SHORT COMMUNICATION Bisphenol A is not detectable in media or selected contact materials used in IVF Shruthi Mahalingaiah a,b, * ,1 , Russ Hauser c,d , Donald G Patterson Jr e , Million Woudneh e , Catherine Racowsky a a Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; b Boston University, Boston, MA, USA; c Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; d Vincent Memorial Obstetrics and Gynecology Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; e AXYS Analytical Services Ltd., Sidney, British Columbia, Canada * Corresponding author. E-mail address: shruthi.mahalingaiah@bmc.org (S Mahalingaiah). 1 Present address: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Boston University Medical Center, 85 East Concord Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02118, USA. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, MD received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency training in obstetrics and gynaecology followed by fellowship training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is currently an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Boston University School of Medicine/Boston University Medical Center. Her area of research interest is environmental influences on reproductive health. Abstract There is a lack of data regarding potential exposure of gametes to bisphenol A during IVF. Detectable concentrations of bisphenol A were not found in commonly used IVF plastic culture dishes, suction tubing or growth media under normal-use condi- tions. RBMOnline ª 2012, Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KEYWORDS: bisphenol A, endocrine disruptors, IVF, media, gamete, embryo Introduction Bisphenol A (BPA) is widely used in the production of poly- carbonate plastics and epoxy resins and is prevalent in con- sumer and medical products including those used in direct patient care and for cell culture (Vandenberg et al., 2010). Higher temperature and exposure to acidic and basic solu- tions can also increase leaching of BPA from plastics, even when complete polymerization has occurred (Vandenberg et al., 2010). BPA has been detected in the urine of men and women undergoing IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injec- tion (Mahalingaiah et al., 2008) and in follicular fluid at the time of egg retrieval in women undergoing IVF (Ikezuki et al., 2002), suggesting that human gametes may have BPA exposure during gametogenesis. There are preliminary studies evaluating the association of urinary BPA concentrations with IVF outcomes (Fujimoto et al., 2011). The biologically significant lowest dose of BPA exposure has not been as yet determined for the human 1472-6483/$ - see front matter ª 2012, Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbmo.2012.08.008 Reproductive BioMedicine Online (2012) 25, 608– 611 www.sciencedirect.com www.rbmonline.com