A Prospective Ultrasound Study of Whole Blood Metals and Incidence of Uterine Leiomyomata
Uterine leiomyomata (UL), hormone-dependent neoplasms, are a major source of gynecologic morbidity. Metals are hypothesized to influence UL risk through endocrine disruption, and their effects may vary by vitamin D status. We estimated associations of a metal mixture with incident UL, overall and by vitamin D status. We analyzed data from the Study of Environment, Lifestyle and Fibroids, a Detroit-area prospective cohort study of 1,693 black women 23-35 years of age. We measured concentrations of 17 metals/metalloids in whole blood and 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in serum collected at baseline (2010-2012). Participants underwent ultrasonography at baseline and after 20 months to detect UL. We used Bayesian kernel machine regression to estimate adjusted associations ( Among 1,132 UL-free participants at baseline, 832 (73%) had vitamin D deficiency [25(OH)D The metal mixture was positively associated with incident UL, but the association was weak and imprecise. We observed a stronger association among vitamin D-deficient participants that was driven by cadmium and mercury. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP15218.