The effect of recurrent miscarriage and infertility on the risk of pre-eclampsia.
OBJECTIVE
Pre-eclampsia, recurrent miscarriage and infertility may all partly be caused by unsuccessful placentation early in pregnancy. If so, one will expect these disorders to be associated in population studies. The aim of the present investigation was to estimate the risk of pre-eclampsia in women with recurrent miscarriage and infertility.


METHODS
Cohort study.


METHODS
The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), a large population-based pregnancy cohort.


METHODS
The sample consisted of 20,846 singleton pregnancies to nulliparous women participating in the MoBa, 1999-2005.


METHODS
Information on miscarriage, infertility and potential confounders was self-reported in postal questionnaires, whereas the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia was retrieved from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Risk estimation and confounder control was performed with multiple logistic regression.


METHODS
Pre-eclampsia according to history of miscarriage and infertility.


RESULTS
An increased risk of pre-eclampsia, although not statistically significant, was found for women with recurrent miscarriages (adjusted OR 1.51, 95% CI 0.80-2.83). Women who had ever been treated for infertility also had increased risk (adjusted OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.05-1.60). When these two risk factors were combined, the adjusted odds ratio for pre-eclampsia was 2.40 (95% CI 1.11-5.18).


CONCLUSIONS
The study supports the hypothesis that infertility, recurrent miscarriage and pre-eclampsia share elements of the same aetiological factors.
Trogstad
L
L
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Chronic Diseases, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. lill.trogstad@fhi.no
Magnus
P
P
Moffett
A
A
Stoltenberg
C
C
D000026:Abortion, Habitual / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D000328:Adult; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D055815:Young Adult