Association of oxidative stress with female infertility - A case control study

To compare stress markers and reproductive hormones in fertile and infertile females, and to relate the markers with age, duration and cause of infertility, and body mass index..

The case-control study was conducted at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from March 2017 to February 2018. Females aged 16-50 years regardless of ethnic background were recruited from the Australian Concept Infertility Medical Centre, Karachi, and were equally divided into infertile cases group A, and fertile controls group B. Serum follicular stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, estradiol, glutathione reductase and cortisol were measured using enzyme-linked innmunosorbent assay. SPSS 19 was used for statistical analysis..

There were 328 female subjects divided into two equal groups of 164(50%). Serum luteinizing hormone and cortisol was higher in the group A than in group B (p<0.001). Serum glutathione reductase was low in group A compared to group B (p<0.001). Duration of infertility, serum levels of glutathione reductase and cortisol were also significantly different among infertile females when distributed on the basis of cause of infertility (p<0.05). Serum cortisol had negative correlation with glutathione reductase (p<0.001). Age and body mass index had a positive correlation with serum cortisol (p=0.035; p=0.63), while there was a negative correlation with glutathione reductase (p = -0.732)..

Prolonged duration of infertility, age of females and body mass index enhanced the production of stress hormones and decreased antioxidant activity which augmented the risk of infertility.