E-PRESTO

There is growing evidence that certain chemicals in the environment are harmful to reproductive health, but there has been little research on this topic. The PRESTO investigative team has received additional funding to study the effects of several environmental chemicals on fertility among PRESTO participants. This sub-study is called the Environmental Pregnancy Study Online (E-PRESTO).

E-PRESTO will recruit 1,000 female PRESTO participants and 1,000 of their male partners. Participants are eligible for an in-clinic visit if they live or work in the greater Boston or Detroit areas. Participants must be willing to provide blood and urine samples (in addition to completing all questionnaires for the main PRESTO study), so that levels of environmental chemicals can be measured. At the end of the in-person visit, participants will be given a urine collection kit to complete at home in addition to the samples they gave at the clinic. After collection, participants’ samples will be shipped to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for analysis.

Participants who are eligible to participate in the mail-based E-PRESTO protocol will be mailed a kit to their home to collect their urine and blood spot samples after they consent to the substudy. Urine collection will consist of collecting a small sample of urine every 3 days throughout a span of 12 days. For the blood spot collection, participants will prick their finger with a small needle and place spots of blood on a card that is provided. All materials and instructions needed for collecting the urine and blood spots will be included in the kit. Once all samples are collected, the participant will receive an email from our research team with instructions on how to return the samples back to Boston University free of charge.

Please note: participants may opt out of the blood spot collection. However, they will only receive compensation for the samples we receive back from them.

The PRESTO researchers highly encourage participants who live in the Boston or Detroit areas to participate in the in-clinic visits, because this allows us to collect more complete samples for our analyses, such as collecting whole blood samples at the clinic compared to blood spots through the mail-based protocol. However, if you live in these areas and prefer to participate in the mail-based protocol, please contact us at bupresto@bu.edu.

Yes, payment for each protocol of E-PRESTO is as follows:

• In-person clinic visit: $50 for the clinic visit and $20 for the at-home urine collection with the kit participants receive at the end of the in-person visit
• Mail-based protocol: $20 for urine samples and $40 for blood spot samples 

Participants will be able receive information on the levels of chemicals in their blood and urine, and how those levels compare with the rest of the E-PRESTO study participants and reproductive-aged women in the U.S. However, we send urine and blood samples to the CDC in batches, and the analyses take time to complete. Therefore, we estimate it may take at least 1-2 years before your levels are available. Participants will be notified when results become available, and can access their results online through our secure portal.

If you are interested in enrolling in the E-PRESTO study, please complete your baseline PRESTO questionnaire. Our automated system will then check which E-PRESTO protocol you are eligible for, and we will invite you in a separate e-mail. If you have any questions, please contact us at bupresto@bu.edu or 617-358-3424.

No. You must first enroll in PRESTO to be eligible for E-PRESTO.