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Background: The causal relationship between sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and infertility has remained unclear. Thus, we used Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate this relationship. Methods: Risk factors for SHBG were extracted from European individuals within the UK Biobank using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. Summary-level data for infertility outcomes were obtained from the FinnGen dataset. The causal relationship between SHBG and infertility was examined using inverse variance weighted, weighted model, weighted median, and MR-Egger regression analyses. Additionally, Cochran's Q test and Egger intercept tests were used to confirm the heterogeneity and pleiotropy of identified instrumental variables (IVs). Results: Our findings revealed a significant negative association between sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels and infertility, particularly with anovulation, a specific form of female infertility. However, SHBG did not exert a causal impact on male infertility or on female infertility of tubal origin. Conclusions: SHBG expression offers protection against the development of certain types of female infertility, suggesting it is a potential therapeutic target for infertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Several recent observational studies have linked metabolic comorbidities to an increased risk from COVID19. Here we investigated whether women with PCOS are at an increased risk of COVID-19 infection. Design: Population-based closed cohort study between 31 January 2020 and 22 July 2020 in the setting of a UK primary care database (The Health Improvement Network, THIN). Methods: The main outcome was the incidence of COVID-19 coded as suspected or confirmed by the primary care provider. We used Cox proportional hazards regression model with stepwise inclusion of explanatory variables (age, BMI, impaired glucose regulation, androgen excess, anovulation, vitamin D deficiency, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease) to provide unadjusted and adjusted hazard risks (HR) of COVID-19 infection among women with PCOS compared to women without PCOS. Results: We identified 21 292 women with a coded diagnosis of PCO/PCOS and randomly selected 78 310 aged and general practice matched control women. The crude COVID-19 incidence was 18.1 and 11.9 per 1000 person-years among women with and without PCOS, respectively. Age-adjusted Cox regression analysis suggested a 51% higher risk of COVID-19 among women with PCOS compared to women without PCOS (HR: 1.51 (95% CI: 1.27–1.80), P < 0.001). After adjusting for age and BMI, HR reduced to 1.36 (1.14–1.63)], P = 0.001. In the fully adjusted model, women with PCOS had a 28% increased risk of COVID-19 (aHR: 1.28 (1.05–1.56), P = 0.015). Conclusion: Women with PCOS are at an increased risk of COVID-19 infection and should be specifically encouraged to adhere to infection control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Significance statement: Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have an increased risk of cardio-metabolic disease, which have been identified as a risk factor for COVID-19. To investigate whether the increased metabolic risk in PCOS translates into an increased risk of COVID-19 infection, we carried out a population-based closed cohort study in the UK during its first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (January to July 2020), including 21 292 women with PCOS and 78 310 controls matched for sex, age and general practice location. Results revealed a 52% increased risk of COVID-19 infection in women with PCOS, which remained increased at 28% above controls after adjustment for age, BMI, impaired glucose regulation and other explanatory variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Obesity is very common in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Longitudinal studies assessing OSA risk in PCOS and examining the role of obesity are lacking. Our objective was to assess the risk of OSA in women with vs without PCOS and to examine the role of obesity in the observed findings. Design: Population-based retrospective cohort study utilizing The Heal th Improvement Network (THIN), UK. Methods: 76 978 women with PCOS and 143 077 age-, BMI- and location-mat ched women without PCOS between January 2000 and May 2017 were identified. Hazard ratio (HR) for OSA among women with and without PCOS were calculated after controlling for confounding variables using mu ltivariate Cox models. Results: Median patient age was 30 (IQR: 25-35) years; median follow-up was 3.5 (IQR: 1.4-7.1) years. We found 298 OSA cases in PCOS women vs 222 in controls, with incidence rate s for OSA of 8.1 and 3.3 per 10 000 person years, respectively. Women with PCOS were at increased risk of developing OSA (adjusted HR = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.89-2.69, P < 0.001), with similar HRs for normal weight, overweight and obe se PCOS women. Conclusions: Women with PCOS are at increased risk of developing OSA compared to control women irrespective of obesity. Considering the significant metabolic morbidity associated with OSA, clinicians should have a low threshold to test for OSA in women with PCOS. Whether OSA treatment has an impact on PCOS symptoms and outcomes needs to be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess long-term health effects of ovarian-stimulation drugs we followed-up for over 20 years a British cohort of 7355 women with ovulatory disorders, 43% of whom were prescribed ovarian-stimulation drugs, and identified a total of 274 deaths and 367 incident cancers. Relative to the general population, the cohort experienced lower mortality from most causes, including from all neoplasms combined, and lower incidence of cervical cancer, but higher incidence of cancers of the breast (relative risk: 1.13; 95% CI 0.97, 1.30) and corpus uteri (2.02; 1.37, 2.87). There were, however, no significant differences in the risk of cancers of the breast, corpus uteri, ovary, or of any other site, between women who had been prescribed ovarian-stimulation drugs and those who had not. Further analyses by type of drug and dose revealed a dose-response gradient in the risk of cancer of the corpus uteri (P for linear trend=0.03), with women given >or=2250 mg of clomiphene having a 2.6-fold (2.62; 0.94, 6.82) increase in risk relative to those who were not treated. These findings do not support strong associations between ovulation-stimulation drugs and cancer risks, but they indicate the need for continued monitoring to establish whether risks are elevated in certain subgroups of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine whether foot reflexology, a complementary therapy, has an effect greater than sham reflexology on induction of ovulation. Design: Sham-controlled randomized trial with patients and statistician blinded. Setting: Infertility clinic in Plymouth, United Kingdom. Patient(s): Forty-eight women attending the clinic with anovulation. Intervention(s): Women were randomized to receive eight sessions of either genuine foot reflexology or sham reflexology with gentle massage over 10 weeks. Main Outcome Measure(s): The primary outcome was ovulation detected by serum progesterone level of >30 nmol/L during the study period. Result(s): Twenty-six patients were randomized to genuine reflexology and 22 to sham (one randomized patient was withdrawn). Patients remained blinded throughout the trial. The rate of ovulation during true reflexology was 11 out of 26 (42%), and during sham reflexology it was 10 out of 22 (46%). Pregnancy rates were 4 out of 26 in the true group and 2 out of 22 in the control group. Because of recruitment difficulties, the required sample size of 104 women was not achieved. Conclusion(s): Patient blinding of reflexology studies is feasible. Although this study was too small to reach a definitive conclusion on the specific effect of foot reflexology, the results suggest that any effect on ovulation would not be clinically relevant. Sham reflexology may have a beneficial general effect, which this study was not designed to detect. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]