Dietary patterns and ovarian reserve among women attending a fertility clinic

Objective: To investigate the associations between dietary patterns and antral follicle count (AFC), a marker of ovarian reserve.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Fertility center at an academic hospital.

Patient(s): A total of 363 women seeking preconception evaluation and infertility care at the Massachusetts General Hospital who participated in the Environment and Reproductive Health Study.

Intervention(s): None. At enrollment, women reported diet through a food frequency questionnaire, from which we computed three dietary pattern adherence scores: the Mediterranean diet, the Fertility diet, and the Profertility diet.

Main outcome measure(s): The AFC was assessed with a transvaginal ultrasound performed on the third day of an unstimulated menstrual cycle or on the third day of a P withdrawal bleed.

Result(s): Higher adherence to the three dietary patterns examined were unrelated to AFC. The multivariable adjusted AFC means and 95% confidence intervals for women in the highest compared with the lowest quartile of adherence score were 13.9 (13.0-14.9) and 13.5 (12.6-14.4) for the Mediterranean diet, 14.0 (13.2-14.9) and 13.5 (12.7-14.3) for the Fertility diet, and 12.5 (11.6-13.5) and 13.3 (12.5-14.2) for the Profertility diet.

Conclusion(s): Dietary patterns were unrelated to AFC among a cohort of women presenting at a fertility center. Due to the limited and heterogeneous current evidence, it is important to evaluate this association in further studies, and in particular among women from the general population.