High levels of vitamin D may contribute to success in assisted reproduction treatment, researchers say today.
The rate of improvement in success rates has slowed and there remains ample room for improvement in fertility treatments, say Dr Justin Chu of the University of Birmingham, UK, and colleagues in today’s (15 November) Human Reproduction.
They write: "There has been recent interest in the role of vitamin D in reproductive physiology as findings have shown that as much as 20% to 52% of women of reproductive age are deficient in vitamin D."
The team carried out a review of 11 relevant studies, including 2,700 women, on the link between vitamin D and assisted reproduction treatment outcomes.
Live birth was found to be more likely in women with healthy vitamin D levels compared to women with deficient or insufficient vitamin D levels. Five of the studies looked at vitamin D and the chance of a positive pregnancy test, and found a significant link.
Pregnancy was 46% more likely in women with sufficient vitamin D, but no link was found between vitamin D and risk of miscarriage.
"The findings of this systematic review show that there is an association between vitamin D status and reproductive treatment outcomes achieved in women undergoing assisted reproduction treatment," the authors write.
Dr Chu said: "Testing for vitamin D concentrations is relatively cheap and widely available and its treatment is not costly. It could be that correcting vitamin D deficiency could benefit women undergoing assisted reproduction treatment, but further research is needed to test this."
Chu, J. et al. Vitamin D and assisted reproductive treatment outcome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Human Reproduction 15 November 2017; doi: 10.1093/humrep/dex326 [abstract]
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