p-values were calculated using the Chi-square test to compare frequencies across all groups. Asterisk (*) indicates a statistically significant overall difference (p < 0.05). Different superscript letters (a, b) within the same row indicate statistically significant pairwise differences (p < 0.05) in seroprevalence between specific groups [specifically comparing the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) phenotypes against healthy controls] based on post-hoc pairwise comparisons of column proportions.
Declarations
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the staff of the Infertility and IVF Center at Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, for their support during the data collection phase. We also thank all the participants who volunteered for this study.
Author contributions
SOY: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Visualization. MDA: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision. SMA: Investigation, Data curation. IKD: Investigation, Data curation. SM: Formal analysis, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. JS: Formal analysis. All authors read and approved the submitted version.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval
The study was reviewed and approved by the Middle Technical University Medical Ethics Committee in Baghdad, Iraq (Ethics Reference Number: 37, approved on October 27, 2025). All procedures were conducted in strict adherence to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki.
Consent to participate
Informed consent was obtained from all adult participants prior to their inclusion in the study.
Consent to publication
Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.
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