Infertility in women linked to higher cancer risk

Infertility is associated with a Higher risk of developing cancer in women of childbearing age, say researchers including one of Indian-origin.

The findings, published in the journal Human Reproduction, showed that infertile women had an overall 18 per cent higher risk of developing cancer compared to women who were not infertile.

However, the absolute risk is very low at just two per cent compared to 1.7 per cent among women who are not infertile, found researchers at Stanford University in the US.

"We do not know the causes of the increase in cancer that we found in this study, whether it might be the infertility itself, the causes of the infertility, or the infertility treatment," said lead author Gayathree Murugappan.

"We can only show there is an association between them," she added.

For the study, the team analysed data from 64,345 infertile women who were followed for nearly four years. Read Complete Article