Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF

Evidence for an association between cortisol and clinical pregnancy in women undergoing In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is mixed with previous studies relying exclusively on short term measures of cortisol in blood, saliva, urine, and/or follicular fluid. Hair sampling allows analysis of systemic level...

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Main Authors: Massey, Adam, Campbell, Bruce K., Raine-Fenning, Nick, Pincott-Allen, Catherine, Perry, Jane, Vedhara, Kavita
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2016
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36504/
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author Massey, Adam
Campbell, Bruce K.
Raine-Fenning, Nick
Pincott-Allen, Catherine
Perry, Jane
Vedhara, Kavita
author_facet Massey, Adam
Campbell, Bruce K.
Raine-Fenning, Nick
Pincott-Allen, Catherine
Perry, Jane
Vedhara, Kavita
author_sort Massey, Adam
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Evidence for an association between cortisol and clinical pregnancy in women undergoing In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is mixed with previous studies relying exclusively on short term measures of cortisol in blood, saliva, urine, and/or follicular fluid. Hair sampling allows analysis of systemic levels of cortisol over the preceding 3–6 months. The present study sought to explore the relationship between cortisol and clinical pregnancy outcome in women undergoing IVF utilising multiple indices of cortisol derived from both saliva and hair measured prior to commencing gonadotrophin treatment. A total of 135 women (mean age 34.5 SD +/−4.8) were recruited from an English fertility clinic (December 2012–April 2014) 60% of whom became pregnant (n = 81). Salivary cortisol data were obtained over two days: upon awakening, 30 min post awakening, and at 22:00. A subsample (n = 88) of the women providing salivary samples were approached consecutively to provide hair samples for the measurement of cortisol. Independent Logistic regression analyses revealed that salivary cortisol measures including cortisol awakening response (CAR) (p = 0.485), area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg) (p = 0.527), area under the curve with respect to increase (AUCi) (p = 0.731) and diurnal slope (p = 0.889) did not predict clinical pregnancy. In contrast, hair cortisol concentrations significantly predicted clinical pregnancy (p = 0.017). Associations between hair cortisol and clinical pregnancy remained when controlling for accumulations of salivary cortisol (p = 0.034) accounting for 26.7% of the variance in pregnancy outcome. These findings provide preliminary evidence that longer term systemic cortisol may influence reproductive outcomes; and in turn suggests that interventions to reduce cortisol prior to commencing IVF could improve treatment outcomes.
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spelling nottingham-365042020-05-04T18:23:40Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36504/ Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF Massey, Adam Campbell, Bruce K. Raine-Fenning, Nick Pincott-Allen, Catherine Perry, Jane Vedhara, Kavita Evidence for an association between cortisol and clinical pregnancy in women undergoing In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is mixed with previous studies relying exclusively on short term measures of cortisol in blood, saliva, urine, and/or follicular fluid. Hair sampling allows analysis of systemic levels of cortisol over the preceding 3–6 months. The present study sought to explore the relationship between cortisol and clinical pregnancy outcome in women undergoing IVF utilising multiple indices of cortisol derived from both saliva and hair measured prior to commencing gonadotrophin treatment. A total of 135 women (mean age 34.5 SD +/−4.8) were recruited from an English fertility clinic (December 2012–April 2014) 60% of whom became pregnant (n = 81). Salivary cortisol data were obtained over two days: upon awakening, 30 min post awakening, and at 22:00. A subsample (n = 88) of the women providing salivary samples were approached consecutively to provide hair samples for the measurement of cortisol. Independent Logistic regression analyses revealed that salivary cortisol measures including cortisol awakening response (CAR) (p = 0.485), area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg) (p = 0.527), area under the curve with respect to increase (AUCi) (p = 0.731) and diurnal slope (p = 0.889) did not predict clinical pregnancy. In contrast, hair cortisol concentrations significantly predicted clinical pregnancy (p = 0.017). Associations between hair cortisol and clinical pregnancy remained when controlling for accumulations of salivary cortisol (p = 0.034) accounting for 26.7% of the variance in pregnancy outcome. These findings provide preliminary evidence that longer term systemic cortisol may influence reproductive outcomes; and in turn suggests that interventions to reduce cortisol prior to commencing IVF could improve treatment outcomes. Elsevier 2016-12-31 Article PeerReviewed Massey, Adam, Campbell, Bruce K., Raine-Fenning, Nick, Pincott-Allen, Catherine, Perry, Jane and Vedhara, Kavita (2016) Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 74 . pp. 397-405. ISSN 1873-3360 Stress; Hair; Cortisol; Infertility; In Vitro Fertilisation; IVF http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453016306229 doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.08.027 doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.08.027
spellingShingle Stress; Hair; Cortisol; Infertility; In Vitro Fertilisation; IVF
Massey, Adam
Campbell, Bruce K.
Raine-Fenning, Nick
Pincott-Allen, Catherine
Perry, Jane
Vedhara, Kavita
Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF
title Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF
title_full Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF
title_fullStr Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF
title_full_unstemmed Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF
title_short Relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing IVF
title_sort relationship between hair and salivary cortisol and pregnancy in women undergoing ivf
topic Stress; Hair; Cortisol; Infertility; In Vitro Fertilisation; IVF
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36504/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36504/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36504/