Best Preconception Supplement for Women UK — 16 Formulas Compared
Sixteen UK-available preconception multivitamins compared on 30 ingredients. Dose-weighted scoring, transparent methodology, no product placed at #1 without earning it. If you are trying to conceive in 2026, this is the working reference we use ourselves before we recommend anything to a friend. Updated July 2026.
What to look for in a preconception supplement
Most "trying to conceive" multivitamins on the UK high street look identical from the front of the bottle. The differences are all on the back panel, in the ingredient forms and the doses. Here is what actually matters, in the order it matters.
Folate as 5-MTHF, not folic acid. Folic acid is the synthetic form. Your body has to convert it into 5-methyltetrahydrofolate before your cells can use it, and around 40% of women carry an MTHFR variant that makes that conversion slow. 5-MTHF (sometimes labelled L-methylfolate, Quatrefolic, or Metafolin) is the already-converted active form. NICE guidance is a minimum of 400µg preconception; 800µg is common in the higher-tier formulas.
CoQ10 at a dose that actually does something. The 2010 Bentov trial used 600mg/day for egg-quality outcomes. Most fertility clinics use 200mg as the practical therapeutic threshold. A formula listing 10mg or 20mg of CoQ10 has technically included it, but not at a dose the egg-quality literature supports. This is the single ingredient where "present or not" is the wrong question.
Choline. The pregnancy AI (American Heart Association 2018) is 450mg. Only 8% of pregnant women meet this from diet alone. Choline supports neural tube development and works alongside folate. Most preconception multivitamins simply do not include it.
Active-form B12. Methylcobalamin or adenosylcobalamin — not the cheap synthetic cyanocobalamin.
Third-party testing, and a vegan capsule if you need one. A GMP certificate is table stakes. Vegan status matters because gelatine capsules rule out a large minority of buyers.
Everything else — iron, D3, iodine, selenium, zinc — matters, but variance between the top formulas is much smaller than the variance on the five ingredients above.
Price guide
Price guide: £ under £20 · ££ £20–35 · £££ £35–50 · ££££ over £50 (per month, RRP)
The sixteen we compared
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Proceive Women££
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Proceive Max Women£££
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Pregnacare Conception£
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Pregnacare Max££
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Wild Nutrition Food-Grown Fertility Support£££
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Zita West Vitafem££
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Ovum Time to Conceive£££
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BioMirco Fertility Advance£££
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BioMirco Fertility Focus££
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BioCare Methyl Pregnancy Multinutrient££
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Seeking Health Prenatal Essentials££
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Thorne Basic Prenatal£££
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Perelel Conception Support Pack£££
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FertilAid for Women£££
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Eagle Tresos Natal£
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Naitre Women's Liposomal Fertility££££
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What we found in the numbers
CoQ10 doses tell you who's serious about egg quality
Nine of the sixteen formulas include CoQ10, but there is roughly a 20-fold spread between the top dose and the bottom. Three formulas cross the 200mg practical-therapeutic threshold — BioMirco Fertility Advance at 300mg, and BioMirco Fertility Focus and Ovum Time to Conceive both at 200mg. Everyone else is below the line the egg-quality literature supports. Proceive Max at 70mg and Perelel at 50mg are meaningful contributions but not full doses. Anything at 25mg or below is functionally a token amount — enough to put "CoQ10" on the label, not enough to expect the mitochondrial effects the ingredient is famous for. Seven formulas contain no CoQ10 at all.
Only 4 formulas meet even a quarter of the pregnancy choline RDA
Choline is the most under-supplemented nutrient in this category. The pregnancy AI is 450mg, dietary intake in women of reproductive age routinely misses this, and yet nine of the sixteen formulas we compared contain no choline at all. BioMirco Fertility Advance leads at 200mg (44% of AI), followed by BioMirco Fertility Focus at 133mg. Eagle Tresos, Perelel and Thorne cluster around the 110–125mg mark. Once you get below Proceive Max and BioCare at 50mg, you are into token-inclusion territory. Choline is not a headline ingredient the way folate is, but the neural-tube evidence has strengthened enough over the last decade that its absence in most formulas is telling.
5-MTHF has quietly replaced folic acid at the premium tier
The category has bifurcated. Ten of the sixteen formulas — including all the specialist and clinical brands — now use 5-MTHF as their primary folate. Four use a mix of 5-MTHF with calcium folinate (Thorne, Seeking Health, Eagle Tresos, Pregnacare Max). Only Pregnacare Conception still uses folic acid alone, and Wild Nutrition uses a distinctly different food-grown yeast-bound folate that does not slot neatly into either category. If you are an MTHFR-aware buyer, the shortlist writes itself: anything on the "5-MTHF only" row is a defensible starting point.
Price does not equal quality — the correlation is weak
The most expensive product in this comparison, Naitre Liposomal Fertility at ££££, lands in the bottom half of our overall scoring — its liposomal delivery is a real technical advantage for absorption but the underlying formula is not competitive with the top-tier options. The cheapest, Eagle Tresos Natal at £, is actually a well-formulated product on paper but has limited UK availability outside a handful of practitioner channels. Pregnacare Conception at £11.95 is inexpensive because it uses inexpensive forms — folic acid, cyanocobalamin, a token 20mg CoQ10. Meanwhile Ovum, BioMirco Fertility Focus and BioCare Methyl Multi all sit in the ££ range and outscore several £££ formulas. Pay attention to the label, not the RRP.
Best for 35+ or IVF prep
BioMirco Fertility Advance. The specification here is aimed squarely at the harder end of preconception: 300mg CoQ10, 800µg 5-MTHF, 200mg choline, active-form B12, and 1000 IU vitamin D. It is the only formula in this comparison that meets the practical therapeutic threshold on CoQ10 while also carrying a meaningful choline dose, and the folate is delivered as 5-MTHF rather than folic acid. That combination is what the egg-quality literature actually points at, and it is the reason clinicians preparing patients for IVF or supporting women 35+ tend to reach for higher-spec, higher-dose formulas rather than a standard prenatal. Three capsules per day, vegan.
Best for early TTC and continuing into 1st trimester
BioMirco Fertility Focus. Uses the same active forms as Fertility Advance at moderated doses: 533µg 5-MTHF, 200mg CoQ10, 133mg choline, methylcobalamin B12, and 680 IU vitamin D. Two capsules per day. It is designed to be started as soon as you begin trying and continued safely through the first trimester, so you are not switching products at the moment the folate demand actually peaks. For most women earlier in the process, without a specific 35+ or IVF context, this is the more sensible entry point than a maximum-dose formula. Vegan capsule.
Best if you need iron built in
Thorne Basic Prenatal. Thorne is one of the few brands to include a full 45mg of bisglycinate iron alongside 1000µg L-5-MTHF and 400mg calcium folinate. That combination is unusually complete — most preconception multis either omit iron entirely or use ferrous fumarate. The methylation credentials are excellent and Thorne has NSF certification. One caveat: an October 2024 press cycle raised heavy-metal testing questions across the practitioner-brand tier. Thorne has since published updated testing documentation, but if you are highly sensitive to that story it is worth reading before committing. No CoQ10 in this SKU.
Best UK-retail availability
Proceive Women. Widely stocked in Boots, Holland & Barrett, Superdrug and most independent pharmacies. Uses methylfolate and methylcobalamin B12 — the active forms — plus a 25mg CoQ10. That last figure is present but sub-therapeutic; you are getting the ingredient without the dose. For a mainstream buyer who values being able to walk into a shop and re-buy the same product easily, this is the sensible pick.
Best budget starter
Pregnacare Conception. £11.95 for a month buys you 400µg folic acid (not 5-MTHF), cyanocobalamin B12, 20mg CoQ10, and a broad multivitamin/mineral base. That is what everyone at the mid-market price point looks like: adequate for a woman without an MTHFR variant, in her twenties, in generally good nutritional health, at the start of trying. It is not a high-spec formula and it does not pretend to be. If money is genuinely the constraint, this is a defensible starting point.
Best food-grown option
Wild Nutrition Food-Grown Fertility Support. Wild Nutrition's fermentation-grown nutrients bind vitamins and minerals into yeast-cell food matrices, which some buyers prefer for tolerance and gentle absorption. The formula uses food-grown folate rather than 5-MTHF, so it does not fit cleanly into either the synthetic-folic-acid or the methylated tier — it works on a different mechanism. No CoQ10 and only 400 IU vitamin D. If your priority is a whole-food philosophy over dose maximisation, this is the credible choice.
Best for MTHFR-aware buyers
Seeking Health Prenatal Essentials. Seeking Health was founded by Dr Ben Lynch, whose work made MTHFR variants a household term. The formula uses 800µg of combined 5-MTHF and calcium folinate — deliberately using two folate forms so that women whose methylation cycle bottlenecks at different points have both routes available. Also uses methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin B12. No CoQ10. Two capsules per day, vegan.
Best clinical UK vegan without a practitioner
BioCare Methyl Pregnancy Multinutrient. BioCare's clinical formulas normally sit behind a practitioner referral, but the Methyl Pregnancy Multi is available direct. 400µg 5-MTHF, methylcobalamin B12, 1000 IU vitamin D3, 50mg choline, and a full spread of activated B-vitamins. No CoQ10 in this SKU. If you want a clinical-grade UK formula and you do not have a practitioner on file, this is the practical choice. Two capsules per day, vegan.
Overall ranking
This is the aggregate score across the ten criteria described in the methodology below. Every product is scored on the same 100-weight-point scale, dose-weighted so that a 5-MTHF at 800µg scores more than a 5-MTHF at 400µg, and so that 200mg CoQ10 scores meaningfully higher than 20mg CoQ10.
Quick comparison
| Brand | Product | Folate | CoQ10 | Choline | Iron | Vegan | Price band | Score |
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| BioMirco | Fertility Advance | 800µg 5-MTHF | 300mg | 200mg | None | Yes | £££ | 84% |
| BioMirco | Fertility Focus | 533µg 5-MTHF | 200mg | 133mg | None | Yes | ££ | 76% |
| Thorne | Basic Prenatal | 1000µg L-5-MTHF | None | 110mg | 45mg | No | £££ | 72% |
| Perelel | Conception Pack | 400µg L-methylfolate | 50mg | 120mg | 18mg | No | £££ | 70% |
| Ovum | Time to Conceive | 800µg 5-MTHF | 200mg | None | None | Vegetarian | £££ | 70% |
| Proceive | Max Women | 400µg 5-MTHF | 70mg | 50mg | 17mg | Yes | £££ | 59% |
| Eagle | Tresos Natal | 500µg mixed | None | 123mg | 10mg | Not stated | £ | 58% |
| BioCare | Methyl Pregnancy Multi | 400µg 5-MTHF | None | 50mg | 7mg | Yes | ££ | 56% |
| Seeking Health | Prenatal Essentials | 800µg 5-MTHF + folinate | None | None | None | Yes | ££ | 55% |
| Proceive | Proceive Women | 400µg 5-MTHF | 25mg | None | 17mg | Yes | ££ | 55% |
| Zita West | Vitafem | 400µg 5-MTHF | 15mg | 25mg | 14mg | Yes | ££ | 51% |
| Fairhaven Health | FertilAid for Women | 600µg L-5-MTHF | None | None | None | Vegetarian | £££ | 50% |
| Pregnacare | Pregnacare Max | 400µg mixed | None | None | 17mg | No | ££ | 46% |
| Naitre | Liposomal Fertility | 400µg 5-MTHF | 30mg | None | None | Yes | ££££ | 46% |
| Wild Nutrition | Food-Grown Fertility Support | 400µg food-grown | None | 5mg | 10mg | Vegetarian | £££ | 45% |
| Pregnacare | Pregnacare Conception | 400µg folic acid | 20mg | None | 17mg | No | £ | 41% |
How we compared
Every product was scored against the same ten criteria, drawn from the ingredients where clinical guidance is clear and dose actually matters. Each criterion is worth a fixed number of weight-points, totalling 100. The dose-weighting is applied within each criterion — a product carrying 200mg CoQ10 scores meaningfully higher on the CoQ10 line than one carrying 20mg, even though both technically "include CoQ10". All ingredient information was taken from each manufacturer's own current product pages, verified in July 2026.
- Folate form and dose (weight 15)
- CoQ10 dose (weight 15)
- Choline dose (weight 10)
- Vitamin B12 form (weight 10)
- Vitamin D dose (weight 10)
- Iron form and dose (weight 10)
- Iodine dose (weight 8)
- Selenium dose (weight 7)
- Third-party testing and GMP certification (weight 8)
- Vegan capsule and allergen transparency (weight 7)
Weights are editable. A reader whose priority is iron-completeness first, or vegan-only, or a specific MTHFR-safe formulation, would produce a different ranking simply by shifting the weight distribution. The point of the framework is not that our weighting is the correct one — it is that ours is transparent and can be inspected line by line.
We did not test the products head-to-head in a clinical setting and we do not claim any one formula produces better fertility outcomes than another. This is a labels comparison, and it is only as good as the manufacturer disclosures behind it.
Our recommendation
If you are 35+, preparing for IVF, recovering from a miscarriage, or have been trying for over 12 months, BioMirco Fertility Advance is the clearest choice on the active-form, high-dose criteria above.
If you are earlier in the process, BioMirco Fertility Focus uses the same active forms at moderated doses and is designed to continue safely through the first trimester.
Take the 60-second formula quiz · Compare Advance vs Focus
Frequently asked questions
How long before trying should I start taking a preconception supplement?
The commonly cited number is three months, because the follicle you ovulate this cycle began its final maturation window roughly 90 days ago. That is also the timeframe cited in the CoQ10 egg-quality trials. If you are further out than three months, starting earlier does no harm; if you are already trying, starting today still helps.
Do I need 400µg or 800µg of folate?
NICE recommends a minimum of 400µg preconception. Many specialist formulas run at 800µg for the belt-and-braces reason that dietary intake is often lower than reported and MTHFR variants slow conversion. If you have a known MTHFR variant, a prior neural-tube-defect pregnancy, or you are on certain anti-seizure medications, your clinician may advise up to 5mg — that is a prescription-level decision, not a supplement one.
Is 5-MTHF actually better than folic acid?
For roughly 40% of women with an MTHFR variant, yes — 5-MTHF bypasses the conversion step their body handles poorly. For everyone else, folic acid works but is less efficiently used. Since 5-MTHF is now widely available at competitive prices, there is little practical reason to buy folic acid unless price is a hard constraint.
Can my partner take the same supplement?
No — male fertility formulas are built around different priorities (zinc, selenium, CoQ10, L-carnitine) and different doses. Female formulas typically include iron and higher folate levels that men do not need daily.
Should I switch to a prenatal once I get a positive test?
If your preconception formula is designed for continued use through the first trimester — as BioMirco Fertility Focus is — you do not need to switch immediately. Higher-dose formulas like Fertility Advance are typically stepped down at that point. Check the label of your specific product, or speak with your midwife.
What if I have a specific medical condition?
Talk to your GP or a fertility clinician before starting any supplement — particularly if you have thyroid conditions, autoimmune disease, PCOS, are on any prescription medication, or have a history of pregnancy loss. Supplement information on this page is not a substitute for individual medical advice.
How we compared. All specifications were taken from each brand's own product pages in July 2026. We did not test the products head-to-head and we make no claim that any one formula will give a better fertility outcome than another. The right supplement depends on your individual situation, your doctor's input, and what you can stick with daily. Food supplements are not medicines and are not a substitute for a varied diet, a healthy lifestyle, or medical care.