If you’re trying to get pregnant and live on a noisy street, you might want to sit down for this. That noise could delay your ability to get pregnant — by anywhere from six months to a year, new research suggests.
Researchers analyzed 65,000 women in Denmark, looking at data from the Danish National Birth Cohort, which ran from 1996 to 2002. They purposefully studied women whose traffic noise data was accessible, New Scientist reports.
The study, published online this month in Environment International, found that for each additional 10 decibels of nearby traffic noise, a woman faced a 5 to 8 percent increased risk of delayed pregnancy for six months or more.
The link between traffic noise and conception issues didn’t last beyond one year, suggesting there might be other reasons these women couldn’t get pregnant.
New Scientist reports that it’s not clear if the traffic noise was a hindrance to the women themselves or if it was affecting their partner’s fertility. The publication pointed out studies highlighting decreased fertility in women and lower semen quality in men who experienced sleep disturbances, which traffic noise could presumably cause.
The study’s limitations were that it only included data from pregnant women (and not those with unresolved infertility issues) and researchers didn’t have data on things such as subjects’ potential home noise modifiers, like window insulation.
The study’s strengths included its size, plus the fact that researchers “had access to individual-level register data on socioeconomic position and access to residential address history for noise- and air-pollution assessment,” write the study authors. “In addition, exposures to both road traffic noise and air pollution were estimated using state-of-the-art exposure methods.”
More research is necessary on the subject, though one thing’s for sure: A certain type of noise won’t be quieting down once that baby is born.
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Could Traffic Noise Be Affecting Your Ability to Get Pregnant? originally appeared on usnews.com
