I take Elevit for the simple reason that it's only 1 tablet LOL. No fancy reasons here.

It's only folate that is the important thing to take pre-conception, so you could even just take a plain folate supplement. The rest is just a multi that can help with general wellbeing. A normal healthy diet is usually sufficient for getting all the other bits & pieces.

I don't know anything about animal by-products in it, sorry Robin.