Diet and female fertility: a population-based study re-evaluating the need for prescriptive dietary patterns

Area of Science:

• Reproductive Health
• Nutritional Science
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Diet influences female fertility through inflammatory pathways.
• The comparative effectiveness of specific anti-inflammatory diets versus general healthy eating guidelines for fertility is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between dietary inflammatory potential, diet quality, and female infertility.
• To compare the impact of specific dietary indices with general healthy eating recommendations on fertility.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 5,489 women in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.
• Assessment of dietary inflammatory potential using the energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index (E-DII™).
• Evaluation of diet quality using the dietary guideline index (DGI) and principal component analysis (PCA) for dietary patterns; logistic regression was used for analysis.

Main Results:

• Higher dietary inflammatory potential (E-DII) was associated with increased odds of fertility problems (aOR: 1.13).
• Higher diet quality (DGI) and adherence to Mediterranean-style dietary patterns were associated with lower odds of fertility problems (aORs: 0.99 and 0.92, respectively).
• Significant associations were observed when comparing the highest and lowest quartiles for all dietary indices.

Conclusions:

• Adherence to a generally healthy diet, characterized by low inflammatory potential, adherence to national guidelines, or Mediterranean patterns, is associated with improved female fertility.
• General, guideline-based healthy eating supports female fertility and provides a flexible dietary strategy.