JBRA Assisted Reproduction 2025;29(Suppl.2 SBRA 2025):242
Poster Presentation
29^th Annual Congress of the SBRA. São Paulo/SP - Brazil, 2025
doi: 10.5935/1518-0557.20263839

P-230. The Potential Role of Magnesium in Enhancing Human Fertility and Assisted Reproduction Success

Leilane Morais Lopes¹

¹ CEDERJ UFRJ – Volta Redonda - RJ - Brasil

Objective: Identify the role of magnesium as a mineral with potential to support positive outcomes in In Vitro Fertilization cycles
Methods: The methodology used was a systematic literature review of articles related to the maturation of oocytes and sperm, as well as studies reporting the use of magnesium in improving factors associated with fertility. A qualitative analysis of 8 articles published between 2000 and 2024 was conducted, excluding studies on non-human oocytes and sperm, as summarized below:
Results: Effects of magnesium supplementation on antimullerian hormone level in premenopausal women. Sundas, R. et al, 2024. Describes the improvement in Anti-Müllerian hormone levels and ovarian hormone release, enhancing ovarian health. Effect of magnesium supplementation on women's health and well-being. Porri, D. et al, 2021. Reports improved menstrual cycles, with better hormonal levels. Association of the Serum Folate and Total Calcium and Magnesium Levels Before Ovarian Stimulation With Outcomes of Fresh In Vitro Fertilization Cycles in Normogonadotropic Women. Polzikov et al. (2022). Describes that women with better Ca/Mg ratios had higher oocyte retrieval, more chemical pregnancies, and more live births. An overview on role of some trace elements in human reproductive health, sperm function and fertilization process. Mirnamniha et al. (2019). Reports that better sperm parameters were observed in patients with higher seminal magnesium levels. Determination of Electrolytes and Trace Elements in Biological Samples from Patients with Altered Semen Parameters: a Correlational Analysis. Unar et al. (2024). Describes that magnesium levels decrease according to sperm-related pathologies, with azoospermia showing the lowest seminal magnesium concentrations. The impact of calcium, magnesium, zinc, and copper in blood and seminal plasma on semen parameters in men. Wong et al. (2001). Reports higher serum and seminal magnesium concentrations in patients with better sperm counts, but not associated with sperm motility. The beneficial effects of reduced magnesium during the oocyte-to-embryo transition are conserved in mice, domestic cats and humans. Herrick et al (2015). This study observed that higher magnesium concentrations in the culture medium favored proper zygote multiplication, but did not benefit oocytes or newly fertilized zygotes. Magnesium concentration and embryo cleavage. Albani et al. (2004) (only the abstract was available) It reports that higher magnesium concentrations in cell culture media used for IVF oocytes slowed down zygote formation, increasing embryo development rate and synchronization, and favoring later cryopreservation.
Conclusion: There are few data on magnesium levels in fertile, subfertile, and infertile patients, whether male or female. However, in the cited studies, magnesium appears to be a key mineral for human fertility, influencing spermatogenesis, oocyte recruitment (through potentiation of Anti-Müllerian hormone action), and in IVF oocyte/embryo studies, magnesium concentration in the culture medium may play an important role in proper oocyte development. This suggests that magnesium can be a strong ally in enhancing fertility, since studies show that the global population has low magnesium intake due to diets rich in processed foods, as well as low serum values (Domingues et al., 2025). This may represent an underestimated factor contributing to increasing infertility worldwide and negatively affecting assisted reproduction cycles, even before gamete retrieval. However, further studies are required to better understand the role of magnesium in human fertility.