December 5, 2025

expert reaction to PFAS Exposure and Endocrine Disruption Among Women

A study published in JAMA Network Open looks at PFAS exposure and endocrine disruption in women. 

Prof Oliver Jones, Professor of Chemistry, RMIT University, said:

“The paper itself is extremely short and lacks detail about the methods used. The authors have not conducted any experiments or generated any new data; instead, they are analysing existing survey data to try and generate new conclusions.

“My major concern is that the authors seem to have defined endocrine disruption simply as “self-reported presence or absence of oestrogen or progesterone hormone or both intake”. So basically, the whole premise of the work relies entirely on study participants’ self-reporting if they were taking hormone supplements or not. This is not a valid definition of endocrine disruption in my view. People could be taking hormone supplements for a variety of reasons; one can’t assume it has anything to do with PFAS or that it actually reflects endocrine disruption at all. This point is illustrated nicely by the fact that PFOS was actually found to be protective against endocrine disruption.

“Another issue is that data on all the possible cofounders, such as whether the participants were smokers, used alcohol, had high blood pressure etc. were also self-reported. There was no independent or consistent measurement of any of these things, which makes it impossible to assess them accurately.

“Even if we assume all participants reported everything with 100% accuracy, and that the use of hormone supplements is a good proxy for endocrine disruption. Monitoring data show that PFAS concentrations in blood are declining in the US, indicating that exposure is also decreasing as new restrictions come into force¹.

“In short, I don’t think this paper adds much to the debate on PFAS.”

¹ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935124016827 

‘PFAS Exposure and Endocrine Disruption Among Women’ by Rezaul Karim Ripon et al. was published in JAMA Network Open at 4pm UK time on Friday 5 December 2025. 

DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.39425

Declared interests

Oliver Jones: “I am a Professor of Chemistry at RMIT University in Melbourne. I have no direct conflicts of interest to declare, but I have previously published research on PFAS in the environment. I have, in the past, received funds from the Environment Protection Authority Victoria and various Australian Water utilities for research into environmental pollution, including PFAS.”