Microplastics are everywhere.
Let’s talk about how they’re affecting your hormonal health.
Microplastics have been found in food, water, and even the air we breathe, and accumulate in your organs.
In the lungs, microplastics increase with age suggesting the particles persist in the body without being eliminated. Since the 1970s, the toxicity of plastics caused workers in the textile industries to develop lung function impairment, shortness of breath, inflammation, fibrosis, and lung cancer.
Exposure to plastics appears to cause changes in the composition of the intestinal microbiome.
A recent study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, measured the amount of microplastics collected from carotid plaques. Individuals with high levels of microplastics in the plaque had a 4 ½ times greater risk for heart attack, stroke, and mortality.
Microplastics are known endocrine disruptors. Fetuses exposed to microplastics exhibit low birthweight and delayed and impaired cognitive development.
Microplastics are linked to genital malformations in female newborns as well as diabetes insulin resistance, and polycystic over syndrome in adults.
Microplastics are small plastic particles less than 5 mm in size and can be found in plastic packaging, beauty products, water bottles, and synthetic clothing.
Microplastics infiltrate our environment. They are in the air, in the water, in the foods that we eat. There is not a person alive that does not have microplastics somewhere in their system.
Hormonally microplastics act as endocrine disruptors – filling the receptor site that hormones should be activating. Certain types of microplastics mimic estrogen-xenoestrogens and can lead to estrogen dominance. In women, these xenoestrogenic microplastics increase estrogen-related cancers, reproductive disorders, obesity, and insulin resistance. In men, xenoestrogenic microplastics induce gynecomastia, decrease testosterone levels, and can cause infertility.
Microplastics can disrupt thyroid function, including the production of thyroid hormone, as well as receptor site activity leading to hypothyroidism causing fatigue, weight gain, and slow metabolism.
Microplastics can also increase cortisol production leading to insulin resistance, interfering with adrenal functioning, causing anxiety, poor stress management, and difficulties sleeping.
So how can you reduce your exposure to microplastics?
- In your diet – avoid plastic packaging and use glass and stainless steel bottles.
- Adjust your lifestyle byswitching to natural beauty products, avoiding synthetic fabrics, and using nontoxic cookware.
- In your home environment start drinking filtered water avoid plastic food storage and reduce the use of single-use plastics.
- Support your hypothalamus with Genesis Gold® to help prevent endocrine disruption of microplastics, as well as improve the detoxification of the substances from your cells. Plus Genesis Gold® supports healthy hormone balance, proper digestion, healthy gut microbiome, cellular detoxification as well as liver and kidney detoxification.
- I would also recommend a liver cleanse at least twice a year. I have an excellent liver cleanse diet available in my free Hormone Reboot Training.
These small changes can make a huge difference in protecting yourself from microplastics.
Resources:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822
How do microplastics affect hormones?
Microplastics act as endocrine disruptors by interfering with the hormone receptor system — the cellular machinery that allows hormones to exert their effects in tissues throughout the body. Certain plastic compounds, particularly bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates, are structurally similar enough to estrogen that they can bind to estrogen receptors and activate them in the same way natural estrogen would. This molecular mimicry — known as xenoestrogenic activity — floods receptor sites with false hormonal signals, disrupting the precise hormonal communication the hypothalamus depends on to orchestrate endocrine function. Other microplastic compounds interfere with thyroid hormone production and receptor activity, while still others stimulate cortisol production, creating a broad pattern of hormonal dysregulation that does not show up as a single hormone abnormality on standard testing.
What are xenoestrogens and which plastics contain them?
Xenoestrogens are chemical compounds that mimic estrogen in the body by binding to estrogen receptors, triggering estrogenic effects without being actual estrogen. In the context of plastics, the primary xenoestrogenic chemicals are bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol S (BPS — commonly used in “BPA-free” products), and various phthalates used as plasticizers to make plastic flexible. These chemicals leach out of plastic containers, packaging, and bottles — particularly when heated, exposed to acidic foods, or worn through age. The body cannot distinguish them from endogenous estrogen at the receptor level, meaning they contribute to the total estrogenic load the body is processing. Accumulated xenoestrogenic exposure is associated with estrogen dominance, reproductive disorders, PCOS, estrogen-related cancers, obesity, and insulin resistance in women, and with reduced testosterone, impaired sperm quality, and gynecomastia in men.
Do microplastics affect thyroid function?
Yes — thyroid disruption is one of the most well-documented hormonal effects of microplastic exposure. Several plastic-associated chemicals interfere with thyroid function at multiple points: they can disrupt the production of thyroid hormone in the thyroid gland itself, impair the conversion of T4 to active T3, and block thyroid hormone receptor sites so that even adequate circulating thyroid hormone cannot enter cells effectively. The structural similarity between some plastic compounds and thyroid hormone molecules is part of the mechanism — they compete for binding sites on thyroid transport proteins and receptors. The result is a functional hypothyroidism that may not appear on standard TSH testing because the problem is at the receptor and conversion level rather than in absolute hormone production — the same pattern of subclinical thyroid dysfunction that is frequently associated with fatigue, weight gain, and slowed metabolism.
What did the NEJM study find about microplastics and cardiovascular disease?
A landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine measured microplastic and nanoplastic accumulation directly in carotid artery plaques — the fatty deposits that narrow arteries and drive cardiovascular disease. Individuals with detectable microplastics in their arterial plaques had a 4.5 times greater risk of heart attack, stroke, and mortality compared to those without measurable plastic accumulation. The proposed mechanisms include direct inflammatory damage to the arterial endothelium, disruption of normal lipid metabolism, and the contribution of plastic-associated chemical toxins to oxidative stress in vascular tissue. This study was significant because it moved the health impact of microplastics from a theoretical concern to a measurable, quantifiable cardiovascular risk factor — and established that microplastics are not simply passing through the body but accumulating in tissues over time.
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