“Darling, Did The Doctor Measure Your Anal-Scrotal Length?”

How would you react if your doctor said, “Remove your pants and bend over”? Then picked up a ruler and measured the distance from the middle of the anus to the base of the scrotum, the anal-genital distance (AGD). You might decide this doctor is wacky, and quickly find another physician. Dr. Shanna Swan, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Rochester, New York, reports an unusual finding in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Swan and her colleagues discovered that pregnant rats, exposed to phthalates, commonly used chemicals suspected of having adverse effects on hormones, produced infertile offspring.