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Seafood intake may influence time to pregnancy among couples trying to conceive
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Couples in which both partners consume at least two servings of seafood per week are more likely to report pregnancy within 12 months and a greater frequency of sexual intercourse vs. couples consuming seafood less than once per menstrual cycle, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
“Specifically, 92% couples who consumed at least two servings of seafood per week were pregnant by 12 months in our study vs. 79% among couples consuming less,” Audrey J. Gaskins, ScD, research associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, told Endocrine Today. “Interestingly, the association between seafood and time to pregnancy was not completely explained by the differences observed in frequencies of sexual activity, suggesting other biological mechanisms, such as potential effects on semen parameters, ovulation or embryo quality.”
Gaskins and colleagues analyzed data from 501 couples residing in Michigan and Texas who were planning pregnancy, recruited to participate in the prospective Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE; 2005-2009) study. All couples included women aged 18 to 44 years with menstrual cycles between 21 and 42 days and no hormonal birth control injections during the past 1 year. The couples reported daily seafood intake in journals (number of 4-oz servings of fish or shellfish consumed), with daily responses summed across the cycle to calculate cycle-specific seafood intake for each partner. Researchers followed the cohort for 1 year or until pregnancy was detected. Primary outcome was time to pregnancy, determined by an in-home pregnancy test; secondary outcome was sexual intercourse frequency as recorded in daily journals.
Compared with couples in which the man or woman reported consuming less than one seafood serving per cycle, couples in which the man or women consumed at least eight seafood servings per cycle had 47% and 60% higher fecundity, respectively. Among couples in which both the man and women consumed at least eight servings of seafood per cycle, fecundity was 61% higher vs. couples in which both partners consumed less than one serving of seafood per cycle.
Couples consuming at least eight seafood servings per cycle also reported an average 22% higher sexual intercourse frequency vs. those who consumed less than one seafood serving per cycle, according to the researchers.
“In day-level analyses, the odds of sexual intercourse was 39% higher if both partners consumed seafood the same day, 3% higher if only the female consumed seafood and 2% higher if only the male consumed seafood compared with couples where neither partner consumed seafood,” the researchers wrote. Associations were identical when the male report of sexual intercourse frequency was used, they noted.
“Our results stress the importance of not only female, but also male diet on time to pregnancy and suggest that both partners should be incorporating more seafood into their diets for the maximum fecundity benefit,” Gaskins said.
Gaskins said she and colleagues next plan to evaluate whether seafood intake is associated with outcomes of infertility treatment and the potential biological pathways that may be mediating this association in both men and women.
“Future research, though, is needed that specifically evaluates the potential harms associated with predatory fish intake, which tends to contain higher levels of persistent environmental chemicals and mercury,” she said. “Since most of the seafood we consume in the U.S. is low in mercury, this research may need to focus on other, non-U.S. populations.” – by Regina Schaffer
For more information:
Audrey J. Gaskins, ScD, can be reached at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Channing Division of Network Medicine, 655 Huntington Ave., Building II, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02115; email: agaskins@hsph.harvard.edu.
Disclosure: Gaskins reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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