Table 1.
Characteristics of the participants (N = 58) which included fertile women (Control group), women with a history of repetitive abortion (RA group), and women with infertility of unknown origin (INF group).
| Group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | Control (n = 14) | RA (n = 21) | INF (n = 23) | p-Value |
| Age (years) | ||||
| Mean (95% CI) | 34.6 (33.5–35.8) a | 39.4 (38.5–40.4) b | 38.0 (37.1–38.9) b | <0.001 2 |
| Range (min–max) | (28.0–45.0) | (36.0–44.0) | (34.0–44.0) | |
| Weight (kg) | ||||
| Mean (95% CI) | 62.4 (59.7–65.0) | 68.3 (66.1–70.4) | 66.5 (64.5–68.6) | 0.054 2 |
| Range (min–max) | (46.0–87.0) | (50.0–87.0) | (51.0–78.0) | |
| Height (cm) | ||||
| Mean (95% CI) | 166 (164–168) | 167 (165–169) | 168 (166–169) | 0.761 2 |
| Range (min–max) | (156–175) | (152–190) | (160–182) | |
| Regularity of the menstrual cycle | ||||
| Yes, n (%) | 10 (71) | 10 (48) | 11 (48) | 0.337 3 |
| No, n (%) | 4 (29) | 11 (52) | 12 (52) | |
| Duration of the menstrual cycle (days) | ||||
| Mean (95% CI) | 28.0 (27.4–28.7) | 27.4 (26.9–27.9) | 27.5 (27.0–28.0) | 0.502 2 |
| Range (min–max) | (25.0–32.5) | (24.0–30.0) | (24.0–30.0) | |
| History of infections | ||||
| Vaginal, n (%) | 2 (14) | 13 (62) | 8 (35) | 0.017 3 |
| Urinary tract, n (%) | 2 (14) | 13 (62) | 15 (65) | 0.006 3 |
| Otorhinolaryngology, n (%) | 3 (21) | 13 (62) | 12 (52) | 0.057 3 |
| Lower respiratory tract, n (%) | 2 (14) | 7 (33) | 7 (30) | 0.490 3 |
| Skin, n (%) | 1 (7) | 3 (14) | 4 (17) | 0.800 3 |
| Gastrointestinal, n (%) | 0 (0) | 1 (5) | 1 (4) | 1.000 |
| Antibiotic usage 1 | ||||
| In infancy, n (%) | 4 (29) | 19 (90) | 14 (61) | <0.001 3 |
| In adulthood, n (%) | 4 (29) | 16 (76) | 19 (83) | 0.003 3 |
| History of other conditions | ||||
| Allergies, n (%) | 2 (14) | 5 (24) | 4 (17) | 0.835 3 |
| Food intolerance, n (%) | 0 (0) | 8 (38) | 13 (57) | 0.001 3 |
| Thyroid disease, n (%) | 0 (0) | 5 (24) | 3 (13) | 0.125 3 |
1 Antibiotic usage means ≥4 annual treatments due to recurrent infections. 2 One-way ANOVA tests were used to evaluate differences in mean values of women age, weight, and height and duration of the menstrual cycle between groups. Values followed by different superscript letters within the same row indicate statistically significant differences between groups according to Scheffé post hoc comparison tests. 3 Freeman–Halton extension of the Fisher exact probability tests for a 2 × 3 contingency table were used to compute the (two-tailed) probability of obtaining a distribution of values of categorical variables (regularity of the menstrual cycle, history of infections, antibiotic usage and history of other conditions).