Dietary supplements for female infertility: a critical review of their composition
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Authors
Vitagliano, Amerigo
Petre, Gabriel Cosmin
Francini-Pesenti, Francesco
Toni, Luca De
Nisio, Andrea Di
Grande, Giuseppe
Foresta, Carlo
Garolla, Andrea
Issue Date
2021-10-11
Type
Article
Language
en_US
Keywords
Dietary Supplements , Female Reproduction , Oocyte Quality , Pregnancy Rates , Spontaneous Ovulation , Assisted Reproduction Techniques , Female Infertility
Alternative Title
Abstract
Infertility is the condition of about 15% of couples that cannot get a conception after one year of unprotected sexual intercourse. In females, the reduced reproductive capacity underlies the most varied causes. Dietary supplements (DS) might be used to improve the pregnancy rate and a wide range of DS are proposed today to support female fertility. Although many authors demonstrated the positive effect of some of these products, the real efficacy of this approach is still debated. In order to evaluate the potential efficacy of DS for female infertility, we analysed the products marketed in Italy, using an original approach. A review of literature was performed to evaluate the effect of nutraceuticals on various female reproductive outcomes and to detect the minimal effective daily dose (mED) able to improve at least one of these. Thereafter, we conceived a formula to classify the expected efficacy of each DS. Each DS was scored and included into three classes of expected efficacy: higher, lower, and none. Ten out of 24 supplements (41.7%) resulted in the higher and 8 (34.3%) in the lower efficacy group, the remaining 6 DS (25.0%) were expected to have no efficacy. DS marketed in Italy are usually blends of many substances that are frequently employed at a negligible dose or without any evidence of efficacy. These findings raise serious doubt about the potential effectiveness of most commercial DS for female infertility.
Description
Citation
Vitagliano, A., Petre, G. C., Francini-Pesenti, F., De Toni, L., Di Nisio, A., Grande, G., Foresta, C., & Garolla, A. (2021). Dietary Supplements for Female Infertility: A Critical Review of Their Composition. Nutrients, 13(10), 3552. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13103552
Publisher
Nutrients