women have even been spotted wearing leggings at Mass.
It can be argued that ubiquitous leggings mark a kind of civilizational low point. Women’s instinct for modesty has been practically extinguished, and many have further embraced the cultural norm to sexualize themselves as much as possible. The sense of dressing properly for the occasion has been all but dissolved.
Women fiercely defend leggings in the face of these objections, largely because they are almost irresistibly comfortable. But there is another downside to leggings that may make women think twice about wearing them, and that is their potential impact on fertility.
The common feature of the most popular leggings, such as those from Lululemon, Athleta, or even Amazon, is that they’re made from synthetic blends largely composed of polyester or Nylon. What most women are unaware of is that the impact of these synthetics on hormones and fertility may be shockingly powerful.
Take polyester, the main fabric of Amazon’s top-listed leggings, one of the site’s best-selling pairs. Wearing polyester is so disruptive to the reproductive system, animal studies show, that it has been described as a functional contraceptive. Influencers have recently highlighted on social media an old study that fitted female dogs with 100% polyester “pants,” 100% cotton or wool pants, and 50-50 polyester-cotton blends, all for the span of a year.
The results were stunning: Of the dogs dressed in 100% polyester, almost 75% couldn’t get pregnant. It was found that both this fabric and the polyester blend formed an electrostatic field around the dogs’ reproductive organs that “interfered with hormone signaling.” The dogs dressed in pure wool or cotton, by contrast, had a 100% pregnancy success rate.
The contraceptive effect proved to be reversible: Five months after the polyester pants had been removed, the progesterone of each dog “normalized, and they conceived,” the study’s abstract revealed.
An even older, similar study was performed on male dogs in which they were fitted with polyester or cotton underwear. The dogs experienced similar disruption to their fertility, and this time, with longer-lasting effects in some cases. The dogs dressed in polyester underwent a significant decrease in sperm count, and while this normalized for 10 dogs after taking off the pants, two maintained a low sperm count.
Could polyester underwear and shorts be impacting men’s fertility as well?
Another popular fabric for leggings and athletic wear, nylon, is known to shed microplastics, which have been shown to be capable of penetrating the body through the skin. Microplastics generally have been found to have toxic effects on our bodies, including our reproductive organs, and can disrupt hormones as well as affect sperm quality.
Worse, the synthetic fabrics used for leggings and other athletic wear for both sexes, including polyester, nylon, and spandex/lyrca, are often treated with chemicals such as phthalates, PFAS, and dyes that act as endocrine disruptors, with negative impacts on our reproductive systems.
“High levels of a lot of these endocrine disruptors have been associated with longer time to getting pregnant, poor egg quality, poor sperm quality,” and “miscarriage risk,” according to Dr. Lora Shahine.
While the effects of these synthetic materials on human fertility hasn’t been sufficiently studied, what we do know suggests these fabrics may be contributing to fertility issues, potentially in men and women alike.
With other factors leading to reduced fertility such as delayed childbearing, obesity, stress, an increased prevalence of STDs, and now even the COVID shots, any person or couple who wants the best chance of conceiving should toss their polyester, nylon and spandex gear ASAP.
