Top Reproductive Epidemiologist, Joins the Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center
Shanna H. Swan, PhD brings over 30 years of research experience on phthalates and other endocrine disrupting chemicals to Mount Sinai
Shanna H. Swan, PhD has joined the Mount Sinai School of Medicine as the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Preventive Medicine in April 2011. Dr. Swan has also joined the staff of the Children’s Environmental Health Center (CEHC), bringing over 30 years of research experience focusing on endocrine disruptors and reproductive epidemiology.
Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Swan served as Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Professor in Environmental Medicine, and Director of the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Since 1998, Dr. Swan has served as Principal Investigator of the Study for Future Families, a multi-center pregnancy cohort study that examines the environmental causes of geographic variation in reproductive health endpoints in men, women, and children.
Dr. Swan's research focuses on the impact of environmental exposures on male and female reproductive health. She has published over 150 papers on this topic, most notably a study that shows that baby boys are more likely to experience changes in their genitals - such as undescended testicles and smaller penises - if their mothers were exposed to high levels of phthalates during pregnancy. Her research has also shown that phthalate exposure has effects of the masculine brain, altering the play behavior of young boys.
Most recently, Dr. Swan has published a study in Environmental Health Perspectives that reveals that male infertility may stem from in utero chemical exposures. In this study, Dr. Swan and her team found anogenital distance (AGD) to be a strong predictor of sperm count, motility, and shape.
Previously, scientists had linked shortened AGD in rodents with reduced sperm count, birth defects affecting the genitals, and smaller male organs. However, these results had never been confirmed in humans. In this new study, published on March 4, the team found that one in four of the 126 men tested appeared subfertile and possibly infertile. Those with an AGD below the median distance for their build were 7.3 times more likely to be in the subfertile group, as were those with an AGD above the medium.
"Up until now, nobody has really understood what might be the impacts of shortened AGD on quality of life," Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center, told Science News. "So this observation that a short AGD is correlated with low sperm count is new stuff and, I think, very important."
Both the abstract and the article are available online at Environmental Health Perspectives. Science News also provides a recap of this study, which has been picked up by major news outlets like U.S. News and World Report and WebMD.
About the Children’s Environmental Health Center
The Children’s Environmental Health Center at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City conducts research to protect children against environmental threats to health. Our investigations seek to discover the environmental causes of such diseases as asthma, learning disabilities, autism, obesity, and childhood cancer. We transmit our research to pediatricians, policy makers, parents, and all who care for children.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.
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