Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Thyroid hormones affect sex hormone metabolism and reproductive function in women. Infertility in women with autoimmune thyroiditis is more difficult to treat than in women with normal thyroid function. On the other hand, immune factors are dependent on exogenous and endogenous factors, interrelated with hormones and are important regulators of fertility, autoimmune reactionsand can lead to infertility and increase the risk of pregnancy complications and miscarriage.

The aim of the study: To determine the features of changes of autoimmune markers in women suffering from infertility and autoimmune thyroiditis.

Materials and methods: The study was conducted through detailed analysis of medical records of 32 women, which were diagnosed with infertility of unexplained genesis and autoimmune thyroiditis. The control group consisted of 30 women with tubal genital infertility. The comparison group consisted of 30 healthy women. Determination of the indicators of thyroid function (thyroid-stimulating hormone, total thyroxine, free thyroxine, total triiodothyronine, free triiodothyronine, antibodies to thyroperoxidase (APO), antibodies to thyroglobulin (ATG)) was conducted by ELISA. Autoimmune markers: antisperm antibodies, antinuclear antibodies (ANA), Ro/SS-A, La/ss-B, CENP-B, Scl-70, dsDNA, Jo-1, MPO, PR3, AMA and Sm were determined out by Western Blot method.

Results: It should be noted that among all women who came to the clinic complaining about infertility for the first time, 11.34% were diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis. This diagnosis was the most common among all autoimmune disorders in infertile women compared to an increase in antisperm antibody levels – only 1.3% were observed, and to the proportion of all other autoimmune diseases combined – was less than 10%. The following autoimmune markers showed significant changes in women of the study group: APO titers increased in the range of 2.4–11.2 times (P <0.001), ATG – increased in the range of 1.7–8.3 times (g <0.001), ANA – growth in the range from 1: 100 to 1: 1000 (P <0.001) compared to the control. We did not reveal significant changes of the rest of the autoimmune markers that were under the study.

Conclusion: Thus, a significant increase in the levels of thyrospecific and antinuclear autoantibodies in women with infertility on the background of autoimmune thyroiditis were revealed, which may cause fertility disorders and the search for new methods of solvation of this problem is necessary.

Keywords: infertility in women, autoimmune thyroiditis.