Vitamin D Deficiency and Ovarian Reserve Among Infertile Patients

The role of vitamin D deficiency in female reproduction remains controversial. Early retrospective studies were inconsistent regarding the effect of serum 25-OH vitamin D levels on pregnancy rates in women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF), whereas two retrospective studies postulated that vitamin D deficiency may negatively affect pregnancy rates with an effect mediated through the endometrium. Taking into account that knock-out experiments have shown that vitamin D receptor null mice not only experience uterine hypoplasia but also impaired folliculogenesis, it might be hypothesized that vitamin D deficiency may have a detrimental effect on female ovarian reserve. This may be further supported by previous reports demonstrating that serum 25-OH Vitamin D levels correlates with antimullerian hormone (AMH) levels in women of advanced reproductive age. The aim of this study is to examine through a large set of prospectively recruited infertile women whether serum 25-OH-Vitamin D levels is related with the 2 most widely accepted biomarkers of ovarian reserve: serum AMH levels and antral follicle count (AFC).