Endocrine assessment of non-obese infertile females in a developing economy

Nwagha U. I ¹*, Obiora C. C ², Nwagha T. U³, Anyaehie U. B⁴, Igwe J. C⁴ 

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu Nigeria.

²Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu Nigeria.

³Department of Hematology, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu Nigeria.

⁴Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Nigeria.

⁵Amblin Laboratories, Enugu Nigeria.

Corresponding Author E-mail: uchenwagha@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT: Infertility remains a major cause of marital disharmony in our environment. We conducted a cross sectional study of 408 women being managed for infertility between February 2005 and January 2007 in Enugu, Nigeria. The objective was to determine prevalence and pattern of abnormalities in secretion of some reproductive hormones for possible correlation. Our results show 27.3% had primary infertility while 72.7% had secondary infertility. Also, 55.1% had abnormal FSH levels while abnormal luteinizing hormone (LH) levels occurred in 49.8%. FSH/LH ratio was also elevated in 73.5% of subjects, 41.9% had Hyperprolactinaemia and 37.8% had low progesterone levels. These findings suggest a correlation of infertility in our environment with anovulation from polycystic ovarian syndrome, hyperprolactinaemia and defective luteal function. We thus propose routine endocrine evaluation of infertile women in Nigeria despite its cost ineffectiveness.

KEYWORDS: Infertility; Hormone profile; anovulation; developing economy

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