Phthalates are one of the most common environmental
endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in human contact. Prenatal phthalates exposure may adversely affect intrauterine growth, however, little is known about their association. This study aimed to explore the impact of phthalates on the risk of
missed abortion. A total of 123 women with
missed abortion (cases) and 148 normal pregnant women (controls) were simultaneously collected from Taiyuan, China. Four urinary
phthalate metabolites were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Logistic regression model was used to estimate odds ratios (
ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) of
missed abortion associated with
phthalate metabolite levels. Four
phthalate metabolites, including
monomethyl phthalate (
MMP),
monoethyl phthalate (MEP),
monobutyl phthalate (MBP), monobenzyl
phthalate (MBzP), were detected in at least 78.97 % of all participants, with the highest geometric mean concentration of 147.19 ng/mL for MEP of the urine samples. Both
MMP (Z = -3.898, P < 0.001) and MBP (Z = -2.198, P = 0.028) concentrations were higher in cases than in controls. There were no significant differences for MEP (Z = -0.285, P = 0.076) and MBzP (Z = -0.878, P = 0.380) concentrations between cases and controls. Furthermore, Logistic analysis revealed that each one-unit increase in log-transformed
MMP (OR = 1.49, 95 % CI = 1.14-1.95) was positively associated with
missed abortion. Increasing risks of
missed abortion were observed the third quartile (Q3) and the highest quartile (Q4) of
MMP(OR = 2.21, 95 % CI = 1.06-4.60; OR = 2.85, 95 % CI = 1.34-6.05) compared to the lowest quartile (Q1) of
MMP concentrations. We concluded that prenatal phthalates exposure may contribute to an increased risk of
missed abortion.