6 EFFECTIVE WAYS TO PREPARE YOUR BODY FOR IVF

When preparing your body for IVF, it’s essential to give yourself the best possible chance for a positive outcome. This can be done by nourishing and caring for your body.

This article will discuss what you have to do to increase your chances of falling pregnant.

Preparing For IVF 3-6+ Months

Taking three to six months to prepare your body for IVF is ideal. That is because it takes three months or more for a follicle to mature. The quality of your egg is, therefore a direct representation of the fertile environment in your body during the previous few months.

In the same way, the soil of a garden needs to be fertilized and prepared to grow better quality plants, so does your body in order to grow and birth a healthy baby. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” At the end of your fertility journey, when you hold your beautiful, healthy baby in your arms, you will be glad you took the time to create a more fertile environment in your body and the best quality egg.

If you have three to six months or more to prepare for IVF, seek out an acupuncturist specializing in women’s fertility and who is board certified to prescribe Chinese herbal formulas. For more information, see our article on using Chinese medicine for fertility. In addition, it’s helpful to follow all of the tips described below.

Preparing For IVF 1-2 MONTHS

For many couples, IVF is the best chance of conceiving. If you're considering this treatment option, it's essential to start mentally and physically preparing several months in advance. Here are a few things you can do to get ready for IVF: 

Quit Smoking And Drinking

The American Journal of Epidemiology reports nicotine is ten times more concentrated in the uterine fluid than in the rest of your body. Nicotine also ages the ovaries and makes eggs resistant to fertilization. In addition, studies have shown correlations between alcohol consumption and a decreased likelihood of both IVF success and live birth following IVF treatment.

Take Your Supplements

Fertility-enhancing vitamins are lacking in the usual Western diet. Our cells are made up of what nutrients are (or aren’t) available. The largest cells in a woman’s body are her eggs. By taking a high-quality prenatal supplement, you are directly affecting the quality of your eggs and improving the fertile environment of your body. Since we know it takes three to six months for a follicle to mature, ideally, you want to start supplementing three to six months before you try to conceive, but one to two months before is still beneficial.

Eat Fertility Enhancing Foods

Foods that are themselves gametes or which nourish gametes or offspring in nature are considered to contain reproductive essence or “Jing,”  according to Chinese medicine, and are believed to enhance fertility.

You’ll want to incorporate these foods into your IVF diet:

• Royal Jelly
• Eggs
• Fish Roe
• Caviar
• Seeds
• Nuts
• Pollen

Other fertility-boosting foods include:

• Seaweed
• Algae
• Bone Marrow
• Oysters
• Artichokes
• Raw Milk
• Nettles
• Oats
• Flax Seeds
• Goji Berries
• Sprouts

Whole grains contain fertilized germ cells and nutrition to sustain a new plant; therefore always eat whole grains. When in doubt, eat fresh, seasonal, hormone-free, organic whole foods.

2 Weeks To Prepare For IVF

It's important to do everything you can to increase your chances of success with IVF even if you only have a few short weeks to do it, it is never too late.  

Improve Sleep

The quality and quantity of sleep influence sex hormones, sperm production, and ovulation. It is, therefore, crucial to making sure you and your partner are getting enough good quality sleep, especially leading up to an IVF cycle.

Try these tips to improve your sleep:

• Stick to a routine and try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
• Don’t use your bedroom as a work environment, and keep entertainment electronics out of the room such as TV, phone, or tablet.
• Eliminate alcohol and caffeine, both of which can interfere with healthy sleep cycles.
• Exercising outdoors helps align the body and brain with natural biorhythms.
• Wind down before bed by stretching, having tea, or journaling.

Reduce Stress

The process of IVF can be stressful to say the least. Research indicates that lower levels of measurable physiological stress indicate higher IVF success. Additionally, standard psychometric tests show that feeling relaxed favors conception.

Try these tips to reduce stress: Slow down your lifestyle pace. Time yourself to see how long it takes to complete everyday tasks and then see if your expectations of what you plan to achieve in a day, or in a week, match up with how long it actually takes you to do things. This will mean removing items from your schedule and to-do list most of the time. And don’t forget your belly breathing (below)!

1 Day To Prepare For IVF

If you only have one day to prepare for in vitro fertilization (IVF), don't despair. It is possible to get everything done in time. Here's a quick checklist of what you need to do!

Breathing Exercises

Breathing deep into your belly instantly eliminates stress hormones from your body faster than any drug, and you can do it anytime, anywhere. For example, during a doctor visit, ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval or embryo transfer.

Here’s how it works: You have two branches of your nervous system, voluntary and involuntary. The involuntary nervous system controls involuntary things, such as digestion, wound healing, hair growth, etc., and is further divided into parasympathetic (rest and relaxation) and sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous systems.

While we may think we have no control over our body’s involuntary actions, and consequently our fight or flight or stress response, there’s a loophole—our breathing! Our breathing happens involuntarily, and we can control it.

Breathing deep into your belly instantly flips the switch from your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) to your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and relax). Now your body knows it’s safe to conceive!

Take Control Of Your Fertility And Pregnancy Journey

For those embarking on a fertility journey, it’s essential to know the vast array of fertility options available. See a guide by The Tot Fertility treatments 101 that covers how each method works as well as success rates, risks, and costs.

Key Takeaways 

Here are our six essential tips to prepare for IVF:

• Quit smoking and drinking!
• Take your vitamins
• Eat fertility-enhancing foods
• Improve sleep
• Reduce stress
• Use breathing exercises

How you go about preparing for IVF depends on your timeline. Below, we’ve prioritized our IVF tips based on preparation time.

This post has been altered to fit the branding of Save IVF; click here for source.