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Infertility among male UK veterans of the 1990-1 Gulf war: reproductive cohort study

BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38163.620972.AE (Published 22 July 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:196

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  1. Noreen Maconochie (noreen.maconochie{at}lshtm.ac.uk), senior lecturer in epidemiology and medical statistics1,
  2. Pat Doyle, reader in epidemiology1,
  3. Claire Carson, research assistant1
  1. 1 Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, London WC1E 7HT
  1. Correspondence to: N Maconochie
  • Accepted 16 June 2004

Abstract

Objectives To examine the hypothesis that, theoretically at least, exposure to toxicants of the type present in the Gulf war could affect spermatogenesis, which might be observed as increased levels of infertility.

Design Retrospective reproductive cohort analysis.

Setting Male UK Gulf war veterans and matched comparison group of non-deployed servicemen, surveyed by postal questionnaire.

Participants 42 818 completed questionnaires were returned, representing response rates of 53% for Gulf veterans and 42% for non-Gulf veterans; 10 465 Gulf veterans and 7376 non-Gulf veterans reported fathering or trying to father pregnancies after the Gulf war.

Main outcome measures Failure to achieve conceptions (type I infertility) or live births (type II infertility) after the Gulf war, having tried for at least a year and consulted a doctor; time to conception among pregnancies fathered by men not reporting fertility problems.

Results Risk of reported infertility was higher among Gulf war veterans than among non-Gulf veterans (odds ratio for type I infertility 1.41, 95% confidence interval 1.05 to 1.89; type II 1.50, 1.18 to 1.89). This small effect was constant over time since the war and was observed whether or not the men had fathered pregnancies before the war. Results were similar when analyses were restricted to clinically confirmed diagnoses. Pregnancies fathered by Gulf veterans not reporting fertility problems also took longer to conceive (odds ratio for > 1 year 1.18, 1.04 to 1.34).

Conclusions We found some evidence of an association between Gulf war service and reported infertility. Pregnancies fathered by Gulf veterans with no fertility problems also reportedly took longer to conceive.

Footnotes

  • Contributors NM and PD initiated the research and participated in protocol design, data collection, analysis, and writing the paper. CC participated in data collection, coding, and writing the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. NM will act as the guarantor of the paper on behalf of all investigators.

  • Funding The study was funded by the UK Ministry of Defence and administered by the UK Medical Research Council.

    Competing interest: None declared.

  • Ethical approval West Midlands multi-centre research ethics committee; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine ethics committee.

  • Accepted 16 June 2004
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