Thyroid disorders in infertile women

Thyroid hormones have profound effects on reproduction and pregnancy. There is a known association of hyper- and hypothyroidism with menstrual disturbances and decreased fecundity. Women with reproductive failure also have an increased prevalence of organ specific autoimmunity compared to fertile women. The present study aims to answer the following questions: 1) is there an increased prevalence of thyroid antibodies in infertile women? 2) are thyroid antibodies associated with a particular cause of infertility? and 3) do these antibodies influence outcome of the in vitro fertilization procedure? The answers to the two first questions were evaluated with a case-control study looking at the occurrence of thyroid autoimmunity and thyroid function tests among women of infertile couples (n=438), presenting for the first time at the department of reproductive medicine. For comparison, a control population of parous women (n=100), matched for age, was included. In 45% of the infertile couples a female cause of infertility was identified: endometriosis (11%), tubal disease (30%) and ovarian dysfunction (59%). Male infertility was diagnosed in 38% and idiopathic infertility in 17% of the couples. Mean serum TSH levels were significantly higher in patients with infertility compared with control patients: 1.6 +/- 2.6 versus 1.2 +/- 0.7 mIU/L. The proportion of positive TPO-Abs was higher in all women of infertile couples, compared with controls (14% versus 8%), but the difference was not significant. Considering only the female causes of infertility a significant higher proportion of women had positive TPO-Abs compared with controls (18% versus 8%), and in particular a high prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity was found in women suffering from endometriosis (29%). Both hypo- and hyperthyroidism were more frequent when TPO-Abs were positive, compared to women without thyroid autoimmunity. The results of the present study indicate that endometriosis, increases the relative risk for associated thyroid autoimmunity to 2.3, and therefore screening for thyroid auto-antibodies could be systematically proposed in these women.