Will Geritol Help You Get Pregnant? No, Geritol doesn’t help in getting you pregnant. Interestingly, even Geritol states explicitly that there is no evidence that Geritol can increase fertility in women.
Ask couples trying to conceive, and they’d tell you ways to get pregnant you’ve never heard. Concoctions, supplements and crazy sex positions you are ready to try all. Forgetting the basic requirement and that’s a healthy nourished body for welcoming a baby we blindly follow stuff. Geritol and the hyperbole ‘There’s a baby inside every bottle’ are examples of how maddening things get.
We don’t deny that Geritol is an excellent supplement with a lot of multivitamins. However, alone Geritol can’t do anything! Ideas like twice iron than eating liver are vague. You need the right dose else excess can cause toxicosis. For instance, toxicosis of vitamin A leads to brittle skin and subcutaneous hemorrhage along with brittle bones and vision impairment.
What is Geritol?
Geritol is a mix of vitamins and irons sold as over the counter drug available without a prescription. The syrup or capsule form both have vitamin B complex. All different categories of vitamins B such as vitamin B6 pyridoxine, vitamin B5 pantothenic acid, vitamin B3 Niacin, vitamin B2 riboflavin, and B1 thiamine are present along iron. Geritol complete has vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin H, and vitamin K. Along with these two, there are minerals too. TTC women face adverse effects when they have deficiencies of water-soluble vitamins.
You just need a few milligrams of these. But those tiny amounts make a big difference. From the production of serotonin, neurotransmitters to the formation of spinal cord everything depends on the mother’s nutritional status. Folic acid is the most essential form that is responsible for developing the brain and nervous system.
The other content of Geritol is iron that is primarily used for hemoglobin and blood synthesis. It’s the one for which the drug gets hyped as being the infertility cure.
Geritol is nothing but a supplement source of prenatal vitamins that keep you healthy. Reproductive fitness is a component of overall health.
Why do I need Geritol?
Skin rashes, scales of skin, diarrhea, anemia, nausea, and cramps are signs of vitamin B deficiency. Women who have deficiencies will transfer them to their baby due to lack of vitamin. The deficiency of vitamin B poses a risk of neuropathy. Babies would have birth defects if their mother had vitamin B deficiency during pregnancy.
Milk, cheese, liver avocados, beetroots, and grains have vitamin B in natural form. Tuna and molasses are rich sources of vitamin B. Read more about pregnancy diet here.
Vegan pregnancy makes it extremely necessary for the mother to take such supplements. Before you even have the baby, preparing your baby’s nine-month vacation place is mandatory. Taking Geritol will help you be more alert and energetic providing the iron and vitamins. GSK manufactures Geritol and is a reliable source.
Skin flush, dizzy vision, and thirst are symptoms when you take too much of vitamin B.
Similarly taking excess iron can cause fluid loss, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. There is no need to take any nutrient in excess because the body will not take more than required. Putting in extra will lead to burdening for the removal of them as wastes.
Iron Requirement for Pregnant Women
World Health Organisation has recommended a daily requirement of 30-60 mg iron and 400 micrograms Folic Acid for pregnant ladies.
For the diagnosis of anemia, the first and third trimester have higher values of 110 g/L. However, in the second trimester, the value is lowered to 105 g/L considering the demand of fetus.
Vitamin B Requirement For Pregnant Women
Pregnant women need about 1.4 mg riboflavin and thiamine daily. Similarly, the daily requirements of other vitamin B forms are:
- Niacin 18mg
- Pantothenic Acid 6mg
- Pyridoxine 25-50mg a day thrice for nausea and pregnancy morning sickness
- Biotin 30 micrograms – deficiency is common
- Vitamin B12 2.6 micrograms
How to take Geritol?
There’s nothing other than popping the pill or gulping the liquid Geritol. Albeit it’s an over the counter dosage matters. Gynecologists don’t recommend taking more than one dose a day.
You don’t need any preparation. Just take the capsules and don’t eat for 1-2 hours. This allows the body enough time to absorb nutrients. Drinking water after taking Geritol helps wash off into the gut enhancing rate of absorption. You can consider taking it as the first thing after you get up while trying to get pregnant.
Just don’t believe and go with their claim of having the potential of making a baby inside every bottle. Vitamin B and iron can only supplement the lost vitamins due to multiple reasons. Getting you pregnant is more to do with your ovulation and sexual activity. One can read the WHO recommended guidelines for a positive pregnancy experience.
Side Effects of Geritol
There are no severe side effects of Geritol other than nausea and vomiting. At times, some women might have a hypersensitivity reaction to the drug. The high sugar content of the syrup can cause some displeasure. Taking too much of Geritol will lead to constipation as there is a lot of iron. There are no stool softeners to counter the side effect of constipation.
How does Geritol work?
Geritol claims in their website that, “there is, unfortunately, no evidence that specifically taking Geritol® can increase your fertility or your chances of getting pregnant. We don’t make any fertility claims, and we’re not quite sure how the rumor got started.”
The only explanation that seems logical is that abundance of the vitamins and iron cancels the chance of deficiency. Thus, any fertility issues due to insufficient vitamin don’t crop up to hinder conception.
Every woman in early pregnancy has to take folic acid. Deficiency of folic acid damages the baby’s brain brutally. Taking Geritol every day for weeks would never let your serum levels of folic acid to drop.
What are the risks of taking Geritol?
There are rarely observed side effects like constipation, nausea, and vomiting. You can take Geritol after asking your doctor. Make sure you are not taking any other contraindicatory supplement. Taking two types of supplements will overdose your body. Geritol is safe for you unless you have diabetes. Sugar based syrup contents are not ideal for diabetic patients.
Similarly, know about the alcohol content of the syrup. The alcohol is not like the glass of wine and will not intoxicate you. Instead, it’s for the preparation of the syrup. You can consider these ingredients of Geritol that may conflict with your interests.
Does Geritol work to treat infertility?
There is nothing in Geritol that can treat infertility or lead to conception. It’s a possibility that by coincidence, you got pregnant around the time you started taking Geritol. Whether Geritol got your pregnant is an impossible thing to answer. One thing is for Geritol has officially claimed that there is no evidence linking to Geritol and getting pregnant.
Other supplements have more iron such as Fertility Aid. If iron helps in getting you pregnant, you could take them too.
Geritol only treats the deficiency of essential water-soluble vitamins which are also needed for conceiving.
Which is better Geritol or prenatal vitamins?
You’d be surprised to know that Geritol is not a prenatal vitamin technically. Prenatal vitamins have a lot of folic acids. They also have stool softener to prevent constipation due to iron intake.
Your OB will not ask you to take Geritol. Instead, you will get another iron-rich prenatal vitamin. The daily requirement of a pregnant woman or trying to get a pregnant woman is 400 micrograms.
Taking Geritol alone is not enough, tracking cervical mucus, cutting down smoking, caffeine and alcohol are equally important.
Will Geritol help you get pregnant?
Geritol itself mentions that all claims regarding the effectiveness of the multivitamin leafing to pregnancy are false. There is no way any nutrient could get you pregnant. Lack of a nutrient can prevent pregnancy and make you less receptive. Mere presence of vitamins in the blood is not enough for getting pregnant.
Geritol is a supportive therapy for alongside other cautions. Infertility therapies require your body to be healthy. That’s all Geritol does. Even after that there are chances that Geritol alone cannot even cure the deficiency. If your body has developed resistance against a particular chemical then Geritol can do nothing.
Implantation failure causing very early miscarriage is an example. In such a situation only proper treatment is likely to get you pregnant soon. Getting pregnant fast is indeed not any drug’s or treatment outcome.
How much your body is receptive and suitable for pregnancy will determine how soon you’ll conceive.
