Iron May Boost Ovulatory Infertility
About 12 percent of women (7.3 million) in the United States aged 15-44 had difficulty getting pregnant or carrying a baby to term in 2002, according to the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Infertility is defined as not being able to get pregnant after at least one year of trying or who are able to get pregnant but have multiple miscarriages.
Some of the things that increase a couples chances of infertility are:
age
smoking
STDs
stress
over or underweight
Ovulatory infertility which is the inability to produce viable eggs, is a common cause of infertility in women. But a new study shows that iron supplements can help.
Researchers followed 18,000 registered nurses, ages 24 to 42, who never had a history of infertility. Their findings showed that nearly 4 percent of women who try to conceive will experience some form of ovulatory infertility. Taking iron supplements prior to and during attempts to conceive can reduce that risk by 40 to 60 percent.
They found that women who took larger doses of iron (more than 41 milligrams a day) were 62 percent less likely to have difficulty with ovulation.
I was told to take a regular women’s vitamin when I decided to try to have a baby but I know many of my friend’s doctors have put them on prenatal vitamins. You would assume a prenatal vitaman would have enough of everything that your body needs to carry a baby but they do vary quite a bit so check the label and if you are concerned you are not getting enough iron, check with your doctor.
infertility, iron supplements, prenatal vitamins, pregnancy, conceiving, trying to conceive, prenatal care
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Hi everyone, I came across a book that might be relevant to the topic discussed here.
It’s called “The Natural Diet Solution
for PCOS and Infertility” by Dr. Nancy Dunne.
It’s a comprehensive book that covers dozens of PCOS and dietary topics.
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Thank you Mari!