Folic Acid in Multivitamin Supplements Reduces Female Infertility

by | Jul 2, 2008 | 2008, Folic Acid & Folate, Pregnancy and Lactation, Reproductive Health, Vitamins

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. Researchers found that those who regularly took a multivitamin supplement were 35% less likely to have reproductive health issues (infertility) than those not taking a multivitamin supplement.

Infertility affects over 6 million women aged 15-44 and 2.1 million married couples (1) and this is expected to increase as couples in developing nations continue to postpone childbearing (2, 3). With 9.3 million couples currently using infertility services (1), per couple costs of these services are reaching $10,000 and adoption is reaching $20,000 (4). Finding more cost-effective ways to help with infertility is becoming a significant priority.

Now a new study (5) has found that taking a multivitamin regularly and insuring adequate folic acid intake may benefit reproductive health and infertility. In the study, researchers analyzed food records (6,7,8) from 18,000 nurses participating in the Nurses Health Study II (9). They found that, on average, those who regularly took a  multivitamin supplement were 35% less likely to have reproductive health issues (infertility) than those not taking a multivitamin supplement. This risk reduction ranged from a 12% reduced for those taking < 2 multivitamin tablets per week to 41% risk reduction for those taking > 6 multivitamin tablets per week.

This multivitamin benefit, however, was largely due to total folic acid intake.  Building upon previous research showing that B-vitamins benefit reproductive health (10), the researchers further found that those consuming more than 1,100 micrograms per day of folic acid were 39% less likely to have reproductive health (infertility) than those consuming 243 micrograms per day.

For the researchers, “consuming multivitamin supplements at least three times per week was associated with a reduced risk of ovulatory infertility” and that “this association appeared to be mediated in part by folic acid.”

Source: Chavarro, Jorge E., Janet W. Rich-Edwards, Bernard A. Rosner, and Walter C. Willett. “Use of multivitamins, intake of B vitamins, and risk of ovulatory infertility.” Fertility and sterility 89, no. 3 (2008): 668-676.

© 2008 American Society for Reproductive Medicine

Posted July 2, 2008.

References:

  1. “Infertility” posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
  2. J.L.H. Evers, Female subfertility, Lancet 360 (2002), pp. 151–159
  3. A. Pinelli and M. Di Cesare, Human fertility: sociodemographic aspects, Contraception 72 (2005), pp. 303–307.
  4. “An analysis of the cost of infertility treatments” posted on the American Public Health Association website.
  5. Chavarro JE.  Use of multivitamins, intake of B vitamins, and risk of ovulatory infertility.  Fert & Ster 2008: 89(3):668-676
  6. E. Giovannucci, M.J. Stampfer, G.A. Colditz, D.J. Hunter, C. Fuchs and B.A. Rosner et al., Multivitamin use, folate, and colon cancer in women in the Nurses’ Health Study, Ann Intern Med 129 (1998), pp. 517–524
  7. W.C. Willett, L. Sampson, M.J. Stampfer, B. Rosner, C. Bain and J. Witschi et al., Reproducibility and validity of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire, Am J Epidemiol 122 (1985), pp. 51–65
  8. W.C. Willett, L. Sampson, M.L. Browne, M.J. Stampfer, B. Rosner and C.H. Hennekens et al., The use of a self-administered questionnaire to assess diet four years in the past, Am J Epidemiol 127 (1988), pp. 188–199
  9. See The Nurse’s Health Study website.
  10. C.J. Thaler, H. Budiman, H. Ruebsamen, D. Nagel and P. Lohse, Effects of the common 677C>T mutation of the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene on ovarian responsiveness to recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone, Am J Reprod Immunol 55 (2006), pp. 251–258.