Environmental PCB exposure and risk of endometriosis.

Background: Hormonally active environmental agents have recently been associated with the development of endometriosis.

Methods: We undertook a study to assess the relationship between endometriosis, an estrogen-dependent gynaecological disease, and 62 individual polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) congeners. We enrolled 84 eligible women aged 18-40 years undergoing laparoscopy for study, which included an interview and blood specimen (n=79; 94%).

Prenatal diagnosis of skeletal dysplasia identified postnatally as hypochondroplasia.

A short-limb skeletal dysplasia was diagnosed prenatally at 35 weeks of gestation. After birth the infant was found to have hypochondroplasia. The parents are of average stature, and the child's disorder presumably occurred as a fresh mutation.