Fertility of men and women reduced by obesity and low vitamin D (perhaps synergistically)

Created June 2019

Vitamin D and Obesity: Two Interacting Players in the Field of Infertility.

Nutrients. 2019 Jun 27;11(7). pii: E1455. doi: 10.3390/nu11071455.

Bosdou JK1, Konstantinidou E2, Anagnostis P3, Kolibianakis EM1, Goulis DG2.

* Vitamin D is needed for human fertility – goal is 50 ng – Sept 2018 * Poor fertility in both women and men associated with low vitamin D – review Feb 2018 * Infertility - 71 percent of the time of BOTH partners had less than 20 ng of Vitamin D – Aug 2017 1. # Items in both categories Obesity and Fertility are listed here: {category} 1. Items in both of the categories Intervention AND Fertility/Sperm {category} 1. Fertility and Sperm category contains the following summary {include}

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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vitamin D and Obesity)

Obesity plays an important role in human fertility in both genders.

The same is true for vitamin D, for which accumulating evidence from observational human studies suggests a key role for both male and female fertility. In the latter case, however, robust data from relevant interventional studies are currently lacking.

It is also not clear whether obesity and vitamin D deficiency, besides their independent effect on human infertility, act in synergy.

Several pathogenetic mechanisms may be proposed as a linkage between vitamin D deficiency and obesity, with respect to infertility. In any case, the independent contribution of vitamin D deficiency in obese infertile states needs to be proven in interventional studies focusing on either vitamin D supplementation in obese or weight loss strategies in vitamin D-deficient infertile patients.

Table 1. Vitamin D and infertility

Male infertility

Linear or U-shaped correlation between vitamin D concentrations and sperm motility/morphology

Sufficient vitamin D concentrations associated with high testosterone concentrations

Supplementation of vitamin D improved semen quality and pregnancy rates

Supplementation of vitamin D increased testosterone concentrations

Female infertility

Contradictory data on whether supplementation of vitamin D is associated with pregnancy rates

ART (assisted reproductive techniques)

Higher live birth rates in vitamin D-sufficient women

Endometriosis

Linear correlation between vitamin D concentrations and diameter of ovarian endometriomas

Higher incidence of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency in women with endometriosis

PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome)

Linear correlation between vitamin D levels and reproductive success rates after ovulation induction in women with PCOS

Tags: Fertility and sperm Obesity