I've taken so many supplements over the last several years. Amazon boxes appear in droves,
allowing my neighbors to question if I they should be suspicious of me. "Is she building a rocket-ship in there?" Nope, it's just supplements! I am sure that I'm funding someone's retirement with all of my purchases on smile.amazon.com. I am often embarassed to go out to dinner, dreading the moment I take my supplement container out of my purse and proceed to down multiple pills with tap water.
What supplements truly will help fertility?
- First off, I highly recommend seeing a naturopath or functional medicine doctor to assist in your supplemental pursuits. It's very helpful to narrow down exactly what you should be taking and why. Supplements, over time, cost a lot. You want to make sure that you are not wasting money, especially if you are saving up for the high cost of IVF or other fertility treatments. I recently re-learned this myself, after visiting my naturopath doctor. Two bottles of supplements that I had recently purchased are now destined for the landfill.
- It's so important to make sure your digestion is in order. I am still questioning my own ability to properly digest food and am wondering about my body's ability to also digest all of my supplements. Working with a naturopath doctor or nutritionist to ensure your gut is on it's way to healing, is extremely important.
- After seeing my naturopath doctor, and explaining my fertility journey thus far, she suggested that I supplement with Ubiquinol, which is a form of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to support egg quality. Ubiquinol is an antioxidant, which helps at the cellular level, specifically assisting the mitochondria. Mitochondria are truly your cells powerhouse, providing the energy required to function. Stress, inflammation, toxins, and autoimmunity are all factors that affect your mitochondria.
- There has been some interesting research recently about the use of Ubiquinol and fertility. Natural-fertility-info.com is an informative site that discusses fertility and has a blurb about it. Or check out this article.
- When supplementing with Ubiquinol, you generally want to start with a higher dose and then, after two weeks to a month, lower it. My naturopath doctor recommended starting at 400 mg/day, then going down to 200 mg as a maintenance dose (other sources say 100mg/day is a good maintenance dose).
- Quality is also very important and this brand from designs for health was recommended to me. This stuff is not cheap, so be ready to get a second job to support this habit!
- If you're into podcasts this episode from the Phoenix Helix discusses Ubiquinol and egg quality.
- You can aim to get Ubiquinol from your food, but you'd have to consume an extreme amount of food to achieve the amount of what is contained in supplements. That said, organ meats, greens, seafood, and meats are good sources of Ubiquinol.
- Another supplement which appears to be quite researched is DHEA which stands for dehydroepiandrosterone and is produced by your kidneys. This hormone helps your body to produce sex hormones, such as estrogen. Check out the podcast mentioned above to learn more about DHEA and it's connection to your adrenals and thus your fertility. The Metagenics brand was recommended to me and I take 1 pump per day. I had been taking it for sometime, but then got "supplement burn-out" and gave up. After reading more about DHEA, I decided it's worth another go around. In your body, DHEA is produced from cholesterol and eating a range of healthy fats will also support your natural production of DHEA.
- And of course, do not forget the importance of a healthy diet, that's right for your body. Check out my prior article on Real Food Diets.
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