Inflammatory Markers in Women with Infertility: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Purpose: Infertility is highly correlated with inflammation. We sought to evaluate the independent relationships between each inflammatory marker in women with infertility. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1028 infertile patients who were hospitalized at Jining Medical University between January 2016 and December 2022. NLR and PLR were the independent and dependent variables measured at baseline, respectively. Age, body mass index (BMI), and menstrual status were covariates. Based on BMI, the study population was split into two groups: Low-BMI and High-BMI. Results: A stratified analysis revealed that the overweight group had significantly higher levels of WBC, platelet count, lymphocyte count, neutrophil count and NLR. Comparing the overweight group to the normal weight group, the levels were noticeably higher in the overweight group. Significantly positive correlations between NLR and PLR were found in both univariate and multiple regression analyses. Conclusion: There was a significant positive correlation between NLR and PLR in infertility patients. These results will help in the search for biomarkers of infertility and in the development of infertility prediction models.