Abstract
Background: Asthma has been linked with prolonged time to pregnancy, but our knowledge of asthma and infertility is limited
Objective: To explore a possible association between asthma and infertility
Methods: All pregnant women referred to Hvidovre Hospital (HVH) have been offered enrolment into the Management of Asthma during Pregnancy (MAP) program since 2007. Pregnant women were eligible for the present study provided they had a diagnosis of asthma and had their first visit to the respiratory outpatient clinic within the first 18 weeks of pregnancy (cases). Controls were the three consecutive women giving birth at HVH. Information on fertility treatment was obtained from the Danish national Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) registry and cross-linked with the Medical birth registry to identify live births. The outcome variables are treatment-related births and births due to spontaneous conception in the cohort. Exposure is treatment with assisted reproductive technology and intrauterine insemination regardless of cause of infertility
Results: Our sample comprised 744 cases (i.e. women with asthma) and 2.136 controls. Around 12% (n=85) of cases had fertility treatment compared to 7% (n=142) in the control group (OR 1.81, 95% CI (1.37-2.40), p<0.0001). This association was borderline significant when adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking status, nulliparity, being single and in a same sex partnership (OR 1.36, 95% CI (1.00-1.85), p = 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in female cause of infertility in cases compared to controls
Conclusion: Asthma is associated with higher prevalence of fertility treatment even after adjusting for lifestyle related factors
- Copyright ©the authors 2017
