Single injection with chlordecone reduces behavioral receptivity and fertility of adult rats.

The effects of chlordecone on fertility were examined in adult, intact female rats. Rats were treated with 25, 50 or 75 mg/kg chlordecone and initial exposure occurred either on the morning before mating or on the morning after mating. When exposure occurred on the morning of proestrus, mating behavior 8 to 9 hours was significantly reduced by 50 or 75 mg/kg chlordecone. Yet, when housed overnight with sexually experienced males, most females showed sperm in the vaginal smear. However, only 23% of the 50 mg/kg group and none of the 75 mg/kg group delivered offspring. Females given 25 mg/kg chlordecone showed behavior and fertility identical to oil injected controls. When females were treated with chlordecone after mating, 41% of the females given 50 mg/kg chlordecone produced litters while 33% of the 75 mg/kg females delivered offspring. Under both conditions, fertility was substantially reduced. In previous studies, chlordecone's reduction of the preovulatory luteinizing hormone (LH) surge has been offered as an explanation for the pesticide's reproductive deficits. The present studies indicate that the failure of chlordecone-treated females to ovulate cannot totally account for the decreased fertility.