High fiber intake may interfere with ovulation



Higher fiber intake, particularly from fruit, was also linked to a higher risk of having anovulatory menstrual cycles - where the ovaries fail to release an egg.



However, the current results do “call into question” whether those recommendations are best for women who are trying to become pregnant, write the researchers, led by Audrey J. Gaskins of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Rockville, Maryland.

Anovulation can have various causes, including excessive exercise, having either too little or too much body fat, thyroid gland dysfunction and polycystic ovarian syndrome - a hormone disorder that is a common cause of infertility.


All of the women in the current study were healthy and having regular menstrual periods. Still, those who reported the highest fiber intake - 22 grams per day or more, in line with general recommendations - were more likely to have at least one anovulatory cycle over two months. The researchers gauged anovulation by measuring the women’s reproductive-hormone levels over two menstrual periods.


When the researchers accounted for other factors that could affect ovulation - including body weight, race, exercise levels and calorie intake - high fiber intake itself was linked to a roughly 10-times higher risk of anovulation.



High-fiber diets, they explain, decrease activity in certain intestinal enzymes, leading to less estrogen reabsorption in the colon. Fiber can also cause more estrogen to be excreted from the body in feces.



SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2009.

Provided by ArmMed Media