We all have that one friend who’s just one brush stroke away from looking like a full-on-clown. Besides making your face resemble a toddler’s colouring book, here’s an alarming reason to go easy with the lippers and mascaras: wearing too much makeup will result in more than just a pancake face.
A comprehensive, large-scale new study warns that chemicals in cosmetics, hair sprays and even household cleaners, ‘phthalates’ (pronounced f-THAL-lates), could actually cause women to go through menopause earlier than biology would determine.
And that’s hardly good news.
Those exposed to high doses have been found to go through the change almost two to four years before other women. And in some cases, these chemicals may be causing women to stop having periods 15 years too soon, in their mid-30s!
- A group of chemicals known as phthalates, thought to raise the risk of cancer, diabetes and obesity also causes early menopause.
- Women with high levels of this chemical are six times more likely to have an early menopause by two to four years than others.
- This chemical is found in cosmetics, certain plastics and food packaging.