Heavy Metals Status In Infertile Women

Abstract

Female infertility has become a fundamental health and social issue globally due to over exposure to heavy metals . therefore this study aim to determined the heavy metals status of infertile women. Structured self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 190 infertile women from the two fertility clinics in Umuahia to obtain their physiological parameters. (10ml) was collected from each of the participant, 5ml each was placed in plain and heparinized bottles respectively, whole blood was used to determine the heavy metals lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), Chromium (Cr) and cadmium (cd) were analysed in blood serum samples using quantitative analysis method. The results obtained were statistically computed using GRAPHPAD PRISM 6.0. All data were presented as mean ± standard error of mean (SEM) and were analysed using the Analysis of variance (ANOVA). Multiple comparisons were done using Turkey method. Differences were declared statistically significant at p < 0.05. Conclusively, this  present study  Cadmium (Cd) and Chromium (Cr) were not detected in any of the participants while Lead (Pb) however, was detected in age groups 20–25 in the range 0.0 - 0.073 (mg/L) with a mean value of 0.0283 ± 0.0401 (mg/L); age group 26 – 30 had Pb mean value of  0.0491 ± 0.047 (mg/L) ranging from 0.0-0.133 (mg/L). Pb in age group 31 - 35 ranged from 0.000 – 1.768 (mg/L) with a mean of 0.166 ± 0.450 (mg/L) (Fig.1d). The levels of Mercury (Hg) within the age group of 20- 25 ranged from 0.000 – 2.476 (mg/L) with a mean value of 0.060 ± 1.212 (mg/L) while that of age groups 26–30 ranged from 0.000 –6.678 (mg/L) with a mean value of 0.253 ± 3.222 (mg/L)