A study published in the latest issue of Obstectrics and Gynecology has found that women who followed a combination of five or more lifestyle factors, including changing specific aspects of their diets, experienced more than 80 percent less relative risk of infertility due to ovulatory disorders compared to women who engaged in none of the factors. According to studies in the U.S. and Europe, infertility affects one in six couples. In 18 to 30 percent of those cases, ovulatory problems have been identified.

During the study, researchers followed a group of over 17,000 married women who were participants in the Nurses' Health study based at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. The research team devised a scoring system on dietary and lifestyle factors according to information from previous studies found to predict ovulatory disorder infertility. The women with the highest fertility scores ate fewer trans fat and sugar carbohydrates, ate more protein from vegetables than animals, ate more fiber and iron, took more multivitamins, had a lower BMI, exercised for longer periods each day, and consumed more high fat dairy and less low fat dairy products.

Lead author, Jorge Chavarro states "We analyzed what happens if you follow one, two, three, four, or more different factors. What we found was that, as women started following more of these recommendations, their risk of infertility dropped substantially for every one of the dietary and lifestyle strategies undertaken. In fact, we found a sixfold difference in ovulatory infertility risk between women following five or more low-risk dietary and lifestyle habits and those following none."

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