Vitamin D somewhat assists reproduction – both the mother and the father – May 2014

Vitamin D and assisted reproduction technologies: current concepts

Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology 2014,12:47 doi:10.1186/1477-7827-12-47
Valeria S Vanni (vanni.valeriastella@hsr.it) Paola Vigano (vigano.paola@hsr.it) Edgardo Somigliana (dadosomigliana@yahoo.it) Enrico Papaleo (papaleo.enrico@hsr.it) Alessio Paffoni (alessio.paffoni@alice.it) Luca Pagliardini (pagliardini.luca@hsr.it) Massimo Candiani (candiani.massimo@hsr.it)
ISSN 1477-7827
Article type Review; Submission date 14 January 2014; Acceptance date 10 May 2014; Publication date 31 May 2014
Article URL http://www.rbej.com/content/12/1/47

Accumulating evidence from animal and human studies suggests that vitamin D is involved in many functions of the human reproductive system in both genders, but no comprehensive analysis of the potential relationship between vitamin D status and Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ART) outcomes is currently available. On this basis, the purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to perform an in-depth evaluation of clinical studies assessing whether vitamin D status of patients undergoing ART could be related to cycle outcome variables. This issue is of interest considering that vitamin D deficiency is easily amenable to correction and oral vitamin D supplementation is cheap and without significant side effects. Surprisingly, no studies are currently available assessing vitamin D status among male partners of couples undergoing ART, while seven studies on vitamin D status of women undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) for ART were found and included in the review. Results show that vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent among women undergoing COH, ranging from 21% to 31% across studies conducted in Western countries and reaching 75-99% in Iranian studies. Data on vitamin D deficiency (25-hydroxyvitamin D serum levels <20 ng/ml) in relation to ART outcomes could be extracted from three studies and included in the meta-analysis, yielding a common risk ratio (RR) of 0.89 (95% CI 0.531.49) and showing a lower but not statistically significant likelihood of clinical pregnancy for vitamin-D-deficient women compared with vitamin-D-sufficient patients.

In conclusion, there is insufficient evidence to support the routine assessment of vitamin D status to predict the clinical pregnancy rate in couples undergoing ART. The partly conflicting results of the available studies, potentially explaining the lack of statistical significance for a negative influence of vitamin D deficiency on clinical pregnancy rate, are likely secondary to confounders and insufficient sample size, and further larger cohort and randomised controlled studies are required.

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Most likely would have found much more benefit if they had considered levels >, < 40 ng instead of 20 ng

See also VitaminDWiki

• Male infertility associated with low vitamin D levels – Dec 2012
• IVF 4X more successful for white women with lots of vitamin D – many studies
• Reproduction function in males improved by vitamin D – review Aug 2012
• All items in category Fertility and Sperm - Vitamin D 142 items