The effect of the ketogenic diet in increasing and/or restoring fertility in PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) patients

The ketogenic diet is reported to increase and/or restore fertility in polycystic ovarian syndrome patients, although clinical evidence is limited and largely anecdotal and ambiguous. It was found that the efficacy of the ketogenic diet for short intervals demonstrated promising elevation in fertility amongst overweight – but not lean - PCOS patients. However, the nutritional sustainability of the diet made it unlikely for patients to maintain success due to the difficulty in maintaining ketosis. This study quantified the diet’s effectiveness in PCOS patients using three factors: the efficacy of the diet as inferred from clinical trials, the advantage of the treatment when compared with other therapies and and the caloric and metabolic sustainability of the diet over a period long enough to restore fertility in childbearing patients. The diet’s hypothesized mechanism of action was presented and discussed. This report found that a less restrictive version of the ketogenic diet could be implemented for these patients with a similar probability of fertility restoration, but further research and trials would be required to confirm this effect. As an alternative, this report also suggests that a personalised dietary plan for patients may prove to be beneficial as it would be more likely to elicit compliance.