Effect of thyroxine treatment on pregnancy outcomes in infertile Japanese women with TSH levels between 2.5 μIU/mL and the upper reference limit: a retrospective study.

Abstract

Recent randomized controlled studies have revealed that levothyroxine (LT4) treatment improves pregnancy outcomes only in infertile women with subclinical hypothyroidism who have thyroid autoantibodies (TAs), but not for those with high TSH levels within the normal range who have TAs. Here, we retrospectively investigated pregnancy outcomes in infertile Japanese women with 2.5 μIU/mL ≤ TSH < upper reference limit (URL). Between 2012 and 2018, 286 patients diagnosed with infertility were followed for more than 1 year at our institution. Among them, we included 106 patients with 2.5 μIU/mL ≤ TSH < URL. We divided these patients into four groups based on the combination of TA positivity and LT4 treatment status to assess the effects of LT4 treatment considering TA positivity on the incidence of pregnancy or miscarriage. In this study, we did not find any significant differences in the rates of pregnancy or miscarriage among the four groups (p = 0.81 and 0.52, respectively). In addition, logistic regression analysis showed that age and history of miscarriage were associated with the incidence of pregnancy, but presence of TAs and LT4 treatment status were not and that no variables examined were associated with the incidence of miscarriage. In summary, we were not able to demonstrate the benefit of LT4 treatment for pregnancy outcomes in Japanese euthyroid infertile women with 2.5 μIU/mL ≤ TSH < URL regardless of TA status in this study.