“Celiac disease may be at the root of some women’s problems with infertility, Indian researchers say. While there are many more common causes of infertility, the study suggests that women who don’t have a ready explanation for their failure to conceive should be screened for celiac disease, said Dr. Govind Makharia, a professor at All India institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. “There isn’t strong evidence to say that celiac disease causes infertility, but there are many anecdotal experiences where women with infertility have conceived after being diagnosed with celiac disease and put on a gluten free diet,” Makharia told Reuters Health in an e-mail”
Highlights:
“To explore the link between celiac disease and infertility, Makharia’s research team pooled results from previously published research studies.
Women with infertility were 3.5 times more likely to have celiac disease than women who didn’t have difficulty conceiving, the analysis found, based on a review of three studies including 449 women with infertility.
For women with no known cause for their infertility, the connection was even stronger. These women were six times more likely to have celiac disease, based on data from five studies including 422 women with unexplained infertility.”
Dr. Alessio Fasano, of the Center for Celiac Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA is quoted in the article saying “Celiac disease has been claimed to be the most common cause of unexplained infertility and these results support that conclusion,” and further suggests that OBGYN’s test their patients with infertility issues for Celiac, before they are sent to other specialists.
Read the complete article published on Reuters.com HERE
