Males with low serum levels of vitamin D have lower pregnancy rates when ovulation induction and timed intercourse are used as a treatment for infertile couples: results from a pilot study.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as an observational study.

Vitamin D (Vit D) is important for the regulation of reproductive physiology.

In humans, maternal Vit D deficiency has been implicated in several reproductive- and pregnancy-related disorders.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, both men and women.

Semen analysis was performed in each male participant based on the WHO reference criteria.

The female partners of both groups were subjected to 3 consecutive cycles of gonadotropin-induced mono-ovulation.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a pilot study.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study would be practical.

Male and female partners of infertile couples (n = 102) were classified into 2 GROUPS according to normal (≥30 ng/ml) or low (below 30 ng/ml) serum Vit D levels in male partners.

The main outcome measures included the clinical pregnancy rate, delivery per patient and per cycle, and miscarriage rate between the 2 groups evaluated at the end of the three-month period of the study.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Coitus, Infertility, Ovulation Induction, Pilot Projects, Pregnancy Rate, Sperm Count and Sperm Motility.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a pilot study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 3 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2015 (Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.