Reproductive Outcomes Among Female Gulf War ERA US Military Veterans: No Evidence of Increased Morbidity

Abstract

Abstract : Veterans of the Persian Gulf War have complained of ill health, with diverse symptoms, since the war's end. We report here on postwar reproductive outcomes among female Gulf War veterans, compared with those in 1991-era nondeployed veterans. Since 1996, a stratified, probability-based sample of 8,251 deployed and nondeployed female military veterans, aged 18-33 years and married, has been mailed a reproductive health survey. A total of 2,349 Gulf War Veterans and 2,507 nondeployed veterans returned the questionnaires, for a participation rate of 71.7 percent. Adjusted forage, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, military component, and pre-1991 reproductive outcomes, no statistically significant differences between female Gulf War veterans and nondeployed veterans were identified in the odds of reporting a live, normal full-term, macros macrosomic (birth weight >/- 4,000 g) or a low birth weight (< 2,500 g) birth, or among stillbirths, ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and sub fertility. No differences were noted among twin or higher multiple births. Although symptoms of reproductive ill health have been reported by veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, this large-scale and broad-based survey of the reproductive health of 1991-era US military veterans survey suggests that the reproductive health of female Gulf War veterans was unaffected by their deployment to the Gulf War.