Obstructive sleep apnea increases risk of female infertility: A 14-year nationwide population-based study

Objectives
To determine the risk of having OSA in a cohort of female subjects who are infertile and the odds of being infertile in women with OSA.

Patients and methods
A nationwide, case-control study of female patients 20 years or older diagnosed with female infertility living in Taiwan, from January 1, 2000, through December 31, 2013 (N = 4,078). We identified women who were infertile and created a 2:1 matched control group with women who were not infertile. We used multivariable logistic regression analysis to further estimate the effects of OSA on female infertility.

Results
In this 14- year retrospective study, we included 4,078 patients having an initial diagnosis of female infertility. Of those women with infertility, 1.38% had a history of OSA compared with 0.63% of fertile controls (p = 0.002). The mean ages in the study groups were 32.19 ± 6.20 years, whereas the mean ages in the control groups were 32.24 ± 6.37years. Women with OSA had 2.101- times the risk of female infertility compared to women without OSA (p<0.001).

Conclusion
Our study showed that OSA is more commonly seen in infertile women and increases the odds that a woman will be infertile. More studies need to be done on the whether or not diagnosing and treating OSA can decrease the rate of infertility.