19-year follow-up: pesticide exposure and fertility in young adults
Official title: The ESPINA Study 19th Year Follow-Up: A Longitudinal Investigation of Pesticide Exposures in relation to Fertility and Hormonal Health
Funded at University of California, San Diego · NIH-11228338 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This follow-up looks at people who grew up near flower farms to learn how pesticide exposure relates to fertility and hormone health in their early adult years.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California, San Diego NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (La Jolla, United States) |
| Project start | September 18, 2020 |
| Project end | June 30, 2030 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $606,607 |
| NIH project number | 2R01ES030378-06 |
| Project ID | NIH-11228338 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are members of the original ESPINA cohort who are now about 21–27 years old and who grew up in or near Pedro Moncayo County, Ecuador, with potential pesticide exposure; both men and women are included.
✕Less likely to help
People who never lived near agricultural pesticide use, are outside the target age range, or were not part of the ESPINA cohort are unlikely to be eligible or to directly benefit from participation.
What this research studies
This follow-up focuses on participants from the long-running ESPINA cohort who were raised near large flower farms in Pedro Moncayo County, Ecuador. About 500 people now aged roughly 21–27 will provide new and/or previously stored blood and urine samples, and men may provide semen samples, so researchers can measure hormone levels, sperm quality, and pesticide biomarkers. The team will combine those lab measures with health questionnaires and clinic-based markers of ovarian reserve to link exposure patterns over time with reproductive outcomes. The goal is to use long-term biomarker data rather than just one-time reports to better understand potential lasting effects of agricultural pesticides on fertility.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the work could clarify whether long-term pesticide exposure harms fertility or hormone health and inform prevention, screening, or policy to protect reproductive health.
How similar studies have gone: Previous cross-sectional and smaller cohort studies have linked pesticides to lower sperm counts and altered menstrual or hormone measures, but long-term biomarker-based follow-ups of this scale are relatively uncommon.
Where this research is happening
-
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Suarez, Jose Ricardo — University of California, San Diego
- Study coordinator: Suarez, Jose Ricardo
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
Understanding how some Amish communities maintain high birth rates in modern times
A project will build a large, time-sensitive dataset to understand why Amish families keep having many children, even as broader society has much lower birth rates.
-
Fighting fibroids with single-cell data to find new drugs
A study uses patient fibroid and normal tissue cells to find existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat fibroids, with tests in human cells and a mouse model.
-
Pesticide exposure and fertility health as people move from adolescence to adulthood
This long-term study follows people in Ecuador to see how pesticide exposure over the years relates to fertility and hormones as they become young adults.
-
CatSper and calcium signaling in sperm fertility
A study at Yale investigates how a sperm channel called CatSper helps calcium signaling to drive sperm movement and fertility in mammals.
-
How everyday cosmetic chemicals may affect women's fertility
This project looks at whether chemicals from cosmetics appear in blood and ovarian fluid and link to fertility in women trying to have children.
-
Chibby proteins' role in sperm development and male fertility
This project looks at how Chibby family proteins help sperm form and whether problems with these proteins contribute to male infertility.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.