ArticleFertility and sterility2023
A prospective cohort study of infertility and cancer incidence.
Article in Fertility and sterility, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between infertility and thyroid cancer risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
- Association between female infertility and stroke mortality: evidence from the PLCO cancer screening trial.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Trial
- Bridging Andrology and Oncology: Prognostic Indicators of Cancer Among Infertile Men.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- Association between gynecological cancers and female infertility: insights from bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- Dietary index for gut microbiota and its inverse association with female infertility: evidence from NHANES 2013-2018.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Investigation of the relationship between breast cancer and clinical symptoms of polycystic ovarian syndrome: a case-control study.BMC women's health · 2024Article
- Infertility treatments and risk of breast benign diseases: a case‒control study.BMC women's health · 2024Article
- De novo design of a nanoregulator for the dynamic restoration of ovarian tissue in cryopreservation and transplantation.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2024Review
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 7 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the association between infertility and the incidence of invasive cancer.
designProspective cohort study (1989-2015).
settingNot applicable. PATIENT(S): A total of 103,080 women aged 25-42 years in the Nurses' Health Study II who were cancer-free at baseline (1989). INTERVENTION(S): The infertility status (failure to conceive after 1 year of regular, unprotected sex) and causes of infertility were self-reported at baseline and biennial follow-up questionnaires. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Cancer diagnosis was confirmed through medical record review and classified as obesity-related (colorectal, gallbladder, kidney, multiple myeloma, thyroid, pancreatic, esophageal, gastric, liver, endometrial, ovarian, and postmenopausal breast) or non-obesity-related (all other cancers). We fit the Cox proportional-hazards models to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the association between infertility and cancer incidence. RESULT(S): During 2,149,385 person-years of follow-up, 26,208 women reported a history of infertility, and we documented 6,925 incident invasive cancer cases. After adjusting for body mass index and other risk factors, women who reported infertility had a higher risk of developing cancer than gravid women without a history of infertility (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.13). This association was stronger among obesity-related cancers (HR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.05-1.22; vs. non-obesity-related cancers, HR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.91-1.06) and, in particular, obesity-related reproductive cancers (postmenopausal breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers; HR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.06-1.29) and was stronger among women who first reported infertility earlier in life (≤25 years, HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.07-1.33; 26-30 years, HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 0.99-1.25; >30 years, HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.94-1.22; P trend < .001). CONCLUSION(S): A history of infertility may be associated with the risk of developing obesity-related reproductive cancers; further study is needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.
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