Environmental influences on fertility and reproductive health

National Institute Of Environmental Health Sciences

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Vitamin D is known for its role in calcium absorption and bone health, but interest in its role in reproduction has been growing. Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin in response to ultraviolet radiation. It can also be obtained from foods or nutritional supplements. Vitamin D is metabolized to 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in the liver and this is the clinical biomarker of vitamin D status. Animal models of vitamin D deficiency show disrupted ovulation and subfertility. In human, community-based samples, we previously published three studies that have reported associations between low 25(OH)D and long or irregular menstrual cycles, delayed ovulation, and lower probability of conception. This year, we found that chronic inflammation did not underlie our observed association of vitamin D with conception (PMID: 35104260). This year we published our finding that vitamin D was not associated with the occurrence of miscarriage (PMID: 35834313). We collaborated with a cohort from China that found that lower male partner (but not female partner) vitamin D was associated with reduced conception (PMID: 35893912). Our research group has also published several studies of fertility or menstrual cycle health using data collected through menstrual cycle tracking apps including Natural Cycles (PMID: 34495761) and the Apple Womens Health Study (PMID: 34610322). Finally, we systematically reviewed ambient air pollution exposure metrics that we are using to inform our future studies and can be used by other epidemiologists to design sophisticated air pollution studies (PMID: 35754929).