A High fiber diet is considered a certain disease preventive effect including colon cancer, diabetes, stroke, breast cancer. Many health associations including the American Heart Association, the Institute of Medicine have suggested that 20–35 g fiber intake in a day depending upon the calorie intake of an individual.
Multiple physical and mental health-related factors can influence anovulation associated fertility issue. Anxiety or stress associated anovulation is one of the most common findings in today’s generation.
However, certain other factors like over and underweight, performance of the strenuous exercise, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and thyroid gland dysfunction are also affect women’s fertility.
Besides these, race and calorie intake also considerable factors associated with difficulty in conceiving.
But do you know fiber-containing foods like wholesome bread or pasta can cause infertility? Yes, it is true, research finding has shown excessive fiber intake can also hamper female fertility.
Excess fiber intake may lead to less ovulation and lower level of estrogen
High fiber intake can reduce estrogen level in the female at an advanced age. The explained mechanism involves the reduction of β-glucuronidase activity in feces due to high fiber intake restricts the estrogen reabsorption in the colon. Also, it has suspected that high fiber intake interferes with other reproductive factors, such as ovulation.
But further research conducted in the reproductive-aged women, as medical researchers had a concern about the effect of high fiber intake in this age group of women. Both reproductive hormonal levels and ovulation are important factors for conceiving and maintaining pregnancy.
A cohort clinical research conducted in 2009 on young, healthy women reported that the intake of dietary fiber at the higher rate has an association of lowering of reproductive hormones concentration and subsequent risk of anovulation also increases.
Anovulation is the condition when women have their menstruation cycle without releasing eggs from their ovaries. The effect of higher dietary fiber consumption on reproductive hormones remain persistent and provides a sharp effect.
How higher fiber intake interferes with women’s fertility?
- The involves the mechanism of action of high fiber intake reduces β-glucuronidase activity in the intestine, which leads to the reduction of estrogen reabsorption in the colon.
- Fibers bind with estrogen present in the intestine and excrete this hormone through fecal materials.
- The menstrual cycle also fluctuates due to higher fiber intake, as this dietary ingredient not only lower estrogen level but also influences hormonal fluctuations, which are responsible for the menstrual cycle by strict feedback mechanisms.
- Reproductive hormones like Luteinizing hormone (LH) and Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) concentration also reduce with an increase of fiber intake. The involved mechanism is independent of estradiol. However, in this aspect detail research require to understand the complete mechanism. However, it has proven that both LH and FSH have a significant role in follicular development and ovulation.
- Research study has also concluded that the higher fiber intake associated hormone concentration reduction leads to anovulatory cycles involves the interaction between diet and the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. This interaction interferes with the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis induced FSH and estradiol production. However, detail research still requires to explain the exact pathophysiology.
References
- https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/90/4/1061/4596993
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1247869/Healthy-eating-STOP-getting-pregnant.html
- https://www.bionews.org.uk/page_92160
Ravi Sharma is a self-motivated, successful entrepreneur and has a solid experience in the fertility segment. and he is the director at ARTbaby Global (ARThealthcare). He is a pharmacy graduate with post-graduation in business administration and has 14 years of rich experience in the field of infertility segment. He loves to write about IVF, Surrogacy, and other ART (assisted reproductive technology) news, issues, and updates. He is a Pharmacy graduate (B. Pharm) and M.B.A (marketing).
His most recent success includes the successful launch of the medical tourism company, ARTbaby, which offers treatment options for infertility, egg donation, and surrogacy. He likes spending time with his family and writing about various aspects of IVF surrogacy and donating eggs.