Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Nov 1;24(1):584.
doi: 10.1186/s12905-024-03429-w.

Infertility treatments and risk of breast benign diseases: a case‒control study

Ashraf Moini  1   2   3 , Sadaf Alipour  3   4 , Zahra Zandi  5   6 , Arezoo Maleki-Hajiagha  7   8 , Ladan Kashani  1 , Fatemeh Shakki Katouli  9   10 , Maryam Farid Mojtahedi  1 , Leila Bayani  10 , Mahboubeh Abedi  10   11
Affiliations

Infertility treatments and risk of breast benign diseases: a case‒control study

Ashraf Moini et al. BMC Womens Health. .

Abstract

Background: Theoretically, endocrine fluctuations occurring during infertility treatments, including ovulation induction (OI) and assisted reproductive techniques (ART), could be associated with an increased risk of benign breast diseases (BBDs). To date, no studies have been conducted on this association. Therefore, the present study investigated the association between different types of infertility treatments and BBDs.

Methods: This case‒control study was conducted in Arash Women's Hospital, Tehran, Iran. The case group included infertile women diagnosed with BBDs without atypia, and the control group included infertile women without breast disease. Breast imaging studies (mammography/ultrasound) were performed for BBD screening, and the diagnosis was confirmed by histopathological examination. Study variables were collected retrospectively from medical records, hospital databases, and questionnaires.

Results: Finally, 154 infertile women, including 50 cases (BBDs) and 104 controls (no BBDs), were compared. Our data showed that 66% of cases and 61.4% of controls had undergone at least one course of infertility treatment. There was no association between BBD risk and previous infertility treatments (OR = 1.21; 95% CI = 0.59-2.46), ART (OR = 1.14; 95% CI = 0.90-1.44), or OI cycles (OR = 1.13; 95% CI = 0.98-1.32). Stratification by confounding variables did not change these results.

Conclusions: It seems that there is no association between BBDs in infertile women and the type, duration, or number of prior infertility treatments; however, considering the small sample size of the study, the clinical significance of this finding should not be neglected. Therefore, we consider it essential to carry out more extensive, detailed, and prospective studies to distinguish the association of BBDs with different infertility treatments and medications.

Keywords: Assisted reproductive techniques; Breast benign diseases; Infertility treatment; Ovarian-stimulating hormones; Ovulation induction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic flow of the study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Overall frequency of different benign lesions
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Detailed causes of female factor infertility. PCOS: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome; POI: Primary ovarian insufficiency
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Sangma MMB, Panda K, Dasiah S. A clinico-pathological study on benign breast diseases. J Clin Diagn Res. 2013;7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. El-Wakeel H, Umpleby HC. Systematic review of fibroadenoma as a risk factor for breast cancer. Breast. 2003;12. - PubMed
    1. DL WDD. P. Risk factors for breast cancer in women with proliferative breast disease. N Engl J Med. 312:146–51. - PubMed
    1. Figueroa JD, Gierach GL, Duggan MA, Fan S, Pfeiffer RM, Wang Y et al. Risk factors for breast cancer development by tumor characteristics among women with benign breast disease. Breast Cancer Res. 2021;23. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kuang K, Wilson SR. A Meta-Analysis of Uncertainty and Information Management in Illness Contexts. J Communication. 2017;67.

LinkOut - more resources