You hear it from fertility doctors and obstetricians
all of the time: If you are looking to get pregnant
you should start taking a prenatal vitamin every day.
Why do doctors recommend starting prenatal vitamins even before you're pregnant?
Will it help speed up the time it takes to get pregnant?
The answer is interesting. Stay tuned!
First off, in this video we are talking about prenatal vitamins.
These are pills that contain vitamins and minerals
that are designed to meet the nutritional needs of pregnant women.
In the United States, prenatal vitamins are available either by prescription
or over-the-counter. Whichever type you choose,
make sure that your prenatal vitamin does not have other
unnecessary and potentially harmful supplements.
Watch this video to learn about the dangers of taking supplements when you
are trying to conceive or are already pregnant. There is a large
amount of high quality evidence that vitamins of
various types can help improve the chances for a
healthy pregnancy. For example, folic acid or folate has
been proven to reduce the risk of having babies
with a certain type of birth defect known as neural tube defects. The most
well known of these birth defects is called spina bifida.
There is also evidence that omega-3 fatty acids
help with fetal brain and eye development.
Iron in prenatal vitamins can reduce the chance of women becoming anemic during
pregnancy. Since the development of the fetus
starts in the first trimester and since women may already be several
weeks pregnant when they learn they are pregnant
they may not get the needed vitamins in time to be of benefit.
This is why doctors recommend starting prenatal vitamins
before a woman has conceived. What about prenatal vitamins for fertility?
First, let's talk about iron. A study from researchers at Harvard University found
that women who reported lower iron intake were more likely to
have ovulation problems. In 2006, a study was conducted on nearly
20 000 women who were trying to become pregnant.
The results showed that women who took iron supplements
were 40% less likely to report ovulation problems.
The benefit to women without ovulation problems was less certain, however.
In a review of two studies of women planning pregnancy,
a study in the U.S. found a slight benefit with iron
but another from Denmark did not find a benefit.
What about folic acid? This study from the state of New York,
found that women who consumed more folic acid in their diet
were less likely to have sporadic ovulation problems.
In women who took folic acid supplements there was a 60% decrease in the chance
for having months where they did not ovulate.
In a study of about 4 000 Danish women, women who took folic acid supplements
were 15% more likely to get pregnant each month
compared to women who did not use folate. If those women had a long
interval between their periods, which suggests an ovulation problem,
they were 35% more likely to get pregnant each month.
Finally, this study found that women who took folic acid supplements
were about 20% less likely to have a miscarriage
compared with women who did not take a folic acid supplement.
There has also been evidence that vitamin D deficiency
can increase the risk of infertility and taking vitamin D
supplements can improve fertility, shorten the time to pregnancy and even
improve the success rate with treatments like IVF.
I talked in detail about vitamin D in this video.
Check it out after this video is done. There hasn't been much research on the
effect of multivitamins on fertility. A study in Hungary looked at women
taking multivitamins compared to women taking a placebo
and found that the time to pregnancy was about 5%
faster than women taking multivitamins. in 2019, a review of available studies
found that small deficiencies in a variety of vitamins and minerals
was common in women attempting pregnancy and that supplementing women with
multivitamins may offer a small benefit.
Our Infertility TV bottom line is this: Women who are trying to conceive should
take prenatal vitamins to lower the risk for birth defects and
improve pregnancy outcomes. There is also some evidence that by
doing this they can reduce the chance for ovulation
problems, improve fertility and possibly reduce
miscarriage risk. There is really no reason not to take
prenatals if you are attempting pregnancy.
In addition to hosting Infertility TV every week, I am a practicing physician.
If you would like to have a one-on-one consultation with me
by video, check out my website at ivf1.com but before you do
make sure you subscribe to Infertility TV now! It's like having a fertility
specialist in your phone