Parabens, meanwhile, are still used in cosmetics; notably, they’re considered safe by governing organizations worldwide—including in Europe, which is usually held up as the standard bearer for “clean” beauty. But skepticism around parabens’ potential as an endocrine disruptor abounds, which is why Dobos has seen a shift firsthand. “I believe the overall rate of paraben usage in the past few years has declined significantly,” she says, noting that this is based on her own formulating work. However, the anti-paraben movement hasn’t quite come for all the other sources of parabens out there. “Parabens are used in food,” she says; they act as preservatives here, too. All to say: It’s hard to say where the phenols and parabens measured in the study are coming from in the first place. Is it the bread? The tap water? The body lotion? There’s no way to know for sure.
So, should you rethink your beauty products that contain parabens? The best answer we’ve got right now is…maybe? Most of the guidance around beauty products during pregnancy is based on what we don’t know—basically, because it’s not possible to ethically test pregnant people to determine the safety of, say, a topical retinol cream or Botox injections, the advice is to simply go without.
In the case of parabens, this study makes the evidence a little firmer, although again, it still doesn’t definitively say whether phenols and parabens cause hypertension so much as they’re associated with it. If you’d rather stick with the status quo of erring on the side of caution, Dr. Varshavsky points to the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database as a good resource for finding ingredients to avoid while pregnant or breastfeeding. And, generally, “looking for products that have the label paraben-free is also a good idea,” she says.
Also worth noting is that both of the (potential, very much yet to be proven) pathways between these compounds and hypertension is that they’re pretty unique to pregnant people, meaning the general population may not have much to worry about just yet. But pregnant or not, these ingredients may be worth revisiting based on your personal risk tolerance.
Ultimately, as it happens so often during pregnancy, there’s no right or perfect answer here. But the study indicates that there’s a link, though not a clear cause, for hypertension during pregnancy—and may lead the way to better, easier, and safer decisions in the future.