Ovulation is one of the events that takes place each month during your reproductive cycle; it's the release of a mature egg from one of your ovaries, and it has to happen for you to conceive a baby. If you don't ovulate regularly, taking vitamins may help. There's no evidence to suggest, however, that vitamins can induce a single ovulation event.
Ovulation
Each time you experience a menstrual cycle, your hormone levels rise and fall in such a way as to produce ovulation, increase the thickness of the uterine lining, and then cause shedding of the lining if you don't conceive a baby. When your hormone levels are at their highest mid-cycle, you release an egg from one of your ovaries, explains Dr. Lauralee Sherwood in her book "Human Physiology." A spike in specific hormones, including LH -- luteinizing hormone -- immediately precipitates this event.
Vitamins and Ovulation
There is no scientific evidence to suggest that vitamins can induce ovulation. This is because to ovulate, you need to experience high levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. These in turn cause your anterior pituitary gland -- a part of the brain -- to release LH into your bloodstream. The LH causes rupture of the ovarian follicle in which the egg about to be released has been maturing. Vitamins don't mimic the effect of estrogen, progesterone, or LH, so they can't immediately precipitate or induce an ovulation event.
Vitamins and Fertility
While there's no scientific evidence to suggest that you can induce ovulation with vitamins, there is amassing evidence indicating that taking vitamin supplements can help promote fertility in general. An article in "The Daily Mail" notes that scientists have found women who take vitamin supplements regularly -- especially supplements containing folic acid -- conceive more easily than those who don't take supplements. As such, you can take vitamins to help you ovulate more regularly, but not to promote a single ovulation event during a month in which you don't appear to be ovulating on your own.
General Guidelines
If you need to ovulate -- you've had several weeks go by without a period or any indication of ovulation, for instance -- you should talk to your doctor. Sometimes, low hormone levels and factors such as stress can lead to an occasional failure to ovulate. Your doctor can prescribe hormones that will help induce ovulation. Provided you don't have a general hormonal imbalance or fertility problem, you'll likely return to regular ovulation after taking the prescribed hormones.
References
- "Human Physiology"; Lauralee Sherwood, Ph.D.; 2004
- The Daily Mail: Vitamins
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