New Data Finds That Parabens and Phenols Might Lead to Hypertension During Pregnancy—How Bad Is This?

A positive pregnancy test might be a cue to overhaul your beauty routine—cancel that injectable appointment, shelve your retinoids, rethink fragrance. Now, you can add parabens (the already controversial preservative used in some personal care products) and phenols to the list of things you might want to avoid when you’re pregnant, since there’s new research to suggest that both may increase your risk of hypertension during pregnancy. If you haven’t heard of phenols before (join the club), “it’s a broad term in chemistry that encompasses different chemicals,” explains cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos. Technically speaking, a phenol is anything with “a hydroxyl group attached to a carbon atom that is part of an aromatic ring,” says Dobos. Practically speaking, it includes manmade chemicals and naturally-occurring ones that may be used as preservatives like triclosan, as the sunscreen ingredient oxybenzone, or as plasticizers such as BPA, like in plastic water bottles, packaging, and more.

Today, a study was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives that followed more than 1,400 women throughout their pregnancies, measuring their blood pressure between 16 and 20 weeks, then again between 24 and 28 weeks. The researchers also tested urine for biomarkers associated with 12 chemicals found in personal-care products as well as in food and plastic, including bisphenol A (BPA), triclosan, methyl paraben, propylparaben, butyl paraben, and ethyl paraben.

They found that exposure to both parabens and phenols was associated with an increased risk of hypertension—essentially, high blood pressure—during pregnancy, especially in the third trimester. “We looked at the exposures in early pregnancy and hypertension in later pregnancy,” says Julia Varshavsky, Ph.D., a professor of environmental health at Northeastern University and the lead author of the study. “That showed us that the chemicals in early pregnancy actually matter for later in pregnancy.”

This is especially concerning since hypertensive disorders are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the US, contributing to heart attacks and strokes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even more worrisome: Hypertension during pregnancy is becoming more common, with one study finding that rates doubled between 2008 and 2021.

While the exact way parabens and phenols might increase the risk of hypertension is fuzzy at best, one potential link is the cardiovascular system, which undergoes a huge change when you’re pregnant—your body creates brand-new arteries during placenta development and your blood volume increases, for instance. “Hypertension and hypertensive diseases of pregnancy are characterized by oxidative stress and inflammation during that time period [in early pregnancy],” says Dr. Varshavsky. And the chemicals the researchers measured have previously been shown to increase inflammation and oxidative stress.