What Your Frying Pan Does to Your Hormones

I love to cook, and I love to read studies. At some point those two things meet in the kitchen, over the pan that sits on the stove every day in most of our homes: the nonstick frying pan.

I am a natural scientist, and with an everyday object I am always interested in the mechanism, in how something actually works. Cookware attracts a lot of sweeping verdicts, from “everything except cast iron is poison” to “it’s all harmless.” Neither is true. It gets interesting when you look closely at what a material releases into your food, and which of those substances have anything to do with your hormone system at all.

Because this is the point most pan debates miss: when it comes to hormones, it is almost never about the metal. It is about the coating. This article sorts out which material really matters in perimenopause, separating the evidence from the kitchen mythology.

Why the Coating Is What Matters

The classic nonstick coating is polytetrafluoroethylene, PTFE for short, better known by the brand name Teflon. Chemically, PTFE belongs to the large group of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the PFAS. These substances are often called “forever chemicals” because their fluorine-carbon bonds are extremely stable and barely break down in the environment.

Here is the important distinction: the solid, intact PTFE on a new pan is largely inert at normal cooking temperatures. The older concern around PFOA, a particularly problematic processing aid, is less relevant for new pans since manufacturers phased it out around 2013. The problem is not the flawless pan from the store. The problem develops in everyday use: through heat and through scratches.

This is exactly the area that longevity research overlooked for a long time. As the review by Mesnage (2025) notes, environmental factors get far too little attention in the conversation about healthy aging, even though we are exposed to them daily. Cookware is a good example, much like the substances in conventional cleaning products that I have written about elsewhere.

What Happens With Heat and Scratches

A widely cited Australian study measured precisely what a damaged nonstick layer releases. The team around Luo and colleagues (2022) used Raman spectroscopy to image how many particles are freed when handling the pan. The result: a single scratch can release around 9,100 micro- and nanoplastic particles of PTFE, a larger broken patch up to 2.3 million particles.

These particles are micro- and nanoplastics, and they carry the same fluorinated chemical fingerprint as the rest of the PFAS family. On top of that: if an empty nonstick pan is strongly overheated, the coating can decompose and release irritant fumes. Both are avoidable scenarios, and that is exactly where the practical part later comes in.

Fig. 1: What a damaged nonstick coating releases (Luo et al., 2022).

What PFAS Do to Your Hormones

Why is this particularly relevant in perimenopause? Because PFAS are considered hormonally active substances, so-called endocrine disruptors.

Two mechanisms are central here. First, the thyroid: PFAS can disrupt thyroid hormone (thyroxine, T4), interfering both with how it is produced and how it is transported in the blood. The review by Coperchini and colleagues (2021) summarizes the evidence that both older and newer PFAS can throw the thyroid off balance. The thyroid controls energy, metabolism, and mood, and it already reacts more sensitively in perimenopause.

Second, the sex hormones: one of the most informative investigations comes from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Ding and colleagues (2020) followed over 1,100 midlife women and found that a higher PFAS blood level was linked to natural menopause arriving about two years earlier on average.

An important note for context: this study measures total PFAS exposure in the blood, not the share that comes from the pan. PFAS come from many sources: water, packaging, textiles, and cookware too. No one can claim that your frying pan brings your menopause forward.

What can be said: as a class, PFAS are hormonally active and associated with earlier menopause, and coated cookware is one of the few PFAS sources you actually control. In a phase when your hormone system is already in transition, that is an avoidable extra burden.

Fig. 2: Two documented hormonal pathways of PFAS (Coperchini et al., 2021; Ding et al., 2020).

Cast Iron: No Hormone Issue, but Iron

Cast iron is the counterpart to the coating: a solid, uncoated material that contains no fluorinated substances. What it releases is iron. The classic study by Brittin and Nossaman (1986) showed that in around 90 percent of the foods tested, iron content rose significantly when they were cooked in cast iron rather than in other cookware. The effect was especially pronounced with acidic, moist dishes like tomato sauce.

For many people that is an advantage, especially for women with low iron stores. But there is an honest caveat: anyone with iron overload, for example through hemochromatosis or persistently high ferritin levels, should not take in unlimited extra iron from cast iron. After menopause, iron rises in many women anyway, because the monthly losses stop. If you are unsure, it is worth a look at your blood values, and ferritin is one of them.

In practice that means: cast iron is excellent for searing and braising, and the better it is seasoned, the less it releases. I would not let strongly acidic dishes simmer in it for hours, as that strips the seasoning and drives up iron release.

Stainless Steel: Solid, With a Small Asterisk

Stainless steel is one of the safest and most practical options for everyday use, and here I want to clear up a common misconception. Stainless steel is not a hormone problem.

Its only caveat: during long cooking of acidic dishes, stainless steel can release some nickel and chromium. Kamerud and colleagues (2013) showed that nickel and chromium content in tomato sauce rose significantly after several hours of cooking, most strongly with new and low-grade stainless steel. The important context: the release decreases with use, because a protective oxide layer forms, and it stabilizes after a few cooking cycles.

Nickel is relevant mainly for people with a nickel allergy, in whom it can trigger skin reactions. But it is not an endocrine disruptor. Chromium and iron are even essential trace elements in small amounts. So for your hormones, stainless steel is harmless. If you have a nickel allergy, simply cook long acidic dishes in glass or enamel.

Glass, Enamel, and the Ceramic Fallacy

Solid glass and enamelled cookware (a glass layer fused onto metal) are the most inert options of all. They release virtually nothing into food, tolerate acid without trouble, and have no coating that could wear off. For acidic braised dishes they are ideal.

There is, however, an important mix-up going around. “Ceramic” stands for two very different things:

• Solid glass-ceramic and enamel: inert, durable, harmless.
• Ceramic-coated nonstick pans: a thin sol-gel layer that only superficially resembles solid ceramic. These coatings often lose their nonstick effect within weeks, and manufacturers usually do not disclose their exact composition. “PFAS-free” on the packaging says nothing about the remaining ingredients.

In short: solid ceramic yes, ceramic as a coating with caution and the expectation that it will not last forever.

Fig. 3: Cookware compared, sorted by what it releases.

What You Can Do About It

This is not about re-equipping the entire kitchen. A few targeted steps capture most of the effect:

• Retire scratched nonstick pans. As soon as the coating has scratches or flaked spots, the pan belongs in retirement. That is exactly where most particles are released.
• Treat the coating gently. No metal utensils, no harsh scrubbing, and above all never strongly overheat the empty pan. Nonstick is suited to eggs and delicate foods at medium heat, not to hard searing.
• Stainless steel as the all-rounder. For most tasks, stainless steel is a safe default. With a little fat and the right preheat temperature, little sticks here either.
• Cast iron for searing. Well seasoned, ideal for meat, vegetables, and anything that needs a roasted flavor.
• Glass or enamel for acid. Tomato sauce, acidic braises, and anything that simmers for a long time are happiest in glass or enamel.

The Bottom Line

With cookware, the coating is what decides. PTFE belongs to the PFAS, which are considered hormonally active and are linked to earlier menopause. The uncoated materials, cast iron, stainless steel, glass, and enamel, release no such substances, each with its own small profile.

The solution is not to panic and throw out the whole kitchen. It is to replace the scratched nonstick pan, treat the coating gently, and rely on materials that release nothing hormonal for everything else. One avoidable extra burden less for a system that is already under strain in perimenopause.

Birgit

If you want to find out which levers make the biggest difference for you, my coaching for perimenopause provides the right framework, or you can start with a free initial consultation.