The Feminization of Nature: Our Future at Risk

Starting with a single clue, the sharp rise in the incidence of testicular cancer in recent years, this book follows an extraordinary detective trail as scientists uncover disturbing evidence of adverse changes in human reproduction and health. A dramatic fall in sperm counts over the last fifty years has been reported in Europe and America, together with an increase in sex-organ abnormalities of baby boys. In the same time-scale other reproductive cancers have also increased, most noticeably breast and prostate cancer. These alterations to human reproduction are mirrored by extraordinary changes in wildlife: from Florida panthers with undescended testes to male fish in a British river producing high levels of the female egg-yolk protein, there are species showing signs of 'feminization', or even 'changing sex'. The experimental evidence points to a common link between all these changes: alterations in exposure to the female hormone oestrogen.
Recently it has been discovered that many synthetic chemicals can act like weak oestrogens, imitating the female hormone and other hormones. More frightening still, these are chemicals to which we are all exposed, substances which we are eating, drinking and bathing in. Furthermore, unlike the natural hormone oestrogen, which is active in the body for hours at most, some of these hormone-mimicking chemicals can accumulate in our body fat and linger in our tissues for years.
Could there be a connection between these two threads of scientific research? This book examines the compelling evidence and presents the views of leading scientists in the field.

Deborah Cadbury specializes in cutting edge science journalism which raises fundamental issues about how science is used in society. She has produced science programmes for BBC television for seventeen years and has won numerous awards.