Nutrition / lifestyle during ongoing fertility problems and IVF

[Skittles11]

Hi all

I wondered what other people have done re nutrition and lifestyle when fertility issues are ongoing for a long time.

Prior to my first IVF treatment I sought the advice of a nutritionist, wanting to do whatever I could to help my chances. I got no eggs on that cycle (but appreciate that was due to my body not responding to the protocol and meds rather than having anything to do with nutrition per se).

Anyhow I have now had 3 fresh cycles of IVF and one frozen and am currently undergoing further fresh treatments. When fertility issues are ongoing like this, what have others done re healthy eating etc? I feel like it is impossible to be cautious about nutrition when you are stuck in this scenario long term, treats are something that enable you some gratification and to deprive yourself is maybe not a good idea. But then other side of me thinks why not maximise chances by making healthy choices to help egg quality.

Was interested in what others have done when feeling stuck in this situation longer term. Have people noticed whether lifestyle and nutrition choices have made a difference?

Thank you, as usual I really value your views and input xx

[Alisonk784]

Hey Skittles! In my first (& unsuccessful) round I ate only the food I was told to eat and didn’t touch alcohol. In my successful rounds I had the odd drink (or 2) but I didn’t over do it and I ate mostly healthy but still had chocolate when I felt like it. Sending you loads of strength & positivity 💪🏻😘

[Tnthketnf]

Hi Skittles11. Every time this question is asked you get answers both from people who feel that nutrition(including supplements)has helped and others who think they didn't.

In my experience nutrition/diet didn't make a difference.

I do think though that you aren't making things worse by staying active and eating healthily so why not? It will only help your body amd a future pregnancy.

I am not really sure how much diet/nutrition affects the egg quality. When I ask Doctors about egg quality they say there's nothing you can do to improve it.

Good luck!

[RubyVet]

I lightly read the Zita west diet book. We would just base our meals on them. It is abit expensive but I found them much more realistic for our lives and the meals are actually really nice! I gave up alcohol but I wasn’t a big drinker anyway. I refused to give up chocolate, change to organic and I definitely did not give up takeaways!

Like you said when you have been doing this long term it’s just unrealistic and too flipping hard to follow these diets out there.

However I found this book easy and enjoyed it.

I had the same amount of embryos produced but I think my mental state massively improved.

I am currently 12 weeks now after our FET with the first transfer of these batch. But I will say that I went to the implantation clinic in the meantime and changed how long I took progesterone before transfer. But who’s to know why it worked this time!!

Xxx

[Pnw2020 in reply to RubyVet]

I also have this book via the kindle app. Some nice recipes and good principles. I definitely upped protein and tried to limit sugar during cycles but still had some treats. Increasing protein intake leaves you quite full and less likely to snack. I used pea protein powder in smoothies or porridge and swapped to whole milk. One of my ‘treats’ was a hot chocolate made with proper chocolate in the evening after the last injection of the day!

[Hidden]

Hi lovely, we have been TTC forever and having fertility treatment for over 5 years. In the beginning I was religious about my diet, health etc but to be honest whilst it was easy to do during the timescales of a cycle it was especially hard with delays etc to keep going. The thing that always niggled me in the back of my head was that women get pregnant every single day eating what they want, drinking what they want, and even drug users etc! Then I would tell myself I would regret it if things didn't work and I hadn't been super strict with my diet so carried on.

After a while I relaxed things a bit. It just wasn't sustainable. I am not a big chocolate or caffeine fan but I love salty stuff and I am a bit of a boozer. So I did start drinking between cycles. I started looking at my diet and trying to find a middle ground, the longer it has gone on the more passionately I believe quality of life and mental health is EQUALLY as important as what you eat. I spent years feeling 'deprived because of TTC' which then made each failure or miscarriage even harder. I am hopeless but food (and drink!) is a big reward for me.. I was sacrificing my career, holidays, other things I loved, the least I could do is have a glass of wine every so often.

I may not have my baby yet, but I do feel like I have a healthier relationship with this endless TTC journey now and I have been reassured by every medical person I have spoken to that my odd treat hasn't had any impact at all on my outcomes so far xx

[soccerkt6]

Hi lovely

Thanks for asking this question, I'm curious what others have done as well. I changed my diet almost two years ago before starting our first cycle and I've maintained about 50% of the changes, the main one being that I'm still gluten-free and really limit my sugar.

I've had a major sweet tooth my entire life and so that was definitely hard to shift. But sugar - and especially the corresponding spikes in blood sugar - are not only detrimental to egg quality but they also put people at higher risk for things like type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes (for when we finally do get pregnant)! Once your body loses the ability to regulate its blood sugar you can't un-ring that bell, so I've 'scared myself straight' on that front, if you will. 😅 I avoid gluten for the same reason - breads have a high glycemic index and also tend to spike blood sugar, and it doesn't provide any essential nutrients that I can't get from other sources. If I really want something bread-like, I've found this brand is quite good: seedful.store

But, treats are definitely not off-limits - they can definitely stay on the menu (and probably should, for your mental health)! I'm just more discerning about what I go for. Dark chocolate is actually very healthy so I eat chocolate every day and just make sure it's at least 70%. And there are some other less sugar-heavy treats I've found (this company does some yummy coconut macaroons and bars: nourish-growcookenjoy.com/). I would still eat these in moderation but, as you said, it's really necessary to have treats and give yourself something special to look forward to.

On other things like alcohol and caffeine, I'm more lenient. All of those things, in moderation of course, are fine and I wouldn't worry about them too much. In reality, I’ve realised my diet looks much the same as it did pre-TTC, except with a few small tweaks: I no longer have bread with meals so I end up eating more protein and vegetables to fill myself up; my sweet treat is now dark chocolate instead of cakes, biscuits or ice cream; and I only have wine on occasion rather than every night with dinner like I used to...lol.

I think the key in all of this is to avoid feeling like you're depriving yourself. If you decide to stay on some sort of diet, make sure you find yourself enjoyable substitutions for those things that you're limiting. And be flexible with yourself - an 80/20 or 90/10 rule (where you follow your diet 80-90% of the time and give yourself leeway 10-20% of the time) is perfectly healthy. You're still going to be eating healthier than the vast majority of people out there and being able to treat yourself and enjoy things is a really important aspect of life! xxx

PS - fwiw, I found it better for my mental health to make my chosen dietary changes permanent rather than switching back and forth based on whether I was in the middle of a cycle or not. By making the changes permanent, i’ve dissociated my dietary choices from fertility (which is a relief, since everything else in my life seems to revolve around fertility), and it's more about me just choosing to be healthier in general.

[Boo718]

Hello. On our first few rounds I followed every single thing in the books. No booze caffeine junk food. You name it I did it and I swear I could have literally shot myself in the face it was bloody awful we got negatives both times and I was miserable. The next few rounds we got on better and I relaxed it all. I stayed away from booze after transfer. Apart from that I ate what I wanted when I wanted xxx

[TexasRose210]

My first round I did the anti inflammatory diet, no carbs, gluten, caffeine or alcohol for 6 months. My first round was successful as well. I am due to test in 3 days for my second cycle but this time I wasn’t as strict as before when it came to my diet. My diet wasn’t poor but I did enjoy some meals and other pleasures. I am curious to see if it truly matters. I guess I’ll find out soon

[Weareback2]

I was told by my doctor that ivf is stressful enough and to do things that make you happy to release happy hormones. This includes food and physical things such a catching up with friends, watching a good netflix series etc. She also said that if one specfic food group was proven to work....it would be prescripted as they want it to work as much as you. When i was going thru ivf i didn't drink, overall ate a balanced diet but did have the odd take away and treats. Good luck

[Pupster83]

I had to keep losing weigh for each cycle as we ended up with almost a year between each and over 4 years, in the times on between I kept creeping back over my 30 bmi. I used Michael Mosley’s Blood Sugar Diet to lose the weight then would stick with the principles of low carbs and low sugar once I was at my goal. Lots of the reading I did said that a Mediterranean diet is generally good for fertility and the blood sugar diet follows very similar ideas which I found easy enough to follow as I like that kind of food. I did cut out treats while I was getting to my goal but once I got there I allowed myself the odd sweet goodie or drink as I think it very hard to sustain otherwise. Our fourth, and last cycle, I cut out alcohol and caffeine from about 6 weeks before treatment and throughout, I was healthy about eating but not overly strict, I took far more supplements than I had previous cycles after reading It Starts With the Egg and I tired to ensure I got out walking everyday. I’m not sure which part helped, whether it was one particulars thing, a combination or just plain luck but I am currently 24 weeks. Our last cycle was our last round on the NHS, my husband and I had no faith in it working and had already gone back to the private clinic we started with to find about moving to donor egg treatment rather than continuing with something that wasn’t working once we were paying again. As a result we decided to give the round our all so we would know we’d done everything we could before moving on to donor treatment. I think you just have to go with what you feel happy with so that you know in your own head you’ve done all you can. Good luck! X

[Positivechangeplease]

I felt I could lose some weight so went carb low but with a lot of fresh food and veg. I also think caffeine is a big fertility offender so I went decaf. But I appreciate it is hard to work out what to do for the best. All the luck x

[Skittles11]

Thank you for sharing what you all think and what your experiences have been. It's interesting to see the varied views, not a cut and dry issue at all xx

[Marisa32]

I haven't changed my lifestyle too much at all. Made sure I ate organic, enough fruit and veggies. Triple checked my thyroid to keep TSH at 1. Had the occasional glass of wine or chocolate.

[Redsequin]

Just a quick tip for anyone on this thread who loves coffee but wants to give up caffeine. I discovered Union Coffee does a v delicious decaf made without a nasty chemical process, so a good choice for IVF! xxx