Are multivitamins with Vit A OK when TTC?

[Doodlebug89]

Hi everyone,

DH and I have been trying to conceive since December. I have been taking my normal vitamins (a multivitamin which has some folic acid in, omega 3 fish oil, and a calcium + vitamin D tablet) but added in an additional folic acid tablet every other day as my normal vitamins have 100% of the recommended daily allowance but only 50% of the amount recommended when pregnant or TTC. I'm also going to start taking evening primrose oil tablets up to conception this month.

I decided to avoid buying expensive conception tablets as they seemed unnecessary and a waste of money. I am not struggling for money, and wouldn't mind buying them if it was for 1-3 months, but I couldn't see myself buying these every month for a year or more!

However I recently read that vitamin A is bad for pregnancy, and my multivitamins (and all non-conception multivitamins I can find) have vitamin A in. Do you think this is okay as long as I switch to a pregnancy vitamin when I get a positive test?

• EPO up to ovulation, not conception

I would not take vitamin A if I was trying to conceive.
I would take folic acid.

The issue with doing that is you might not know you're pregnant until 4/5 weeks. It would be best to either just take the folic acid or switch to a conception multivitamin.

I think you're advised to avoid vitamin A. Tbh if it's a price objection, in your shoes I would look for supermarket own brand ttc vitamins. However you've said money isn't an issue, and you clearly don't mind buying other vitamins, so it then feels like you're being stingy about the wrong thing. A year's worth of ttc vitamins isn't that much to pay out if you're financially comfortable and want a healthy pregnancy and baby.

Oops, okay, I didn't realise that it would make a difference! I will buy some conception ones.

Annoyingly I'm doing my Tesco shop online now and the only Tesco value ones are the 'his/hers' ones that cost more than the Pregnacare/SevenSeas ones.

Does anyone have a particular type that they recommend, or are they all very similar?

Also, this may be a stupid question but is there a big difference between pregnancy and conception vitamins?

I like Seven Seas. They're very small and easy to swallow too, unlike some of the horsepill style ones.

You should avoid it. I take a pregnancy multi vitamin from Wilkos. Very cheap to buy.

Thanks ladies :)

I got mine from Sainsbury’s. Their own brand folic acid is very cheap

Why not get the his/her ones? Vitamin intake affects sperm count so it’s worth making sure your other half is getting folic acid, zinc, selenium etc. too!

As others have said - avoid vitamin A. Also I don't think you should have fish oil when ttc.