Can a multivitamin help with fertility treatments?

By Sophie Ramsey

BMJ Group News

What do we know already?

About 1 in 7 couples in the UK have difficulty getting pregnant. Although there are many potential reasons why, often it’s because a woman’s ovaries are either not releasing eggs or not releasing them regularly. Treatments can help with this, including injections of a drug called clomifene or of hormone treatments. However, these don’t work for every woman. And some women need several rounds of treatment before they conceive.

In the new study, researchers wondered whether taking a multivitamin intended to help the body prepare for pregnancy might improve the chances of success.

They recruited 58 women who were being treated with clomifene or a hormone treatment called human menopausal gonadotrophin (HMG). They randomly assigned them to take a pre-pregnancy multivitamin called Pregnacare-Conception or folic acid alone. (Folic acid is recommended for all women trying for a baby, as it protects against some birth defects.)

What does the new study say?

Among the 56 women who completed the study, those taking the multivitamin were more likely to have become pregnant than those taking folic acid alone.

After up to three rounds of fertility treatment with clomifene or HMG, 69 percent of those taking the multivitamin (20 out of 29) had become pregnant, compared with 41 percent of those taking folic acid alone (11 out of 27).

Women taking the multivitamin also conceived faster overall, with 15 becoming pregnant after their first round of fertility treatment, compared with two in the folic acid group.

How reliable is the research?

This was a randomised controlled trial, which is the best type of study for finding out the effects of a treatment. Also, everyone involved in the study - the women, the researchers, and the medical staff - was ‘blinded’ as to which treatment the women received. This means no one knew which supplement each woman was taking, so their expectations were unlikely to have affected the study or its results.

However, we need to be a bit cautious about these findings, as the study was quite small. It also leaves several questions unanswered. For example, are these results unique to the Pregnacare-Conception supplement - or would the findings be similar with another type of pregnancy-related (prenatal) multivitamin? Which nutrients in the supplement might have improved the women’s chances of becoming pregnant? And would women have similar results if they changed their diet instead?

What does this mean for me?

Studies show that good nutrition is important if you’re trying to get pregnant. What’s less clear is the role specific nutrients might play, although research suggests many could be important, including B vitamins, vitamins A, C, and E, some minerals, and an amino acid called L-arginine.

These findings suggest that taking a multivitamin with a combination of these and other nutrients can increase your chance of becoming pregnant if you’re being treated with clomifene or HMG. This is an intriguing finding, particularly since these supplements are readily available and generally considered safe in pregnancy, with few (if any) side effects. However, we need larger studies to confirm and clarify these results.

In the meantime, if you’re having fertility treatments and are interested in taking one of these multivitamins, talk to your doctor. There are many pregnancy-related supplements available, and your doctor may be able to recommend a reliable brand that would be suitable for you.