ANTITHYROID ANTIBODIES AND INFERTILITY IN WOMEN
Abstract
Background: Fecundity followed by pregnancy is the fundamental process to sustain life and require a close interplay between normally functioning and adapting endocrine and immune system (1). Pregnancy represents one of the most significant areas of study for the immunobiologist (2), the reasons for the success of gestation in both normal and abnormal pregnancies remain unclear because of the antigenically dissimilarity between the fetus and the mother (3). Patients and methods: This study included 180 females who were selectively collected and were suffering from infertility and 70 healthy fertile females as control group, that attending Al-Zahraa Teaching Maternity and Pediatrics hospital, and Al-Sader Teaching hospitals in Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf Governorate from November 2007 to June 2008. All the females were in their fertile age. Results: The range of the women's age was between 18 years and 41 years with mean age of 27.1 years. In spite of the only slightly increased incidence of antithyroglobulin antibodies in the group of primary unexplained infertility (12.5%), there is significant raise in secondary unexplained infertile women (26.67%) compared to the fertile group (8.57%) as shown in table 3.16. Our results, however, show a highly significant correlation (P < 0.005) statistically. Conclusions and recommendations: There was a significant correlation between women who are suffering from infertility and the presence of antithyroglobulin antibody in their serum whether they were suffering from thyroid diseases or not. So it is recommended to do an autoantibody survey particularly antithyroid antibody for females who are suffering from infertility specially those of unexplained type or those with failed therapy of unknown cause.References
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