Abstract
Aim: This study evaluated the impact of age on the hormonal profiles of women diagnosed with infertility in a Fertility Clinic in Abia State, South-East, Nigeria. Methodology: Subjects comprised of 200 females: 150 subjects and 50 controls, aged < 20 and up to 49 years, stratified into age < 20 years (control), age 20 - 29 years (group 1), age 30 - 39 years (group 2) and age 40 - 49 years (group 3). About 5 ml of blood samples for anti-Mullerian, follicle stimulating, luteinizing, estradiol, and prolactin hormones determinations were collected on day 2 - 3 of spontaneous menstrual cycle from all groups and control and analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The FSH/LH ratio of all groups was also calculated. The data were analyzed statistically and values considered significant at p < 0.05. Result: The means ± SEM of serum anti-Mullerian hormones were 1602.44 ± 54.42 pg/ml (control), 848.06 ± 23.04 pg/ml (group 1), 26.74 ± 1.28 pg/ml (group 2), 10.37 ± 1.26 pg/ml (group 3) values for follicle stimulating hormone in the control subjects was 4.90 ± 0.22 mIU/ml, 12.59 ± 0.79 mIU/ml (group 1), 30.59 ± 1.31 mIU/ml (group 2), and 41.59 ± 1.59 miU/ml (group 3). Similarly, the mean ± SEM of luteinizing hormone of control, group 1, group 2 and group 3 were 5.01 ± 0.22 mIU/ml, 15.02 ± 1.13 mIU/ml, 42.71 ± 1.82 mIU/ml and 58.22 ± 2.62 mIU/ml respectively while for estadiol the values were 63.16 ± 1.95 pg/ml, 94.10 ± 5.56 pg/ml, 58.84 ± 4.01 pg/ml and 36.7 ± 1.59 pg/ml for control, group 1, group 2 and group 3 respectively. The mean ± SEM of FSH/LH ratio for the control and experimental subjects were 0.98 ± 0.01, 0.89 ± 0.02, 0.74 ± 0.03 and 0.75 ± 0.02 for control, group 1, group 2 and group 3 respectively. The comparison of the means showed significant difference (p < 0.0001). The hormonal parameters were also positively and negatively correlated amongst each. Conclusion: The evaluation of levels of the hormonal parameters across the age ranges of the population studied shows that women within the control and experimental group 1 (<20 years and 20 - 29 years) have a better chance of achieving pregnancy naturally.
Highlights
Infertility is the inability of couples to accomplish conception or pregnancy after regular sexual intercourse for a period between one year and two years [1]
The effects of inability to be pregnant in Sub-Saharan Africa are tremendous; it could result to marital problems, divorce, depression, isolation, physical violence, stigmatization and economic hardship among others [10] [11]
The distribution of the age of the subjects in the study (Figure 1) shows that 15% of the studied population were found in the control group (
Summary
Infertility is the inability of couples to accomplish conception or pregnancy after regular sexual intercourse for a period between one year and two years [1]. Evidence shows that fertility is a major problem linked with reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa [3]. Many reports show that the inability to achieve pregnancy is one of the main reasons why couples visit gyneacological clinics in Nigeria [5] [6]. In developed nations of the world inability to achieve pregnancy has an average prevalence rate of 10% - 15% [7] while in Sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence rate of this reproductive condition ranges from 20% - 46% [8]. The effects of inability to be pregnant in Sub-Saharan Africa are tremendous; it could result to marital problems, divorce, depression, isolation, physical violence, stigmatization and economic hardship among others [10] [11]
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