shock! Study: Excessive intake of soy milk may cause infertility in girls

Soy milk has been a health product since ancient times. The smaller molecular weight of plant protein in soy milk is not only easy for the human body to absorb, but also has many benefits for menopausal women who are undergoing hormonal changes. However, a group of American scholars published a controversial report in early May, pointing out that if female babies, whether in the mother's womb or after birth, or girls before puberty, absorb a large amount of "plant estrogens" in soy products, they are likely to develop infertility symptoms when they grow up, which surprised many people.

American researchers have confirmed that if baby girls or girls are exposed to soy products too early, it will greatly increase the possibility of infertility in the future. (Photo/taken from "Bioidentical Hormone Health")

The U.S. health website Bioidentical Hormone Health reported today that researchers from the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) found in a series of mouse experiments that excessive exposure of embryos to plant or environmental estrogens in the mother's uterus will cause the mother mice to develop infertility symptoms when they grow up. The reason is that the "soy isoflavones/genistein" in soybeans will prevent the ovaries from ovulating normally, the oviduct from supporting the development of the fertilized egg, and the fertilized egg from successfully implanting in the uterine wall, resulting in frequent miscarriages in the early stages of pregnancy. The paper was published in the latest issue of the journal Biology of Reproduction.

The researchers explained that if mother mice are exposed to an environment rich in soy isoflavones, the balance of the immune response in the fallopian tube, namely the mucosal immune response, will gradually change, making the fallopian tube unable to successfully support the development of the embryo before implantation, resulting in fetal death in the womb. In addition, this change in immunity is most significant during pregnancy (prenatal) and just after birth (neonatal). If it is corresponded to the human growth period, it roughly falls in the stage before entering puberty. In other words, if infant girls and girls consume large amounts of soy products or supplements, it may greatly increase the chance of infertility in the future, so you must be careful.

This report immediately sparked a lot of discussion. The reason is that many women's daily staple foods include soy products, and many infant formulas also contain soy ingredients. These were previously regarded as the main source of protein intake, but now it has been confirmed that they may be the culprit of female infertility, which makes many women quite uneasy. Therefore, nutritionists recommend that if female friends have similar concerns, they can drink goat milk or almond milk instead, which are rich in protein and very healthy for the human body.