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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1433930

Association between female infertility and stroke mortality: evidence from the PLCO Cancer Screening Trial

Provisionally accepted
Hui Tang Hui Tang Xueming Yang Xueming Yang Li Zhou Li Zhou Yuan Zhang Yuan Zhang Huaxuan Chen Huaxuan Chen Mingjun Dai Mingjun Dai Chuan Shao Chuan Shao *
  • Department of Neurosurgery, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Medical College, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: While infertility affects about 15% of women during their reproductive years, its long-term impact on stroke mortality after this period remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the association between infertility and stroke mortality in women using data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial. Methods: We analyzed data from 75,778 female participants aged 55-74 years with a median follow-up of 16.84 years. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for stroke mortality, adjusting for potential confounders. Results: Among participants, 14.53% reported infertility. During follow-up, 1,159 women died from stroke. Compared to women without infertility, those with infertility had a higher risk of stroke mortality (HR 1.21, 95% CI 1.04-1.41, p = 0.016). This association remained statistically significant after adjusting for age, race, education level, marital status, smoking status, body mass index, history of hypertension, history of heart attack, history of diabetes mellitus, birth control pill use, hormone replacement therapy, endometriosis, first menstrual period and pregnancy history (HR 1.20, 95% CI 1.02-1.42, p = 0.029).Sensitivity and subgroup analyses yielded consistent results. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that infertility is associated with an increased risk of stroke mortality in women. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

    Keywords: Infertility, Stroke, Mortality, female, long-term impact

    Received: 16 May 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tang, Yang, Zhou, Zhang, Chen, Dai and Shao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chuan Shao, Department of Neurosurgery, Nanchong Central Hospital, The Second Clinical Medical College, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.