What Are The Links Between Vitamin D Deficiency And Delayed Ovulation?

Vitamin D plays a critical role in regulating your reproductive hormones, so if you’ve experienced delayed ovulation, it could be down to a vitamin D deficiency. Unfortunately, vitamin D deficiency is worryingly common in the UK, affecting around one in six adults and up to 20% of children according to government statistics in 2022, and up to 50% of the population according to the 2018 National Diet and Nutritional Survey.

The positive news is that vitamin D deficiency can normally be addressed through supplementation, although many people with vitamin D deficiency do not know they have the condition. Here’s a look at how vitamin D influences various aspects of your reproductive health. If you’re concerned about any of these symptoms, we recommend consulting your GP or taking a self-test kit as soon as possible.

1. Hormonal Regulation And Ovulation

Vitamin D has an intricate role to play in your endocrine system, particularly in the way your body regulates reproductive hormones. Vitamin D receptors are widely distributed in your ovaries, uterus, and the hypothalamus/pituitary axis in the brain, which is the hormonal ‘command centre’ of the human body. In women, vitamin D also assists you to regulate important hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone, which are vital for both ovulation and menstrual cycle. Insufficient vitamin D may disrupt natural hormonal signals and trigger delayed or irregular ovulation.

2. Ovarian Function And Egg Quality

The ovaries are responsible for releasing eggs during the ovulatory phase of your menstrual cycle. These include receptors for vitamin D, which has a strong influence on how eggs develop within the ovarian follicles. A good level of vitamin D will help keep your eggs healthy and increase the likelihood of successful fertilisation.

3. Menstrual Cycle Length And Regularity

Vitamin D deficiency is commonly linked to irregular or prolonged periods. Women with low levels of vitamin D may experience fewer ovulatory cycles annually, or longer phases between periods. Supplementing with vitamin D while trying to conceive could contribute to shorter and more predictable menstrual cycles, increasing your chances of conception.

4. Successful Fertilisation

To become pregnant, the fertilised egg requires a receptive uterine lining, or ‘endometrium’, in order for implantation to occur successfully. As in other areas of the reproductive process, vitamin D plays a key role by helping to regulate the expression of genes involved in changing the uterine lining to support implantation. Vitamin D deficiency could impair the ability of the endometrium to properly prepare, making it harder to get pregnant.

5. Male Fertility And Reproductive Health

It isn’t just female reproductive health that is negatively affected by vitamin D deficiency. It can also affect male fertility and the health of the sperm. As vitamin D receptors are found in male reproductive tissues, including the testes, vitamin D deficiency has been linked to lower sperm motility, which impacts the ability of sperm to successfully reach the egg. Vitamin D also affects the sperm morphology or shape, and overall function of the sperm, both of which have an impact on successful fertilisation.

What Next?

Our Suresign self-testing range for pharmacies includes at-home vitamin D test kits and ovulation tests. If you are a pharmacy and are interested in stocking these products for your customers, please request a quote by clicking here.

Suresign products are available at pharmacies across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. If you are an individual and would like to know where to purchase our self-test kits near you, please send us a message or call us on 02825 685385

​Image source: Canva