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Celiac Disease Failed to Increase Women’s Risk for Fertility Problems
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Women with celiac disease did not have clinically recorded fertility problems more frequently than women without celiac disease, according to new research data.
“Despite inconsistent findings from small studies, concern has been raised that celiac disease may cause infertility,” Nafeesa N. Dhalwani, PhD, of the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, said in a press release. “Celiac patients should rest assured; our findings indicate that women with celiac disease do not report fertility problems more often than women without celiac disease.”
To compare rates of fertility problems in a large group of women with and without celiac disease that was representative of the U.K. population, Dhalwani and colleagues used The Health Improvement Network electronic database to identify prospective primary care records of 2,426,225 women of child-bearing age (15-49 years) from 1990 to 2013. They estimated rates of new clinically recorded fertility problems based on age and celiac diagnosis, and stratified the rates based on time of diagnosis (before or after reported fertility problem).
Women with celiac disease (n=6,506) had comparable frequency of fertility problems (4.4%) compared with women without celiac disease (4.1%) overall and across age groups (incidence rate ratio [IRR]=1.12; 95% CI, 0.88-1.42 for those aged 25-29 years; IRR=0.87; 95% CI, 0.7-1.08 for those aged 30-34 years). Infertility rates were comparable between women with and without celiac disease, but rates were higher in women diagnosed aged 25 to 29 years compared with women in the same age group without celiac disease (IRR=1.41; 95% CI, 1.03-1.92), with an absolute risk of 0.5% (5.2 per 1,000 person-years).
“It is important to recognize that this represented only a very small increase in the number of women consulting with fertility problems — if we followed women between ages 25-29 years over a 1-year period, presentation with fertility problems with occur in one of every 100 women without celiac disease, but in 1.5 of every 100 women with celiac disease,” Dhalwani said in the release. “The fact that this increase was not seen in women of the same age with undiagnosed celiac disease indicates that it is unlikely to represent a biological impact of the condition on fertility. It may instead be related to heightened concern that may prompt earlier consultation if women experience delays in conception. This does, however, warrant further assessment.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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