We all know that taking a folic acid suppliement is really important as lots of folic acid helps babies to develop healthy nervous systems. But what about other vitamins and minerals? Should I be taking a special conception support supplement?
I am a fish-eating vegetarian (my parents stopped eating meat when I was a child, so it’s mainly habit rather than ethics) and I’ve always taken a multivitamin just in case I’m missing anything important in my diet. But I had no idea that specific supplements existed for conception support – for men as well as women – until I stumbled upon them in Boots.
As part of our slightly paranoid desire to do everything possible to make a healthy baby, my husband and I thought we’d better get dosed up. He ordered some Conception for Men tablets from Healthspan – http://www.healthspan.co.uk/pregnancy/pregnapure-conception-for-men/productdetail-p3197037-c3167.aspx – and I bought some Conception Support tablets in Boots – http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Pharmaceuticals-Conception-Support-30-Tablets-_1161201/. Today I had a good look at the ingredients on both packets.
The men’s supplement is full of crazy stuff that you’ve never heard of. What on earth are Maca and L-Arginine? (Answers: Maca is a South American plant that enhances ‘endurance’ and acts as an aphrodisiac (!) and L-Arginine is an amino acid that’s supposed to combat erectile dysfunction.) I’m not trying to boost my husband’s ego, but he’s a normal healthy 31 year old, and he just doesn’t need these things to fulfill his part of the baby-making process! The other ingredients are standard multivitamins and minerals, so he’s going to go back to his normal tablets when he finishes this box.
As for my Boots tablets for women, they look much more sensible – 200% RDA of folic acid, plus all the other standard vitamins and nothing I haven’t heard of! The great thing about them is that they don’t contain anything that would be bad if I did get pregnant, like Vitamin A. Pregnant women shouldn’t take Vitamin A supplements as too much can cause birth defects, and the damage is often done in the early weeks or months of pregnancy when you might not even realise that you’re pregnant. My conception support tablets don’t contain Vitamin A or retinol (another form of the vitamin) so this isn’t an issue. I think I’ll definitely carry on taking them.
What about the benefits of other vitamins and minerals in the conception supplements? A study in December 2011 suggested that conception multivitamins do boost fertility amongst women with fertility problems – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8928234/Women-trying-to-conceive-should-take-vitamins-researchers.html.- but there’s no evidence to say that they’re helpful for normal conception. I get the impression that the best conception support supplements are just normal multivitamins that we’re encouraged to take now because nutrition is particularly important when you want to conceive. Unless you’re a man with an actual sexual dysfunction – in which case I’d drop the Maca and L-Arginine and get to the doctor – you should probably just eat healthily, and take a folic acid supplement and a multivitamin without Vitamin A.
And when I’m actually pregnant, I’ll have to do all this research all over again for pregnancy vitamins! It’s a pretty busy and confusing market.
Trying Again 