Evaluation of Ovarian Reserve among Newly Diagnosed Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Related Subclinical and Overt Hypothyroid Reproductive Women: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Thyroid autoimmunity is amore common autoimmune disease among reproductive women. It is proposed that, thyroid peroxidase antibodies pass through the blood follicle barrier during follicular development which damages the growing follicles and oocytes. Previous studies have demonstrated the association between thyroid autoimmunity and ovarian failure. Serum Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) levels are used as a marker of ovarian reserve in clinical practice. Aim: To evaluate ovarian reserve among newly diagnosed Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (HT) related subclinical and overt hypothyroid women. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Biochemistry, Government Medical College Nalgonda, Telangana, India, from August 2020 to July 2021. The study included 180 subjects, 60 in each Overt Hypothyroid (OH group), Subclinical Hypothyroid (SCH group) and Euthyroid subjects (EU group). Socio-demographic details and other parameters age, Body Mass Index (BMI), AMH, Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), free T4 (fT4), Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPOAb), Follicular Stimulating Hormone (FSH), Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Estradiol (E2), Antral Follicular Count (AFC) were evaluated and compared in all the three groups. The above data were recorded and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 and the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test, Chi-square test, and Spearman’s correlation test were performed for statistical analysis. Results: The median age, BMI, and total AFC were not statistically significant (p-value >0.05). Serum TPOAb levels were significantly (p-value <0.001) high in the OH group and SCH group when compared to the EU group. The AMH levels were significantly (p-value=0.015) high inthe EU group compared to the OH group, but there were no statistically significant differences among other groups. The AMH values were negatively correlated with age among all the three groups. There was no significant correlation between AMH and other parameters analysed among different groups. Conclusion: The AMH levels were significantly low in the OH group when compared to the EU group. There were no statistically significant differences among other groups. Age was found to be an independent factor for low AMH levels among all the three groups.