Abstract
PURPOSE: Vitamin D deficiency has been proposed to be a risk factor in the pathogenesis of uterine fibroid in few recently published studies conducted in Europe and Africa. Nevertheless, no study has ever addressed similar query in Indian women where hypovitaminosis is very common. METHODS: A total of 144 women of age group 20-50 years belonging to Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India, were included in the study. Out of which, 72 women had uterine fibroids and rest healthy women without fibroids served as controls. All women were subjected to ultrasound examination of uterus followed by measurement of serum FSH level (on 3rd day of menstruation) and serum vitamin D(3). RESULTS: The mean serum concentration of vitamin D(3) was significantly lower in women with uterine fibroids compared to controls (10.81 ± 6.18 vs. 22.91 ± 16.18, p < 0.0001). On further analysis, 62.5% of cases were found to be severely deficient (vitamin D(3) < 10 ng/mL) as compared to 26.39% of controls (p < 0.0001). Besides that, only 2.77% of cases had sufficient vitamin D level as compared to 23.61% of controls (p = 0.0002). The odds ratio (OR) of occurrence of fibroid with serum vitamin D(3) level of < 10 ng/dl compared to that of level > 10 ng/dl was 4.64 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.28-9.44) (p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Serum vitamin D(3) level inversely correlated with burden of uterine fibroid and possibly its deficiency is a risk factor for uterine fibroid occurrence in eastern part of India.