The objective of this study was to: (1) assess the relative prevalence of ovarian, thyroid, nuclear, and
cardiolipin antibodies associated with
premature menopause and unexplained
infertility and (2) compare ovarian and thyroid
antibodies in
premature menopause, unexplained
infertility, and the general population.
Autoantibodies were evaluated in women with
premature menopause (
n = 30), unexplained
infertility with (n = 38) or without (n = 15) prior
gonadotropin-induced ovulation, and normal cycling controls (n = 12) and in a population of women obtained from a blood bank (n = 53).
Antibodies to ovary (OVAB), thyroid (THYAB;
thyroid peroxidase and
thyroglobulin),
cardiolipin, and eight
nuclear antigens were assessed by
enzyme immunoassay. Organ-specific
antibodies (ovary and thyroid) were present with significantly greater frequency than non-organ-specific
antibodies (nuclear and
cardiolipin) in
premature menopause and unexplained
infertility (60% (50/83) vs 16% (13/83) respectively; P < 0.0001). OVAB (53%, 44/83) were significantly more frequent than THYAB (30%, 25/83) in
premature menopause and unexplained
infertility (P = 0.0030). THYAB did not differ among all groups (P = 0.78). In
premature menopause and treated or untreated unexplained
infertility OVAB frequencies were 53, 61, and 33%, respectively, and were significantly more frequent than in the population (17%) (P = 0.0001). In unexplained
infertility, individuals with no prior
gonadotropin-induced ovulation had a lower frequency of OVAB than treated individuals (P = 0.07). The frequency distribution of optical density values for OVAB was significantly higher for
premature menopause and unexplained
infertility than for population or normal cycling women (P < 0.0001). Thus, only ovarian
antibodies were significantly more frequent than other antibody markers of autoimmunity in
premature menopause and unexplained
infertility.