Histories of pregnancy, infertility tied to diabetes risk in premenopausal women

Pregnancy, coupled with a history of infertility, is associated with a higher risk of diabetes but not coronary artery calcification (CAC) among glucose-intolerant premenopausal women, a study reveals.

A total of 1,075 premenopausal women were included. The risk of diabetes was higher among women with histories of pregnancy and infertility (n=147; hazard ratio [HR], 1.80, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.30–2.49) and those with histories of pregnancy without infertility (n=736; HR, 1.49, 95 percent CI, 1.15–1.93) than among nulligravid women without infertility (n=173).

On the other hand, a nonsignificant increase in risk was noted among premenopausal nulligravid women with histories of infertility, but the proportion of these women was small (n=19; HR, 1.63, 95 percent CI, 0.88–3.03). No associations were seen among postmenopausal women (n=1,010). Moreover, there were no associations observed between infertility or pregnancy and CAC.

In this study, a secondary analysis of Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and the DPP Outcomes Study was conducted over a 15-year period. Women who answered questions about gravidity and infertility at baseline (n=2,085) were included.

Infertility was defined as >1 year of unsuccessful attempts to conceive. Thus, women could have histories of infertility and pregnancy.

The authors used Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, treatment arm, body mass index, and pregnancy during the study to calculate the risk of diabetes associated with gravidity and infertility. Logistic regression models with similar covariates were used to calculate CAC risks among those who underwent CAC assessment (n=1,337).