Hormones run almost everything in the human body — growth, fertility, metabolism, stress, development, mood, immune function, and the delicate internal timing that keeps us living in balance.
When something nudges these hormone systems off course, the effects rarely look dramatic in the moment. They tend to show up quietly, slowly, and often in the next generation.
That’s what makes endocrine disruption one of the biggest blind spots in modern chemical regulation — and why glyphosate-based herbicides deserve far more scrutiny than they receive.
Glyphosate-based herbicides are not examined in this series because they are exceptional, but because they are revealing. Approved long before endocrine science existed, and still assessed using regulatory tests that struggle to detect low-dose, timing-specific, and hormone-mediated effects, glyphosate offers a clear case study of how modern biology can collide with outdated safety frameworks. The question this series explores is not whether glyphosate is simply “safe” or “unsafe,” but whether the systems used to evaluate it are capable of seeing the kinds of effects endocrine science now understands.
This four-part series explores endocrine disruption step by step. We begin with the basics of how hormones work, move into the science of glyphosate’s endocrine effects, examine what those effects mean in the real world, and end with the uncomfortable truth about why regulators still can’t see what modern science is revealing.
If you’re new to the topic, start with Part 1. If you’re following the regulatory questions, start with Part 4. Each article stands on its own, but together they build a picture of a system struggling to keep up with the science.
Part 1 — What Is the Endocrine System? A Simple Guide to Hormones and Chemical Disruption
Understanding endocrine disruption begins with understanding the endocrine system itself — the body’s long-distance messaging network. This introductory article walks through how hormones work, why tiny shifts matter, and what makes endocrine disruptors so difficult for traditional toxicology to detect.
Read Part 1: https://nomoreglyphosate.nz/what-is-the-endocrine-system/
Part 2 — Is Glyphosate an Endocrine Disruptor? What the Science Says
Here we look directly at the evidence. Human-cell studies, animal research, and wildlife experiments all point toward hormonal interference at extremely low doses, especially with glyphosate-based formulations rather than the pure active ingredient. This article explores the emerging patterns and why they’ve been so easy for regulators to dismiss.
Read Part 2: https://nomoreglyphosate.nz/glyphosate-endocrine-disruptor/
Part 3 — What Endocrine Disruption Means for People, Animals, and the Environment
Endocrine disruption doesn’t stay in the lab. It affects fertility, puberty timing, pregnancy, metabolic health, and thyroid balance in humans. It affects livestock, bees, fish, birds, amphibians, and the ecosystems that depend on them. This piece brings the science into the real world and asks what these ripple effects mean for New Zealand.
Read Part 3: https://nomoreglyphosate.nz/endocrine-disruption-real-world-impacts/
Part 4 — Why Regulators Miss Glyphosate’s Endocrine Risks
The final article investigates the structural problem at the heart of New Zealand’s chemical safety system. Glyphosate was approved long before endocrine science existed, and the tests used today still can’t detect the kind of low-dose, timing-specific effects researchers now understand. This conclusion ties everything together — the science, the blind spots, and the questions New Zealand must now confront.
Read Part 4: https://nomoreglyphosate.nz/glyphosate-endocrine-risks-regulatory-failure/
The System Wasn’t Built for the Science We Have Now
Across all four parts of this series, one conclusion rises above the details: our chemical safety framework was never designed to deal with endocrine disruption. Not the low-dose effects. Not the timing effects. Not the receptor-level interference or generational shifts. And certainly not the complex formulations people are actually exposed to.
Glyphosate didn’t slip through because the science was unclear.
It slipped through because the system wasn’t built to notice what endocrine science now understands.
That’s the real story here.
Not one study. Not one species. Not one exposure pathway.
A structural mismatch between modern biology and outdated regulation.
And the consequences aren’t theoretical. They show up in fertility statistics. In developmental timing. In metabolic disease patterns. In wildlife struggling to reproduce. In ecosystems shifting in ways we barely recognise until hindsight makes it obvious.
The question now isn’t whether glyphosate-based herbicides can affect hormones — the research keeps pointing that way. The question is whether New Zealand is willing to update a safety system that still operates on assumptions endocrine science overturned years ago.
Because if the tools we rely on can’t detect the kind of harm we’re now seeing, then silence in the data isn’t reassurance.
It’s a blind spot.
And the longer we leave a blind spot unexamined, the more it tends to matter.
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