Vitamin D supplementation, endometriosis symptoms and metabolic profiles

Pelvic pain, risk for metabolic disease and antioxidant capacity levels improve significantly by Vitamin D in patients with endometriosis.

Key Points

Highlights:

• Vitamin D is important for improving the pelvic pain, total-/HDL-cholesterol ratio, C-reactive protein, and total antioxidant capacity levels in patients having endometriosis.

Importance:

• The patients with endometriosis should be counseled concerning Vitamin D supplementation. 

What’s done here?

• This randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial contains 60 patients with age (<30 and>30) and pretreatment body mass index (<25 and >25 kg/m2)-matched groups.
• Vitamin D supplements or placebo were used for 12 weeks by the patients which were randomized into two groups.
• Body mass index was calculated as an anthropometric measurement at baseline and 12 weeks after treatment.
• Serum insulin level, fasting blood glucose, lipid profiles including total cholesterol and HDL, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, plasma total nitrite, and total antioxidant capacity concentrations were evaluated to determine metabolic improvement.

Key results: 

• Patients who met the eligibility criteria were evaluated in Vitamin D (n=30) and placebo (n=30) groups.
• There was no significant difference between groups in terms of height, weight, and BMI at baseline and 12 weeks after treatment.
• Pelvic pain, total-/HDL cholesterol ratio, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein were significantly decreased while total antioxidant capacity was significantly increased in the Vitamin D group.
• There was no significant change in other clinical symptoms and metabolic profiles.

Limitations

• Sample size and short follow-up duration are the weaknesses of the study.
• Detailed gene expression and the effect of endometriosis surgery on outcomes were not taken into account. 

Lay Summary

Patients with endometriosis suffer from dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain, and infertility. These women are also at higher risk for ovarian and breast cancer, cardiovascular events, and metabolic abnormalities.

Several medical and surgical alternatives have been recommended to these patients to increase their quality of life and prevent associated morbidities. Vitamin D has been suggested for its ability to improve endometriosis-related immunological functions as it plays an important role in the regulation of immunologic mechanisms.

To investigate the effect of Vitamin D intake on clinical symptoms and metabolic profiles in endometriosis patients, Mehdizadehkashi et al, from Iran, published a study entitled “The effect of vitamin D supplementation on clinical symptoms and metabolic profiles in patients with endometriosis” in the journal of "Gynecological Endocrinology".

The primary outcome was the measurements of malondialdehyde, a marker for oxidative stress while clinical symptoms and other metabolic profiles were assessed as the secondary outcomes. The authors evaluated 60 patients in two randomized groups using Vitamin D and placebo. All participants were matched according to age (<30 and >30 years) and pretreatment body mass index (<25 and >25 kg/m2). Vitamin D supplements were prescribed at 50,000 IU for two weeks.

There was no significant difference between groups regarding mean age, height, weight, and BMI at baseline and 12 weeks after treatment. Pelvic pain, total-/HDL cholesterol ratio, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein were significantly decreased while total antioxidant capacity was significantly increased in the Vitamin D group. There was no significant change in other clinical symptoms and metabolic profiles.

“Vitamin D intake in patients with endometriosis resulted in a significant improvement of pelvic pain, total-/HDL-cholesterol ratio, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and total antioxidant capacity levels, but did not affect other clinical symptoms and metabolic profiles.” the authors concluded.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33508990/