Image courtesy: hyena reality at FreeDigitalPhotos.net What is fertility testing? In reality, fertility of a women is a continuum and not something that categorizes well. A certain value from a blood test can cause feelings of panic by placing you in a particular category ("low responder"! "high FSH"! "diminished ovarian reserve"!) whereas in reality there is [...]
Image courtesy: jk1991at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Some months ago I was asked for the first time about using PQQ (Pyrroloquinoline quinone) to improve egg quality. I was not too surprised, as women often come to me long lists of supplements which they take in hope of improving egg quality and often my consulting work boils down to reducing [...]
Image courtesy: radnatt at FreeDigitalPhotos.net If I had to pick only five lifestyle interventions in terms of being simple to implement and bringing immediate and measurable benefits to women over 35 who are trying to get pregnant, these would be: 1. Stop smoking. Smokers are 30 percent less fertile than non-smokers and three times more likely [...]
Image credit: phaitoon at FreeDigitalPhotos.net Tips on choosing an egg donor Thousands of babies are being born each year as a result of egg donation. In 2013, over 9,500 babies were born thanks to donated eggs. Fifteen years ago (something like middle age of reproductive medicine), egg donation was more a method then a business. At [...]
Ana (the name changed) is one of the readers of my blog who managed to get pregnant by changing her diet and taking supplements to improve egg quality. What makes Ana special is that at our first contact she managed to really piss me off. Her first email to me went like this: I have found your blog [...]
Image credit: stuart miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net How to talk to your fertility doctor Almost daily I get emails from women who report some kind of miscommunication with their fertility doctors. Some of the most common misunderstandings relate to: Too short or too long times in-between the IVF rounds, Treatments which are determined by financial rather than [...]
Image credit: apolonia at FreeDigitalPhotos.net We are physiologically adapted to a varied diet without too much sugar, without toxins and additives, and we can cope with irregular meals, or even occasional hunger. Yes, hunger. Please take one breath and try to imagine that 99% of our evolutionary time has passed with such nutritional rhythm. This is [...]
My husband loves to cook paleo As you can read all over my blog, there are at least two diet styles that are scientifically proven to increase fertility in women. These are the Mediterranean diet with its many fertility benefits published over the last years and the Harvard Fertility-diet, which works particularly well in women with ovulatory disorders. But [...]
