J Korean Med Sci.  2024 Mar;39(10):e85. 10.3346/jkms.2024.39.e85.

Risk Factors for Infertility in Korean Women

• Lee J
• Choo CW
• Moon KY
• Lyu SW
• Kim H
• Lee JY
• Lee JR
• Jee BC
• Hwang K
• Kim SH
• Park SK

• KMID: 2554198
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2024.39.e85

Abstract

Background
Female infertility is a crucial problem with significant implications for individuals and society. In this study, we explore risk factors for infertility in Korean women.
Methods
A total of 986 female patients who visited six major infertility clinics in Korea were recruited from April to December 2014. Fertile age-matched controls were selected from two nationwide survey study participants. Conditional logistic regression after age-matching was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of each risk factor for infertility.
Results
Women with a body mass index (BMI) < 18.5 kg/m² had 1.35 times higher odds of infertility (OR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.03–1.77), while those with a BMI ≥ 25.0 kg/m² had even higher odds (OR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.61–2.64) compared to women with a normal BMI (18.5 kg/m² ≤ BMI < 25 kg/m 2 ). Ever-smokers exhibited 4.94 times higher odds of infertility compared to never-smokers (95% CI, 3.45–8.85). Concerning alcohol consumption, women who consumed ≥ 7 glasses at a time showed 3.13 times significantly higher odds of infertility than those who consumed ≤ 4 glasses at a time (95% CI, 1.79–5.48). Lastly, women with thyroid disease demonstrated 1.44 times higher odds of infertility compared to women without thyroid disease (95% CI, 1.00–2.08).
Conclusion
Female infertility in Korea was associated with underweight, obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and thyroid disease.

Keyword

Infertility; Fertility; Risk Factors

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Flow chart of the study population selection from the infertility study.KIHASA = Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, KoGES-HEXA = Korean Genome and Epidemiology-health examinee.

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