could phthalates in food cause some babies to be born trans?

Yesterday, I read this article published in the New York Times about how all powdered cheese in boxed mac and cheese contains exceedingly high levels of phthalates. It states things like Strong evidence phthalates block production of testosterone, affecting the developing male fetus, also “Infertility, low sperm counts, altered male reproductive behavior and changes in the brain that are important for sex differences between men and women”.

I respect all humane and decent people regardless of how they identify. That doesn’t interfere with my belief that if man-made chemicals are poisoning our food and causing babies to be born with mal-developed genitalia and/or gender distinction; I believe that is a serious problem that should be addressed. The FDA needs to hurry up and do something about toxic phthalates in our food, like yesterday.

Against the advice of my OB, I turned down synthetic hormones when I was pregnant with our youngest son. I’m so thankful that I did my own research and made that choice because he was born healthy at full term. Hormones have a very big influence on the development of babies in utero. Those babies are not making any choices when they are still a developing fetus, they are subject to environmental factors. And pregnant moms have some choice about what foods they eat, but it is very hard to know what foods are safe with so many millions of products on the shelf. Plus exposure elsewhere in the environment. It’s scary stuff.