The association of female and male infertility with telomere length (Review)

Eleni Vasilopoulos, Persefoni Fragkiadaki, Charikleia Kalliora, Domniki Fragou, Anca Oana Docea, Elena Vakonaki, Dimitris Tsoukalas, Daniela Călina, Daniela Calina, Ana Maria Buga, Ana Maria Bugă, George Georgiadis, George S. Georgiadis, Charalampos Mamoulakis, Antonis Makrigiannakis, Antonios Makrigiannakis, Demetrios A Spandidos, Demetrios�� Spandidos, Aristidis Tsatsakis
International journal of molecular medicine · 2019 · vol. 44(2) , pp. 375–389 · doi:10.3892/ijmm.2019.4225 · PMID:31173155 · PMC6605974 · W2947352916
review OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 2 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

This review analyzed 45 studies and found that female infertility factors are mostly associated with shorter telomere length, while male infertility factors are consistently linked to shorter telomere length.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-10 ⓘ

This systematic review evaluated the association between relative telomere length (TL) and factors of female and male infertility by searching PubMed for studies linking TL with infertility, screening 206 records down to 45 that met validity and relevance criteria. The authors found that most female infertility factors were associated with shorter TL, while endometriosis, premature ovarian failure, and clear cell carcinoma were associated with longer TL; polycystic ovary syndrome showed conflicting results across studies, leading to ambiguous conclusions, and male infertility factors were generally associated with shorter TL. A key limitation explicitly noted is that further epidemiological and original research is needed to clarify the varying TL associations. Relevance to endometriosis: the review explicitly includes endometriosis among female infertility factors and reports an association with longer telomere length, though the paper’s main focus is broadly summarizing TL–infertility associations across many infertility categories.

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Abstract

Telomere length (TL) has long been associated with aging, as telomeres serve as protective caps of chromosomes, and are thus deeply involved in the preservation of genome integrity and are vital to cellular functions. Traditionally, a strong link connects aging and infertility in both sexes, with an earlier onset in females. Over the past decade, telomeres have attracted increasing attention due to the role they play in fertility. In this review, we investigated the potential positive or negative association between relative TL and different factors of female and male infertility. A systematic search of the PubMed database was conducted. Out of the 206 studies identified, 45 were reviewed as they fulfilled the criteria of validity and relevance. Following an analysis and a comparison of the study outcomes, several clear trends were observed. The majority of female infertility factors were associated with a shorter TL, with the exception of endometriosis, premature ovarian failure and clear cell carcinoma that were associated with a longer TL and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which revealed conflicting results among several studies, leading to ambiguous conclusions. Male infertility factors were associated with a shorter TL. Although this review can provide an outline of general trends in the association of TL with infertility factors, further epidemiological and original research studies are required to focus on investigating the basis of these varying lengths of telomeres.

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Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Infertility, Female Infertility, Male Telomere Shortening Aging Female Humans Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Infertility, Female Infertility, Male Infertility, Male Infertility, Male Male Telomere Telomere

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Cites (4)

Cited by (2)

References (99)

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europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-17T06:13:18.893374+00:00
openalex
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pubmed
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License: CC0 · commercial use OK