Audrey Gaskins
Assistant Professor
Faculty, Epidemiology

My research focuses on understanding the relation of environmental, dietary, and lifestyle factors with fertility and fecundity in men and women.
While I have focused on many aspects of diet and fertility, I have published extensively on the benefits of folic acid, at levels well above the current recommendations, in terms of preventing anovulation and incident pregnancy loss and increasing the success of infertility treatment. One of my current NIH grants is focused on extending this work to examine the potential interaction between diet, air pollution, and fertility among women. Specifically, using validated spatial-temporal regression models of air pollution exposure, validated dietary questionnaires, personal air pollution monitors, and novel metabolomics biomarkers, this grant will determine the extent to which air pollution and its specific constituents affect fecundity, the potential for diet to modify these associations, and the possible mechanisms of action using a cohort of women undergoing in vitro fertilization at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Another core area of research focus is on maternal body weight and fecundity. My research in this area has helped quantify the impact that weight loss could have on preventing subfecundity and adverse pregnancy outcomes particularly among women who are overweight and obese in adolescence. Finally, I am a leading researcher on diet and male fertility with my research in this area helping highlight the impact that diet, physical activity, and body weight can have on markers of male fertility such as semen quality, reproductive hormones, and live birth.
Contact Information
1518 Clifton Road, NE
Atlanta , GA 30322
1518-002-3BB (SPH: Epidemiology)
Phone: 404-727-5409
Fax: 404-727-8737
Areas of Interest
- Air Pollution
- Environmental Health
- Epidemiology
- Maternal and Child Health
- Nutrition
- Obesity Prevention
- Reproductive Health
Affiliations & Activities
- American Society for Reproductive Medicine
- Society for Epidemiologic Research
- International Society for Environmental Epidemiology
- Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Research
- American Society of Nutrition
Publications
- Gaskins AJ, Nassan FL, Chiu YH, Arvizu M, Williams PL, Keller MG, Souter I, Hauser R, Chavarro JE., 2019, Dietary patterns and outcomes of assisted reproduction, Am J Obstet Gynecol, 220,
- Gaskins AJ, Fong KC, Abu Awad Y, Di Q, Mínguez-Alarcón L, Chavarro JE, Ford JB, Coull BA, Schwartz J, Kloog I, Souter I, Hauser R, Laden F., 2019, Time-Varying Exposure to Air Pollution and Outcomes of in Vitro Fertilization among Couples from a Fertility Clinic, Environ Health Perspect, 127,
- Gaskins AJ, Missmer SA, Rich-Edwards JW, Williams PL, Souter I, Chavarro JE, 2018, Demographic, lifestyle, and reproductive risk factors for ectopic pregnancy, Fertil Steril, 110, 1328-1337
- Gaskins AJ, Chavarro JE, 2018, Diet and fertility: a review, Am J Obstet Gynecol, 218, 379-389
- Gaskins AJ, 2018, Moving the science forward on dietary patterns and male fertility, Fertil Steril, 109, 783
- Gaskins AJ, Sundaram R, Buck Louis GM, Chavarro JE, 2018, Predictors of Sexual Intercourse Frequency Among Couples Trying to Conceive, J Sex Med, 15, 519-528
- Gaskins AJ, 2018, Recent advances in understanding the relationship between long- and short-term weight change and fertility, F1000Res, Oct 26, 7
- Nassan FL, Chavarro JE, Mínguez-Alarcón L, Williams PL, Tanrikut C, Ford JB, Dadd R, Perry MJ, Hauser R, Gaskins AJ, 2018, Residential distance to major roadways and semen quality, sperm DNA integrity, chromosomal disomy, and serum reproductive hormones among men attending a fertility clinic., Int J Hyg Environ Health, 221, 830-837
- Gaskins AJ, Hart JE, Mínguez-Alarcón L, Chavarro JE, Laden F, Coull BA, Ford JB, Souter I, Hauser R., 2018, Residential proximity to major roadways and traffic in relation to outcomes of in vitro fertilization., Environ Int, 115, 239-246
- Gaskins AJ, Sundaram R, Buck Louis GM, Chavarro JE, 2018, Seafood Intake, Sexual Activity, and Time to Pregnancy, J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 103, 2680-2688
- Gaskins AJ, Pereira A, Quintiliano D, Shepherd JA, Uauy R, Corvalán C, Michels KB, 2017, Dairy intake in relation to breast and pubertal development in Chilean girls, Am J Clin Nutr, 105, 1166-1175
- Messerlian C, Gaskins AJ, 2017, Epidemiologic Approaches for Studying Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Design, Methods, Analysis and Interpretation, Curr Epidemiol Rep, 4, 124-132