Parity, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in women treated for hyperprolactinaemia compared with a control group.

OBJECTIVE

Infertility is a common problem in women with hyperprolactinaemia. There are limited data on the fertility and pregnancy course among these women. The objective was to study parity, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in women with hyperprolactinaemia as compared with a control group.

DESIGN

Register study.

PATIENTS: Two hundred and seventy-one female patients treated for primary hyperprolactinaemia were identified in the hospital record archives between 1974 and 2002. For each patient four comparison subjects, matched by sex, birth year and county of residence were identified in the Register of Population. Data were retrieved from the Swedish medical birth register and were analysed using logistic regression and analysis of variance. Measurements Parity, maternal age at first delivery, weeks of gestation, induction of labour, caesarean delivery, multiple birth, Apgar score, birth weight, length, sex, congenital malformations, neonatal care.

RESULTS

One hundred and sixty-two deliveries in the hyperprolactinaemia group and 1220 deliveries in the control group were analysed.

PATIENTS: with hyperprolactinaemia were significantly older at their first pregnancy than their controls: 29.0 (+/- 4.4) and 27.2 (+/- 4.8) years, respectively (P = 0.0002). Furthermore, parity was inversely associated with hyperprolactinaemia status (P for trend = 0.0009). The odds of having three or more children were threefold lower among the patients (OR 0.31 (95% CI 0.16, 0.60)). There were no differences between patients and controls with respect to pregnancy complications, delivery or neonatal outcome variables.

CONCLUSIONS

We found no evidence of increased risk of pregnancy complications or adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with treated hyperprolactinaemia. However, the patients were older at their first pregnancy and had a reduced overall parity.