Antioxidants May Boost Baby Making

January 19, 2011— -- There are people who swear by the effects of antioxidants for everything from anti-aging to protection from cancer – whether or not science supports these claims. Now, a new study found that the tiny molecules may even boost the chances of making a baby.

Researchers from the University of Auckland in New Zealand reviewed 34 clinical trials that involved more than 2,500 couples undergoing infertility and subfertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization and sperm injections. The retrospective analysis found that men taking antioxidant supplements were more than four times more likely to get their partners pregnant than men who did not take the oral antioxidants. The antioxidants were associated with more than a five-fold higher rate of live births

"When trying to conceive as part of an assisted reproductive program, it may be advisable to encourage men to take oral antioxidant supplements to improve their partners' chances of becoming pregnant," said lead researcher Marian Showell of the University of Auckland in New Zealand in a press release.

Is this reason to run to the health food store? Not so fast.

The researchers said further information is needed to confirm the findings. And some fertility doctors dismissed the study entirely, discouraging patients from putting all their eggs into the antioxidant basket.

"To suggest that the use of antioxidants alone without correction of the primary cause of seminal dysfunction without treatment of the primary cause is not appropriate," said Dr. Lawrence Ross, professor of urology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr. Sherman Silber, director of the Infertility Center of St. Louis, had even stronger words.

"This is all trash," said Silber. "[Antioxidants] will not help. They will only delay while the wife's eggs get older. So, this will hurt rather than help by delaying IVF for a male treatment that does not work."

Not only did doctors find the results questionable, but other doctors found the study's methodology and numbers questionable. Of the 34 studies analyzed, not one had more than 1,000 study participants. Some trials had as few as 10 participants.