A recent study, published online on January 5 in JAMA Network Open, suggests that a history of female infertility might be an indicator of cardiovascular health later in life.
Conducted by Amy R. Nichols, Ph.D., R.D., from Harvard University in Boston, the study explored the connection between a history of infertility and cardiovascular health around the age of 50 among individuals who have given birth. The analysis involved 468 participants, and the study spanned approximately 18 years.
The findings revealed that at midlife, those with a history of infertility had a lower estimated overall American Heart Association Life’s Essential 8 score, which serves as a metric for ranking cardiovascular health in behavioral and biomedical domains. Specifically, the overall score was 2.94 points lower, the biomedical score was 4.07 points lower, and the blood subdomain score was 5.98 points lower for individuals with a history of infertility compared to those without. Additionally, there was a trend indicating a lower point estimate for the behavioral domain score (β = −1.81).
The authors of the study emphasized, “This cohort study of parous individuals found evidence for an association between a history of infertility and lower overall and biomedical CVH scores. Our results provide additional weight to evidence suggesting inclusion of infertility history in assessing risk among female patients and demonstrate the importance of early identification and invocation of ongoing cardiovascular preventive strategies.”
