Vitamin D increases IVF success but it depends on woman's race

20.09.2013

A new study has found that vitamin D may increase the chance of IVF success but it depends on a woman's race. Vitamin D, also known as the 'sunshine vitamin', is famed for its benefit to bones and the immune system, but it also plays a role in conception.

Now, data suggests that the vitamin's benefits may only apply to certain racial groups - while white women can boost their IVF success rates with vitamin D, this doesn't appear to be true for Asian women.

To find out whether vitamin D carries the same benefits in women of different races, Briana Rudick at Columbia University Medical Center in New York and her colleagues compared vitamin D levels and IVF success rates in white Hispanic, white non-Hispanic, and Asian women from south-east Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

The researchers found that white women who were vitamin D replete were four times more likely to have a successful pregnancy as compared to women of the same race who were deficient in the vitamin. Unexpectedly, the reverse was true for Asian women as those with the lowest vitamin D levels were most likely to get pregnant.

www.medindia.net

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