It Starts with the Egg - hogwash!

[Anonymous]

Instagram account Babiesafter35 just did a story on this book and the unproven DHEA supplements peddled by one of their investors. Ridiculous! I see this book recommended all the time on fertility board and groups.

More info: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/fertility-supplement-dhea-gleicher/

[Anonymous]

So many women treat that like a holy book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instagram account Babiesafter35 just did a story on this book and the unproven DHEA supplements peddled by one of their investors. Ridiculous! I see this book recommended all the time on fertility board and groups.

More info: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/30/fertility-supplement-dhea-gleicher/

I have diminished ovarian reserve and saw no difference when I used DHEA.

Also, what annoys me about the author is that she claims she got these amazing results because of all the things she did. But she wasn't even 30 and didn't have a first cycle without all of that to compare against. It's not like she got horrible results, did all these research and did all these things, and bam - amazing success with the same protocol. It all easily could have just been explained by genetics, age, and protocol and even luck.

Regardless, I still took the supplements and did some of the things (like more natural skin care and make-up) that wouldn't cause harm because it couldn't hurt and they were good for me anyway.

[Anonymous]

I think co q10 is legit.my shady grove RE recommended it and I got some euploid embryos after taking it for a few months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think co q10 is legit.my shady grove RE recommended it and I got some euploid embryos after taking it for a few months.

anecdote doesn't equal data- very may well have euplod embryos without it too.

my RE at CFA didn't recommend any supplements/said there wasn't strong data

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think co q10 is legit.my shady grove RE recommended it and I got some euploid embryos after taking it for a few months.

anecdote doesn't equal data- very may well have euplod embryos without it too.

my RE at CFA didn't recommend any supplements/said there wasn't strong data

This is always the funniest (dumbest) argument to me. It’s very well known that women-only issues are very underfunded from a research standpoint. I doubt your RE recommended against the Covid vaccine despite a lack of data.

[Anonymous]

Well anecdotally, it took me 2 yrs to get pregnant with my first. My RE recommended donor eggs after two cycles produced no blasts. I was 30. Glad I didn't immediately jump into that. Instead, I added high strength coq10 a few months prior to the conception (I don't recall exactly bc it was a while ago but I think 3 pills of 200mg). My second only took 3 months, I started the coq10 as soon as we started trying.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think co q10 is legit.my shady grove RE recommended it and I got some euploid embryos after taking it for a few months.

anecdote doesn't equal data- very may well have euplod embryos without it too.

my RE at CFA didn't recommend any supplements/said there wasn't strong data

Right— to clarify, my RE at shady grove said it couldn’t hurt, might help so to go ahead and take it. I hadn’t heard of it before he brought it up. So I would say he acknowledged the lack of strong data but still recommended it as there appeared to be no downside. I also changed my diet and tried to make sure I was getting plenty of healthy fat (avocado) and protein every day. Maybe it helped, maybe it didn’t - but I felt better throwing everything I could at the effort to get euploids.