Fertility drooping eyelid gives clue to female infertility

Fertility drooping eyelid gives clue to female infertility
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

FEB 1: A common form of infertility in young women has been linked to a faulty gene that also causes a distinctive eyelid abnormality, according to research published by an international group of doctors.

Premature ovarian failure, which affects around one per cent of women, causes menstruation to stop before the age of 40.

The causes are insufficient follicles -- the bundle of cells which nurture the eggs in the ovaries -- or the follicles were destroyed, degraded or failed to respond to two key ovulating hormones.

The culprit, say a team of Italian, French, Belgian and US doctors, appears to be a flaw in a gene called foxl2, located in chromosome 3 of the human genetic map.

Their research, reported yesterday in the specialist monthly journal nature genetics, followed up studies which highlighted an apparently disparate array of inherited disorders that all had a link with a region on chromosome 3.

The problems included ovarian failure and facial defects, in which the lid over one eye drooped almost to closure and the eyebrows were permanently arched.

Looking further, the team found a flawed foxl2 among four different Italian families in which there were cases of premature ovarian failure among female members as well as the drooping eyelid.