This review article summarises the evidence for intergenerational trends observed to date within infertility and pregnancy loss. There appears to be evidence of intergenerational trends between mothers and daughters for the age at menopause, endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), male factor infertility and miscarriage. At present, there is no evidence for a predisposition to stillbirth between mothers and daughters. One study found an association with familial predisposition for ectopic pregnancy. Very few studies have considered the potential for paternal transmission of risk of infertility or pregnancy loss. The majority of studies to date have significant limitations because of their observational design, risk of recall bias and risk of confounding. Therefore, high-quality well-designed research, with multi-centre collaboration and utilisation of registry-based data sources and individual patient data, is needed to understand whether infertility and pregnancy loss may have heritable factors. Epidemiological findings need to be followed up and investigated with translational research to determine the possible causalities as well as any implications for clinical practice.
Best practice & research. Clinical obstetrics & gynaecology. 2022 Dec 28 [Epub ahead of print]
Andrea Mf Woolner, Siladitya Bhattacharya
Aberdeen Centre for Women's Health Research, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. Electronic address: ., Aberdeen Centre for Women's Health Research, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. Electronic address: .