Those of us with celiac disease know it affects far more than just our digestive systems. I've spoken with many women who say going gluten-free altered their menstrual cycles (usually making their periods less painful), and even one or two women who tell me their celiac disease diagnosis reversed what seemed to be early menopause. Medical research also has linked celiac disease with infertility.
Now, a new study from Italy provides more evidence that celiac disease does impact the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. The researchers compared 62 celiac women with 186 healthy controls matched for age and location, looking for reproductive issues.
The study found that nearly 20% of the celiac women had amenorrhea, or missed menstrual periods. Only 2.2% of the healthy controls suffered from amenorrhea, which contributes to infertility.
In addition, pregnancy complications such as threatened miscarriage, pregnancy-related hypertension, severe anemia and intrauterine growth retardation appeared four times more often in women with celiac disease as they did in the group of healthy control subjects.
The researchers suggested that clinicians consider screening women with reproductive disorders for celiac disease antibodies.
Source:
Domenico Martinelli, et. al. "Reproductive life disorders in Italian celiac women. A case-control study." BMC Gastroenterology. 2010;10:89.
