Evaluation of in vitro fertilization parameters and estrogen receptor alpha gene polymorphisms for women with unexplained infertility.

Purpose: Association of ESR1 gene PvuII, XbaI and (TA)n microsatellite polymorphisms and woman infertility was evaluated.

Methods: Infertile(n = 104) and fertile(n = 107) women were included in this study. We performed polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysis for detecting ESR1 polymorphisms.

Result(s): PvuII and XbaI polymorphisms confered risk for infertility in a simple dominant manner in which a significant relationship was observed between infertile and control women. Infertile women had fewer(<18) short repeat alleles in promotor region. ESR1 genotypes were compared concerning maturation, fertilization, pregnancy rates and embryo quality. Although no difference was found in terms of pregnancy rates, maturation and fertilization rates were significantly smaller in pp and xx genotypes. Also, pp genotypes had significantly lower number of good quality embryos. Long TA repeat in promotor was found to be associated with low fertilization rate.

Conclusion(s): Polymorphisms at the ESR1 gene are associated with infertility in this Turkish infertile women population.