Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39875703›Full record

ArticleCancer causes & control : CCC2025

Infertility and Risk of Ovarian Cancer in the Women's Health Initiative.

Holly R Harris, Kimberly Lind, Sable Fest, Cynthia A Thomson, Nazmus Saquib, Aladdin H Shadyab, Peter F Schnatz, Rogelio Robles-Morales, Lihong Qi, Howard D Strickler and 2 more

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In one paragraph

Article in Cancer causes & control : CCC, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Holly R HarrisProgram in Epidemiology, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue North, M4-B859, Seattle, WA, 98109-1024, USA. hharris@fredhutch.org.
Kimberly LindDepartment of Health Promotion Sciences, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Sable FestProgram in Epidemiology, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue North, M4-B859, Seattle, WA, 98109-1024, USA.
Cynthia A ThomsonDepartment of Health Promotion Sciences, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Nazmus SaquibCollege of Medicine, Sulaiman Al Rajhi University, Al Bukayriyah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Aladdin H ShadyabHerbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Care, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Peter F SchnatzDepartments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Internal Medicine, Reading Hospital and Drexel University, Reading, PA, USA.
Rogelio Robles-MoralesClinical and Translational Sciences, College of Medicine-Tucson, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Lihong QiDepartment of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
Howard D StricklerDepartment of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
Denise J RoeUniversity of Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, CA, USA.
Leslie V FarlandUniversity of Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, CA, USA.

Funding

Infertility and Risk of Breast, Gynecologic, and Colorectal CancerR03HD102403 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA · PI FARLAND, LESLIE V · 2021 to 2022
$154k
NHLBI NIH HHS HHSN268201600001CNHLBI NIH HHS HHSN268201600002CNHLBI NIH HHS HHSN268201600003CNHLBI NIH HHS HHSN268201600004CNHLBI NIH HHS HHSN268201600018CNICHD NIH HHS R03 HD102403
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeThere is a consistent relationship with greater ovulation frequency and increased risk of ovarian cancer. However, prior research on infertility, which may be associated with ovulation frequency through multiple mechanisms, and ovarian cancer has yielded conflicting results, possibly due to prior research conflating fertility treatment with infertility and restricting follow-up to premenopausal cases. Our objective was to determine the association between infertility and risk of postmenopausal ovarian cancer, overall and by histotype, in a population that had not received treatment with IVF.

methodsWe utilized data from the Women's Health Initiative (n = 112,925 postmenopausal participants) with over 25 years of follow-up. At baseline, participants were asked whether they had ever tried to become pregnant for more than one year without becoming pregnant and whether a reason was found. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) of incident adjudicated ovarian cancer comparing participants with a history of infertility to fertile participants overall and by histotype.

results17% of participants reported a history of infertility at baseline and 1,109 ovarian cancer cases were diagnosed during follow-up. No statistically significant association was observed between infertility and risk of any ovarian cancer (HR: 1.09, 95% CI 0.92-1.29), but those reporting infertility had a 90% higher risk of endometrioid and clear cell ovarian cancers (HR: 1.90 95% CI 1.09-3.34) compared to fertile participants. The reported reason(s) for infertility had no discernable impact on these associations.

conclusionsInfertility may be associated with clear cell and endometrioid ovarian cancer but not other ovarian tumor histotypes.

Indexed as

InfertilityInfertility, FemaleOvarian NeoplasmsAgedFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansMiddle AgedPostmenopauseProportional Hazards ModelsRisk FactorsWomen's HealthCancer subtype/histologyCohortEpidemiologyInfertilityOvarian cancer

Identifiers

PMID39875703
PMCPMC13034574

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.