How To Boost Infertility Treatment Through Diet Changes
Can Your Diet Impact the Success of Infertility Treatments?
If you are undergoing a fertility treatment, your physician may recommend diet changes to enhance your chances of conceiving. For example, unhealthy carbohydrates found in white bread and bakery items are digested quickly by your body and turned into blood glucose. This forces your pancreas to release excessive amounts of insulin into your bloodstream. Studies show that too much insulin may interfere with normal ovulation. Certain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants contribute to sperm and egg health, helps your body stabilize hormones by providing fats essential for hormone function and production and may reduce the risk of miscarriages caused by free radical damage and insulin resistance. In addition, an iron-rich diet (spinach, whole grains, eggs, beans and fortified cereals) enhances iron absorption and may lower the risk of abnormal ovulation.
Diet Changes That Boost Infertility Treatments
Whether you choose donor egg IVF, traditional IVF or another fertility treatment, making specific dietary changes not only supports the efficacy of your treatment but also improves your overall health and the health of your baby. In 2009, Harvard University researchers published the Fertility Diet,a study-based book describing how diet changes helped women reduce their risk of infertility. Fundamental aspects of this fertility diet include:
- Eating more vegetable protein/cutting back on animal protein
- Eating foods with monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocados/eliminating trans fats
- Making sure meals contain high-fiber, low-glycemic foods such as whole grains, fruits, and fresh vegetables
- Relying on vegetables rather than meats to get plenty of iron
- Choosing higher-fat dairy foods over low-fat dairy foods
- Taking a multivitamin every day
Folic acid another nutrient contributing to reproductive health. If you are undergoing a fertility treatment, the recommended amount of folic acid you should receive daily is 400 micrograms. You can also eat more fortified grains and dark green, leafy vegetables to obtain folic acid. In addition to significantly lowering the risk of neural tube defects in infants, folic acid also supports cell reproduction, improves anemia and may prevent DNA changes known to cause cancer.
If you are having trouble conceiving and would like to learn about a certain fertility treatment, please call our Vermont office today at 802-655-8888 to schedule a consultation appointment with our fertility doctor.
