Vitamin D and Obesity: Two Interacting Players in the Field of Infertility

Obesity plays an important role in human fertility in both genders. The same is true for vitamin D, for which accumulating evidence from observational human studies suggests a key role for both male and female fertility. In the latter case, however, robust data from relevant interventional studies are currently lacking. It is also not clear whether obesity and vitamin D deficiency, besides their independent effect on human infertility, act in synergy. Several pathogenetic mechanisms may be proposed as a linkage between vitamin D deficiency and obesity, with respect to infertility. In any case, the independent contribution of vitamin D deficiency in obese infertile states needs to be proven in interventional studies focusing on either vitamin D supplementation in obese or weight loss strategies in vitamin D-deficient infertile patients.