The Complement Stack + Lifestyle Protocol I Actually Used for Egg Freezing and IVF

The three to 6 months earlier than your retrieval matter greater than most clinics inform you. I tracked every little thing I did throughout that window on my final and most profitable IVF spherical: each complement, each dose, way of life swaps and constructed it right into a residing Google Sheet that I’ll preserve present as analysis evolves. It is linked beneath. Here is the complete context.

Before I get into it, the usual disclaimer: I’m not a health care provider. This is just not medical recommendation. What I’m is a founder who has spent a decade studying ladies’s well being analysis, a affected person who has been by this course of herself, and somebody who’s deeply allergic to imprecise non-answers when ladies ask actual questions on their our bodies. So I’m sharing what I did and what knowledgeable these selections. Please work with your personal physician earlier than including new stuff to your routine, particularly throughout this necessary second.

A word on the analysis: when you have proven any of this to your physician and gotten a shrug or an eyeroll, I perceive why. Most of what’s on this protocol has not been confirmed in massive randomized scientific trials, and that’s the bar typical medication makes use of to name one thing evidence-based. The sincere motive these trials don’t exist is just not as a result of the science is dangerous, it’s as a result of dietary supplements can’t be patented, so there isn’t a monetary incentive for pharmaceutical firms to fund the analysis on the scale required to fulfill that normal. What does exist is strong mechanistic analysis displaying how these compounds work together with oocyte mitochondrial perform, oxidative stress, insulin signaling, and hormonal stability. The biology is known. The massive human trials usually are not there but. I’m not telling you to disregard your physician. I’m telling you why the absence of a scientific trial doesn’t imply the absence of a motive…

Why I Made a Protocol within the First Place

Egg freezing is a type of issues the place the clinic tells you what to do throughout stimulation however no one actually talks concerning the three to 6 months earlier than retrieval that may meaningfully have an effect on egg high quality. That window issues. Lots. Oocyte maturation takes roughly 90 days, which implies what you do within the months main as much as your retrieval cycle has a direct affect on what you get out of it.

I wished to go in having executed every little thing inside my management for my most up-to-date cycle (that can most definitely be my final).

The Stack

I constructed out a residing Google Sheet with each complement I took, the dose, what I used it for, and the way lengthy I took it for. It lives here. I’ll preserve it up to date as analysis evolves, as you guys give me perception from your personal cycles, and so forth.

The classes I organized it round: mitochondrial help, antioxidants, methylation help, anti-inflammatory, and hormonal stability.

If You Want To Go Deeper, Listen To This

I sat down with Dr. Sheeva Talebian, reproductive endocrinologist at CCRM Fertility New York, for an episode of Tell Me I’m a Good Mom that covers every little thing I want I had identified earlier than I began again throughout my first spherical in 2020. The math no one warns you about. The way of life modifications that truly transfer the needle on egg high quality. What NAD+ remedy does for fertility and why extra western medical doctors are lastly paying consideration. And why the variety of eggs you retrieve is nearly by no means the quantity that issues with regards to viable embryos. If you might be navigating IVF, egg freezing, unexplained infertility, or simply making an attempt to grasp your fertility earlier than it turns into pressing — this one is for you.

Watch/listen here

The Easy Swaps That Actually Add Up

Supplements are one lever. The different is decreasing your each day endocrine disruptor load, which sounds overwhelming till you understand most of it comes down to a couple easy product swaps. These are those I made (hyperlinks + just a few extra options within the Google sheet).

Fragranced Body Wash → a pH-balanced cleanser with no artificial perfume Synthetic perfume is among the sneakiest sources of phthalates, that are endocrine disruptors with documented results on reproductive hormones. I exploit Love Wellness pH Balanced Cleanser down there and as my physique wash.

Plastic water bottles → glass or stainless-steel BPA will get plenty of press however BPA-free plastics usually comprise BPS and BPF, which behave equally within the physique. Xenoestrogens from plastic leach particularly when bottles are heated or scratched. Glass or stainless is the straightforward repair.

Non-stick cookware → stainless-steel or forged iron PFAS, the “forever chemicals” in most non-stick coatings, have been linked to hormonal disruption and are price minimizing throughout a fertility prep window. Cast iron additionally has the bonus of including dietary iron.

Scented candles and plug-in air fresheners → beeswax or fragrance-free Most scented candles and plug-ins launch phthalates and VOCs into the air you might be respiration all day. Beeswax candles burn cleaner. If you need scent, a diffuser with a single-ingredient important oil is the cleaner route.

Conventional Dirty Dozen produce → natural for the high-pesticide checklist You don’t must go absolutely natural. The Environmental Working Group publishes an annual Dirty Dozen checklist of the highest-pesticide typical produce. Swapping simply these gadgets meaningfully reduces your pesticide load with out overhauling your grocery price range.

Scented laundry detergent → fragrance-free Your pores and skin absorbs what your garments are washed in for the whole day. Fragrance in detergent is one other phthalate supply system most individuals by no means take into consideration. The swap prices nothing further and fragrance-free choices exist at each value level.

Retinol → bakuchiol, and every little thing else your pores and skin touches This one shocked folks after I talked about it. Most REs advocate stopping retinol when you begin your stimulation cycle at minimal, and lots of recommend coming off it throughout the full prep window. Vitamin A derivatives carry a identified teratogenic threat profile, and even topical retinol is just not well worth the variable when you’re doing every little thing else proper.

The swap is bakuchiol, a plant-derived ingredient with precise scientific knowledge behind it for cell turnover and collagen help, zero teratogenic concern, and one thing you should use morning and night time with out subject.

For SPF, I switched to Summer Fridays Mineral SPF. Clean, elegant, wears effectively underneath make-up, and no endocrine-disrupting chemical filters.

Body lotion can also be price auditing. Most typical lotions are loaded with perfume. I switched to La Roche Posay fragrance-free.

The intimate hygiene piece no one talks about Conventional soaps and wipes down there are among the worst offenders for perfume and pH disruption and pH disruption is immediately linked to microbiome imbalance, which issues greater than most individuals understand throughout an IVF cycle. Again, I exploit the pH Balanced Cleanser from my very own model.

What Traditional Chinese Medicine Gets Right

Ice baths are having a cultural second however TCM has been saying the alternative for hundreds of years for a motive. In conventional Chinese medication, the uterus is taken into account a “warm palace.” Cold publicity, chilly drinks, and chilly meals are believed to impair blood move to the reproductive organs and disrupt the surroundings eggs develop in. During a fertility prep window particularly, I erred on the aspect of heat and stopped ice baths.

A number of different TCM ideas I took critically:

Acupuncture, particularly with a TCM fertility specialist This might be probably the most evidence-adjacent TCM follow for IVF. The analysis is combined however directionally optimistic for enhancing blood move to the ovaries and uterus. Worth discovering somebody who works particularly with fertility sufferers and understands your clinic’s timeline.

Eat cooked over uncooked, particularly within the second half of your cycle Raw salads and chilly smoothies are thought of dampening and arduous to digest in TCM. Cooked, heat meals like soups, stews, and roasted greens are simpler on the digestive system and help what TCM calls kidney vitality, which maps roughly onto reproductive vitality.

Bone broth and warming meals Jing, the TCM idea closest to reproductive reserve, is supported by deeply nourishing meals. Bone broth, black beans, walnuts, sesame seeds, and lamb are all basic kidney-tonifying meals on this framework.

Keep your toes heat Sounds minor. The kidney meridian in TCM runs by the only of the foot. Cold toes are thought of a pathway for chilly to enter the physique. Warm socks, slippers inside, no naked toes on chilly flooring. Easy swap.

Be in mattress by 11pm TCM’s physique clock has the liver doing its foremost restoration work between 11pm and 3am. The liver governs blood and hormones. Staying up previous midnight recurrently is taken into account a drain on liver and kidney vitality. This one is annoying to listen to and likewise in all probability true.

The Lifestyle Side

Sleep, stress, alcohol, further endocrine disruptors, blood sugar regulation: all of it’s within the sheet with sourcing. Some of it I used to be already doing due to Love Wellness. Some of it genuinely shocked me after I seemed on the analysis.

The most underrated one? Sleep. Not in a imprecise “get enough rest” manner. Specific, mechanistic the explanation why sleep high quality within the months earlier than retrieval is a variable that most individuals usually are not taking note of.

The Thing Nobody Says Out Loud

Egg freezing after which IVF is marketed as empowering, which it’s, however it’s also costly, bodily demanding, and emotionally extra sophisticated than anybody ready me for. The prep work gave me one thing to deal with that was really inside my management throughout a course of that always doesn’t really feel that manner.

If you might be in the midst of this, or occupied with it, or simply need to perceive your personal biology higher, I hope that is helpful.

Link to the full supplement stack and protocol

Be effectively,

LBN

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