Bad Diet May Impair Female Fertility

Frequent consumption of fruits tied to higher, faster chances of conception

by Kristen Monaco, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
May 03, 2018

Diet prior to conception correlated with time to achieving conception in a large, multinational, retrospective study.

Compared to women who ate fruit three or more times a day, women who consumed fruit less frequently had an increased risk for infertility according to Jessica A. Grieger, RNutr, PhD, of the University of Adelaide in Australia, and colleagues (P=0.043 for trend)

• ≥1 to <3 times/day: 7% increased infertility risk
• 1 to 6 times/week: 18%
• <1 to 3 times/month: 29%

The retrospective analysis, appearing in Human Reproduction, also found a diet frequently comprising fast food may also affect fertility. Compared to women who ate fast food four or more times per week, those who only consumed it ≥2 to <4 times per week or >0 to <2 times per week reported an 18% and 34% reduced risk for infertility. Those who consumed no fast food had a 41% reduced risk for infertility (P<0.001 for trend).

“We speculate that a high intake of fast food may be one factor mediating infertility through altered circulating and oocyte follicular fluid metabolic markers, namely lipoproteins,” Grieger’s group suggested.

A women’s diet before conception also showed an influence on time to pregnancy (TTP). As seen with infertility risk, women who ate fruit less often tended to have a longer time to pregnancy compared to women who ate fruit three or more times per day (P-trend=0.007):

• ≥1 to <3 times/day: 6% increase in median TTP (95% CI 0.97-1.15)
• 1 to 6 times/week: 11% increase (95% CI 1.01–1.22)
• <1 to 3 times/month: 19% increase (95% CI 1.03–1.36)

Similar findings were seen in regards to fast food, as well. Compared to women who ate fast food four or more times per week, those who only ate it ≥2 to <4 times/week, >0 to<2 times/week or no fast food at all had an 11% (95% CI 0.81–0.98), 21% (95% CI 0.69–0.89) and 24% (95% CI 0.61–0.95) decrease in the median TTP (P<0.001 for trend), respectively.

Interestingly, amount of leafy green vegetable and fish intake were not tied to infertility or TTP.

“This supports our findings of a protective effect of fruit, but we did not find an association with green leafy vegetable or fish,” the researchers noted, adding how it’s expected a diet rich in these foods would promote fertility due to the antioxidants and phytochemicals they contain.

“As we only asked about green leafy vegetables and did not ask about orange or other types of vegetables, we did not capture total vegetable intake, potentially limiting the impact they may have on fertility,” they explained.

Data on over 5,550 women from the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand were included in the analysis. Information on pre-conception diet was collected around 15 weeks of gestation through a food frequency questionnaire conducted by a midwife. Women were asked to recall information about their diets four weeks prior to conception.

Based upon these findings, “small modifications in dietary intake may have benefits for improving fertility and should be encouraged both population-wide and in couples seeking conception,” the group recommended, but highlighted that additional research in needed on the impacts of a “broader range of foods and food groups” on fertility.