25-Hydroxyvitamin D and Long Menstrual Cycles in a Prospective Cohort Study
Jukic AMZ, Wilcox AJ, McConnaughey DR, Weinberg CR, Steiner AZ
Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 38 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Cohort study (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- National Institutes of Health
- Government
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Government
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Government
- NCATS NIH HHS
- Government
- NICHD NIH HHS
- Government
- Intramural NIH HHS
- Grants
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR001863Ð); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD067683); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R00HD079659); National Institutes of Health (Z01 ES044003)
Based on 6 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2018-01-16 · Epidemiology · vol. 29 · issue 3 · pp. 388–396
- Publisher
- Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
- Cited
- 43 citations · more than 89% of similar papers · 2.6× the field average
- References
- 45 works
- Access
- Open access (repository copy)
- Research areas
- Vitamin D Research Studies · Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones · Reproductive Physiology in Livestock
- Keywords
- Luteal phase, Follicular phase, Medicine, Prospective cohort study, Odds ratio, Vitamin D and neurology, Confidence interval, Pregnancy, Menstrual cycle, vitamin D deficiency, Internal medicine, Endocrinology, Physiology, Biology, Hormone
- MeSH
- humans, infertility, vitamin d deficiency, vitamin d, prospective studies, menstrual cycle, adult, women's health, north carolina, female
5 authors
From US
- Anne Marie Z. Jukic · correspondingYale University; Providence Center
- Allen James WilcoxNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
- D. Robert McConnaugheyWestat (United States)
- Clarice Ring WeinbergNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
- Anne Z. SteinerUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Abstract
Background
Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with subfertility and prolonged estrus cycles in animals, but humans have not been well studied.
Methods
A prospective time-to-pregnancy study, Time to Conceive (2010-2015), collected up to 4 months of daily diary data. Participants were healthy, late reproductive-aged women in North Carolina who were attempting pregnancy. We examined menstrual cycle length as a continuous variable and in categories: long (35+ days) and short (≤25 days). Follicular phase length and luteal phase length were categorized as long (18+ days) or short (≤10 days). We estimated associations between those lengths and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) using linear mixed models and marginal models.
Results
There were 1,278 menstrual cycles from 446 women of whom 5% were vitamin D deficient (25[OH]D, <20 ng/ml), 69% were between 20 and 39 ng/ml, and 26% were 40 ng/ml or higher. There was a dose-response association between vitamin D levels and cycle length. Compared with the highest 25(OH)D level (≥40 ng/ml), 25(OH)D deficiency was associated with almost three times the odds of long cycles (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.8 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0, 7.5]). The aOR was 1.9 (1.1, 3.5) for 20 to <30 ng/ml. The probability of a long follicular phase and the probability of a short luteal phase both increased with decreasing 25(OH)D.
Conclusions
Lower levels of 25(OH)D are associated with longer follicular phase and an overall longer menstrual cycle. Our results are consistent with other evidence supporting vitamin D's role in the reproductive axis, which may have broader implications for reproductive success.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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