Your lifestyle, IVF diet, stress levels, physical activity, and exposure to factors that may damage eggs or sperm all play a decisive role in your probability of success, particularly as you advance in age (35 and older).
Reproductive treatments require active participation from both partners in the process, starting as early as possible before the beginning of your treatment.
Fertility treatment cannot improve the quality of eggs and sperm, but closely adhering to the following reproductive health recommendations can enhance the capacity of your eggs and sperm to result in a healthy baby.
Diet and Reproductive Health
- Optimize Your Body’s Acid-Alkaline Balance: Maintaining a proper blood pH balance is essential for fertility. Minimize the consumption of acidic foods, especially foods made from grains (flour), corn products, most dairy, and processed meat. Increase the intake of alkaline foods such as apples, carrots, grapes, and leafy vegetables.
- Avoiding Pesticides: Choose organic produce whenever possible to reduce pesticide exposure. If organic options are unavailable, still include fruits and vegetables to promote reproductive health.
- Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio: Decrease the consumption of omega-6 fatty acids found in corn, grains, and vegetable oils, and minimize trans fats. Instead, increase your intake of omega-3-rich foods such as deep-sea fish, seaweed, flaxseed oil, seeds, and certain vegetables. Consider taking high-quality omega-3 supplements.
- Reduce Your Dietary Glycemic Load: Limit the consumption of high-glycemic foods like sugar, potatoes, and foods made from flour, such as bread, pasta, pastries, cereal, and more. Instead, focus on low-glycemic options such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts, and seafood.
- Address Reproductive Hormone Imbalance: Avoid or minimize the consumption of foods high in sugar, flour, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and processed foods. Limit the intake of unfermented soy products and be mindful of toxic plastic additives (phthalates) in certain plastics and canned foods.
- Prevent Nutritional Deficiencies: Consistently take high-potency multivitamins to improve reproductive health and reduce the risk of birth defects.
Lifestyle and Reproductive Health
- Exercise has a significant impact on improving insulin sensitivity and decreasing insulin resistance. Frequent and consistent exercise by both partners, if applicable, is critical for good reproductive health.
- Stress: Managing stress is essential for reproductive health. Engage in relaxation techniques, meditation, or counseling to reduce stress levels.
- Sperm Oxidative Stress: Minimize exposure to environmental factors that may cause sperm oxidative stress, such as smoking, toxins, and unhealthy lifestyle choices.
- Volatile Organic Compounds: Avoid exposure to harmful chemicals found in everyday products such as cosmetics, mothballs, and fire retardants.
- Dental Hygiene: Maintain good oral hygiene and avoid dental infections, which may impact reproductive health.
- Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine: Consider complementary therapies like acupuncture and Chinese medicine to support reproductive health.
In Conclusion:
Before starting IVF treatment, optimizing your diet and lifestyle is essential. Implementing a health-promoting IVF diet and making lifestyle changes can significantly improve the quality of your eggs and sperm, thereby increasing the chances of a successful pregnancy.
Keep in mind that these changes may take several weeks to show results, so it’s best to start as early as possible. By actively participating in the process, both partners can work together towards a successful outcome.
For more comprehensive information, please refer to the Reproductive Diet and Lifestyle (PDF) and Pesticide Residue (PDF) documents.
