Infertility Does Not Increase the Rate of Breast Fibroadenoma

Mandana  Motamedi; Ashraf  Moini; Khadije  Maajani; Arezoo  Maleki-Hajiagha; Sadaf  Alipour

doi:10.18502/jri.v24i1.11910

Mandana Motamedi Breast Disease Research Center (BDRC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Ashraf Moini Breast Disease Research Center (BDRC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Khadije Maajani Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Arezoo Maleki-Hajiagha Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranDepartment of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Sadaf Alipour Breast Disease Research Center (BDRC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/jri.v24i1.11910

Keywords: Assisted reproductive technology, Breast neoplasm, Breast ultrasound, Fibroadenoma, Infer-tility.

Abstract

Background: Fibroadenoma (FA) and infertility can share common risk factors and probably common underlying pathophysiology, but yet there is no study evaluating the prevalence of FA in infertile women. Therefore, the aim of in the present study, the purpose was evaluating the association of FA and infertility for the first time.

Methods: This short communication is a secondary analysis of a primary study that was performed in Arash Women’s Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Participants were selected among reproductive-aged women with a history of infertility as the case and women without infertility as the control group. The criteria for diagnosis of FA were histopathologic assessment for lumps 1 cm in size or larger, and a typical ultrasound image for smaller lumps. Assisted reproductive technology (ART) was defined as any previous history of undergoing ovulation stimulation, intrauterine insemination, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or in vitro fertilization.

Results: Overall, 155 cases with a mean age of 39.2±6.9, and 167 controls with a mean age of 43.08±8.3 were included (p=0.0001). Interestingly, the incidence of FA was lower in the case group (18.7% vs. 25.7%), however, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.13). Also, logistic regression analysis showed that the chance for an infertile woman who undergoes ART to get FA is 1.7 times higher in comparison to non-ART group, although the difference was not significant (p=0.21).

Conclusion: Infertility and ART were not associated with increased risk of FA; however, larger prospective studies should be conducted in the future in order to achieve conclusive results.