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Trial Lecture – time and place
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Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Ellen Aagaard Nøhr, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
- Second opponent: Professor Peter Henriksson, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Cecilie Dahl, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Jahn Fredrik Frøen, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Researcher Maria C. Magnus, Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Summary
Couples who spend more than one year trying to conceive (defined as infertility) might have a higher risk of certain chronic diseases. An increased risk of cardiovascular disease specifically has been proposed, although the evidence remains sparse. It is also unclear what the role of pre-existing risk factors for cardiovascular disease on this relationship might be. Telomere length, which shortens over time due to cell division, might also be associated with risk of chronic disease. Whether telomer length might be a potential useful biomarker for infertility is unknown.
The aims of this thesis were to assess the relationships between infertility and cardiovascular disease risk, classic cardiovascular disease risk factors and infertility, and telomere length and infertility in women and men.
There was a small increased risk of cardiovascular disease in women, but not in men, who experienced infertility. Women with infertility had a 23% increased risk of angina, 18% increased risk of stroke, and 16% increased risk of coronary heart disease, compared to women without infertility.
With regard to the classic cardiovascular disease risk factors, they only found an association between smoking and infertility in women. Women who smoked had a 20% increased risk of infertility compared to non-smokers, and a higher genetic predisposition for smoking increased the risk of infertility by 13%. Other risk factors evaluated, including body-mass index, cholesterol, and blood pressure, showed no robust association with infertility in either sex. There was also no indication that telomere length predicted infertility in either women or men.
Overall, some associations between infertility and cardiovascular disease were found in women, although the magnitude of these associations were small. While recommendations for smoking cessation might help women struggling to conceive, less is clear about the remaining cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Additional information
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