Thyroid autoimmunity and infertility

We aimed to study the prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity in infertile women ; to assess whether thyroid autoantibodies were associated with non-organ-s pecific autoantibodies; and to investigate the influence of this dysfunctio n on the couples' chances of pregnancy. We assayed serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine, and microsonial and thyroglobuli n autoantibodies in 149 infertile women, In patients with serum TSH levels in the hypothyroid or hyperthyroid range and/or with thyroid autoantibodies , we performed thyroid ultrasound examinations and assayed some non-organ-s pecific autoantibodies. We compared the duration of infertility in infertil e patients with normal thyroid (control group), with thyroid abnormalities, and with thyroid autoantibodies in euthyroidism. Thirty infertile patients (20.1%) had thyroid abnormalities. The prevalence of thyroid autoantibodies was 17.4%. In infertile patients with thyroid au toantibodies, we found a poor association with non-organ-specific autoantib odies. Only the women with thyroid abnormalities and ovulatory dysfunction had a mean duration of infertility significantly longer than that of the co ntrol group, When the data were analyzed for euthyroid women with thyroid a utoantibodies, we found no significant variation in the duration of inferti lity. Although we found a high prevalence of thyroid autoantibodies in infe rtile patients, the presence of these autoantibodies per se did not reduce the chance of pregnancy.