Dietary Nutrient Intake And Nutritional Status In Women With Infertility

Key Takeaways

• Higher riboflavin and calcium intake were associated with higher muscle mass percentage after adjustment.
• Vitamin E intake was inversely associated with hip circumference and prolactin after adjustment.
• No other nutrient-hormone associations remained significant after adjustment, and the cross-sectional design does not support causal interpretation.

Among 97 women with infertility seeking care in Spain, higher vitamin E intake was associated with lower prolactin after adjustment in a Scientific Reports study (beta -0.501, p=0.008). The clinic-based cohort focused on women actively seeking fertility evaluation rather than a community sample. Higher riboflavin and calcium intake were also associated with greater muscle mass percentage after multivariable adjustment. The analysis paired nutrient intake with anthropometric, body-composition, and hormonal measures collected during routine fertility evaluation. These adjusted cross-sectional findings do not show that nutrient intake changed hormonal or body-composition measures.

The cohort included 97 women aged 18 to 40 years with infertility who were seen at Marina Salud Hospital in Spain between 2022 and 2024. Dietary intake was measured with a validated 137-item food frequency questionnaire, and standardized anthropometric measurements accompanied bioelectrical impedance analysis for body-composition assessment. Reproductive hormones came from follicular-phase blood samples, and adjusted models accounted for total energy intake, physical activity, smoking status, and BMI. Participants had a mean BMI of 25.5 ± 5.6 kg/m2, with 23.7% overweight and 17.5% obese at baseline. Body fat averaged 35.9 ± 9.3% and visceral fat 5.5 ± 2.3%, both above recommended values.

In adjusted models, higher riboflavin intake was associated with greater muscle mass percentage (beta 0.665, p=0.042), and higher calcium intake showed the same pattern (beta 0.004, p=0.012). Vitamin E intake was inversely associated with hip circumference (beta -0.773, p=0.004) and prolactin after adjustment. No other nutrient-hormone associations remained statistically significant after adjustment.

The authors described these relationships as exploratory and noted that the cross-sectional design limits causal inference. The findings do not show that nutrient intake produced the measured anthropometric or hormonal profiles. They said longitudinal studies are warranted to examine whether the same patterns appear over time. Within this fertility-clinic cohort, the findings remained associative and specific to the population studied.