Quo Vadis In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)? The Benefit of Preconception Nutraceutical Food Supplementation

Special Article - In Vitro Fertilisation

Quo Vadis In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)? The Benefit of Preconception Nutraceutical Food Supplementation

Comhaire F1*, Decleer W2

¹Fertility-Belgium Clinic, Belgium

²Centre for Fertility, Belgium

*Corresponding author: Frank Comhaire, Fertility- Belgium Clinic, Weststraat, 16-18, B9880 Aalter, Belgium

Received: December 11, 2019; Accepted: January 09, 2020; Published: January 16, 2020

Introduction

There is no doubt that the invention of in vitro fertilization has revolutionized reproductive medicine, and has helped to satisfy the desire for children of millions of infertile couples. Barratt, Anderson and De Jonge[1] have characterized “Assisted reproductive technology (to be), globally, a highly innovative and successful billion-dollar health industry”, in particular since this technology can be applied to many more situations than the original indication of obstruction of the Fallopian tubes. The “industry” has enormously expanded by offering a possible solution for so-called male factor infertility thanks to Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). However, there are some major problems remaining to be solved. First and foremost relates to the health concerns in the offspring, mainly the increased prevalence of paediatric malignant diseases [2,3], and the metabolic and the cardiovascular pathologies which probably are related to oxidative and epigenetic alterations of DNA [4]. The second problem concerns the elevated cost of the procedure, both regarding the medication for Controlled Ovarian Stimulation (COS) using gonadotropins containing Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), and the expense of laboratory techniques. Thirdly, there are the low pregnancy rate and the increased risk of spontaneous abortion possibly due to alterations of the DNA of the gametes (oocytes and spermatozoa) and of the biochemical composition of follicular fluid [5]. These result in a high cost per successful pregnancy.

The present paper addresses these concerns and summarises possible ways to resolve these.

Materials and Methods

In 1994 the centre for reproductive medicine and fertility of the general hospital Jan Palfijn of Ghent (Belgium) has introduced IVF (WD). The yearly pregnancy rate has been recorded and compared to the average pregnancy rate of all Belgian centres for reproductive medicine. Pregnancies were defined by the presence of a heart beating embryo.

During the time span of 25 years several interventions have taken place and their effects on the pregnancy rate was registered. These interventions included in sequence order: the systematic investigation and treatment of the male partner implementing the WHO guidelines [6] from 2006 onward (FC), the preconception food supplementation with the nutraceuticals Fertility man® and Fertility woman® (Nutriphyt Ltd, Beernem, Belgium) since 2008 [7], the investigation of an alternative protocol for COS using lowdose Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG) in 2016, and the comparison of Fertility woman® supplementation with the newly formulated nutraceutical QALY® (JonaPharma, Elversele, Belgium) in a randomised trial during 2017-2018 [4].

All data were collected in Excel files and statistically analysed with the MedCalc programme (MedCalc Ltd, Ostend, Belgium) [8] using appropriate methods.

Results

Figure 1 represents the longitudinal registration of pregnancies per year and the result of the controlled randomised trial with the two nutraceuticals. Both the introduction of the systematic investigation and treatment of the male partner, and the preconception food supplementation with the Fertility® supplements resulted in a significant increased pregnancy rate. This was further enhanced by replacing Fertility woman® by the preconception intake of QALY® in the controlled randomised trial.

Citation: Comhaire F, Decleer W. Quo Vadis In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)? The Benefit of Preconception Nutraceutical Food Supplementation. Austin J Womens Health. 2020; 7(1): 1037.