Prevalence of antithyroid antibodies in patients with unexplained infertility

Objective: To evaluate the relative prevalence of antithyroid antibodies in unexplainedinfertility compared to other types of infertility.Patients and methods: The study comprised of 96 subfertile couples and 80 parouswomen attending outpatient clinic in Mansoura University Hospital. There were 30patients had tubal causes, 16 patients had PCOS, 10 patients had endometriosis and 40 hadunexplained infertility. Antithyroid auto-antibodies (antithyrglobulin and antimicrosomal)were estimated in the sera of all patients.Results: There were no significant differences in the frequency of antimicrosomalantibodies and antithyroglobulin in subfertile cases compared to the controls (25% and22% versus 12% and 10%, P value 0.22 and 0.12, respectively). Subgroup analysis hadrevealed significantly higher frequency of women with positive antimicrosomal andantithyroglobulin antibodies in couples with unexplained infertility compared to fertilecontrols.Conclusion: A significantly higher proportion of thyroid auto-antibodies existed inwomen with unexplained subfertility compared to the fertile women.