A dietary score representing the overall relation of men’s diet with semen quality in relation to outcomes of infertility treatment with assisted reproduction

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of men’s diet on outcomes of infertility treatment with assisted reproductive technology (ART) using an empirical score representing the relation of diet with semen quality. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Fertility center at an academic medical center. PATIENT(S): We included 296 men (688 semen samples) to identify an empirical dietary pattern and 231 couples (406 ART cycles) to investigate the association of this diet pattern with ART outcomes. INTERVENTION(S): Men’s diet was assessed at baseline using a validated questionnaire. An empirical dietary pattern reflecting the overall relation of diet with semen quality was identified using reduced rank regression. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The primary outcome was live birth per treatment cycle. The secondary outcomes were fertilization, implantation, and clinical pregnancy. RESULT(S): Men had a median baseline age and body mass index of 36.8 years and 26.9 kg/m(2), respectively. Although the empirical diet pattern was significantly associated with all semen parameters, the empirical diet score was not related to any clinical outcome of infertility treatment after ART. The adjusted probabilities of relevant clinical outcomes in the lowest and highest quartiles of the empirical score were 0.62 (0.50–0.73) and 0.55 (0.45–0.66) for implantation, 0.57 (0.46–0.69) and 0.50 (0.40–0.61) for clinical pregnancy, and 0.49 (0.37–0.62) and 0.36 (0.25–0.48) for live birth. Analyses excluding couples with a diagnosis of male factor infertility and, separately, excluding intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles yielded similar results. CONCLUSION(S): A dietary score representing the overall association of diet with semen quality parameters was not associated with ART outcomes.