Vitamin A For Fertility Support: Vitamin A And Male Fertility

Vitamin A and male fertility are highly linked by researchers, with vitamin A being shown to encourage more optimal fertility in many studies. Retinoic acid, retinol or vitamin A is an essential vitamin for us to regularly consume.

Vitamin A is fat soluble and easily obtainable from various food sources. We can increase our intake of vitamin A through eating fish, peas, liver and dairy. Our RDA is between 700μg and 900μg per day, for women and men respectively. This includes compounds, such as beta carotene, that have vitamin A activity or provitamin A convertibility. Provitamin A carotenoids, such as beta carotene, are dietary precursors of vitamin A and can convert to retinol.

While essential nutrients like zinc are heavily linked with fertility, vitamin A is also important for reproduction, especially in males. It is normally linked to optimal eye health and is often used for improving vision in the dark, rather than for male fertility.

In this article we will look in depth at the links between vitamin A and fertility, with special attention as to how this vitamin could be used to support optimal male fertility.

How Vitamin A Could Support Male Fertility

Vitamin A is stored by the body, which maintains pools in the liver and eye tissues. There retinoic acid plays its main role in supporting eye health and optimal vision.

Vitamin A is needed to support epithelial cell structure. These are cells that line the outsides of tissues and organs. Primarily, vitamin A is an antioxidant vitamin. Because it is fat soluble vitamin A can easily move into fat rich membranes. There it shields cells from lipid oxidation and oxidative stress.

Retinoic acid is also though to influence some important metabolic pathways and optimal growth, with influence on some important enzymes, which are other reasons why it has been linked to more optimal fertility.

Vitamin A And Male Fertility

The role of vitamin A or provitamin A in overall wellness, fertility and reproduction is deeply ancestral in animals.

Vitamin A forms can affect colouration of the skin in some of our aquatic animal relatives. They act as an indicator of sexual maturity, health or fertility in these creatures, which actively select partners with higher colouration.

In many fish, this colour difference indicates better access or storage of this key antioxidant vitamin and also reproductive success. Antioxidant status is an indicator of overall health not just reproductive success, also in later life. This is why some fish actively select partners with carotenoid or vitamin A influenced colouration.

One example of this is in goldfish. Studies show that astaxanthin and beta carotene are both able to improve fertility or partner fertilization success in goldfish. This is not just exclusive to one fish species either. The carotenoid pigment, or vitamin A form, astaxanthin significantly enhances reproductive success in various fish species too.

Studies Linking Vitamin A And Higher Animal Fertility

Animal studies showed that when there was a large fall in successful fertilizations, vitamin A improved fertilization rate and improved the concentration of sperm. Successful fertilization is an important measure of male fertility and this shows that vitamin A supplementation could support more optimal male fertility.

Similar studies have shown that semen quality could improve through more optimal retinoic acid status, having a significant effect on fertility. Lack of retinoic acid may also reduce the size of the testis, where sperm is stored. One study also showed that eating more retinoic acid or carotene had an influencing effect on fertility, where vitamin C did not. Other studies have shown that sperm production is severely hindered when animals are vitamin A deficient. This suggests that vitamin A plays an essential role in sperm production and therefore male fertility.

Vitamin A And Human Fertility

Results were similar when performed with human male patients, diagnosed with low sperm counts, who received vitamin A supplementation. They observed significant improvements in sperm count. There is evidence that retinoic acid, in addition to being used in the testis, has roles in female fertility too. These all emphasise the importance of vitamin A for encouraging more optimal fertility in males and possibly female fertility too.

How this works is still debated. Vitamin A may influence metabolism in the testis that stimulates sperm production. Studies show that vitamin A may have a direct influence on increasing numbers of spermatogenic cells and also an antioxidant influence on these cells. This would improve fertility and reproductive success.

Vitamin A may directly regulate the cell division process in sperm and egg cells, so that in the absence of vitamin A you wouldn’t be able to make sperm. An increasing amount of evidence shows how important retinoic acid is for the optimal development of egg cells after fertilization, adding a female fertility aspect.

Antioxidant depletion makes the testis more vulnerable to oxidative stress and can reduce fertility when exposed to toxins. Some studies have also suggested that retinoic acid may also improve testosterone secretion.

Vitamin A And Zinc Interplay For Male Fertility

There is evidence that zinc, well known for its effects on fertility, interacts with vitamin A to optimise male fertility. Deficiencies in zinc and Vitamin A both contribute independently to testicular atrophy or shrinkage, while there may also be an interplay between important enzyme activities in the testis. This is because research shows that zinc deficient testis produce reduced enzyme activities and also a reduced testis size. Vitamin A status may contribute to this. Zinc status may also influence vitamin A levels and fertility related activities.

Zinc is a powerful antioxidant with clear influences on male fertility, as a key antioxidant, vitamin A may support male fertility secondarily through improved zinc status. While zinc also influences retinoic acid metabolism to an extent, including absorption and use of retinoic acid which would also influence male fertility. Zinc can influence the conversion of retinol to retinal and may have a cyclic antioxidant relationship with vitamin A.

There certainly seems to be a weak interplay between both of these nutrients which are key influencers on fertility. Most people are more aware of the potential benefits from zinc on fertility but are less aware that vitamin A could be just as beneficial for our fertility.

Summary

While nutrients like zinc are more known for their effects on fertility, vitamin A plays a crucial role in fertility.

Vitamin A is required to maintain optimal vision, acting as a strong antioxidant in the body. As a fat soluble vitamin, vitamin A easily moves into fat rich membranes and protects from oxidative stress. This vitamin has a deeply ancestral role in fertility and reproduction, some marine animals choose reproductive partners based on levels of this antioxidant vitamin. This is because of the influence of vitamin A on fertility and health.

Animal studies show that where there is an issue in successful fertilizations, retinoic acid can restore fertility or improve sperm quality in males. Vitamin A also seems to influence testis size, influencing fertility where other antioxidants such as Vitamin C had no effect. These effects are transferable into humans, where patients with low sperm counts experience improvements with vitamin A supplementation.

While the exact mechanism is debated, vitamin A seems to directly influence cell division in sperm and egg cells, contributing significantly to male and female fertility. Retinoic acid may also have an influence as an antioxidant on these cells. Minerals essential for reproduction, such as zinc, are also thought to weakly influence levels of vitamin A and its activities in the testis. Vitamin A could also influence zinc status and its enzyme activities.

Vitamin A has clear influences on fertility, with deficiencies in zinc and vitamin A both resulting in male testicular shrinkage.

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