Consanguineous Unions and Female Infertility: A Familial Cohort Study on Reproductive Loss

Objectives: The study aims to investigate the risk of consanguineous unions and female infertility, along with the reproductive trends within such families. The effects of consanguinity on reproduction have been well documented; its involvement in female infertility and other aspects of family dynamics remains under-explored. Material and Methods: The present study employs a case-control design to compare the risk of consanguineous union in the proband and the familial history of infertile females (cases, N=191) with fertile females (controls, N=101), whereby odds ratios (OR) are calculated using logistic regression analysis. Results: In this study, the frequency of consanguineous union among infertile females was higher than that of the control females (<0.05). The infertile females also had a higher percentage of parents in consanguineous marriages (10.5%) than controls (3%) ( p =0.034). Comparatively, the percentage of the proband paternal line consanguineous unions is less than the maternal-line consanguinity. This study also observed a significant ( p <0.05) difference in the proband sibling infertility and spontaneous abortions. Conclusion: Family-based molecular analysis is needed for investigating the genetic causes of clustered female infertility within families, which may be helpful in elucidating specific genetic causes and their inheritance pattern.