A new study published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine has revealed that working long hours may impact women’s ability to get pregnant.
Lead study author Dr. Audrey J. Gaskins, of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA, and colleagues reached their findings by analyzing the data of 1,739 women of an average age of 33.
All women included in the analysis were attempting to get pregnant. At study baseline, participants completed a questionnaire that detailed their work schedules and physical labor.
Around 44% of the women included in the study were overweight or obese, according to the researchers, while 22% were current or former smokers.
Most of the women worked days or nights only, while 16% worked rotating shifts. More than 30% of women reported working for more than 8 hours daily, while 40% said they lifted heavy loads up to five times each day.
After 12 months, 16% of study participants had not become pregnant, while 5% had not conceived after 2 years.
“While we tried to control for many variables that could potentially explain this association – such as menstrual cycle regularity, sleep duration and other potentially harmful lifestyle and work exposures – none of these factors seemed to completely explain these relationships
“There were some variables, however, that we lacked in our study, such as frequency of sexual intercourse and work-related strain and fatigue, because of this, it is hard to determine whether these relationships are being driven by other correlated lifestyle exposures or something more biological, such as dysregulation of circadian rhythm.” Dr. Gaskins told Reuters.