Deciding whether to take supplements

[Anonymous]

I just finished It Starts with the Egg. The author recommends taking supplements before the cycle, however, my doctor told me a prenatal is just fine. Has anyone not tried vitamins and had a successful cycle? Has anyone taken them and felt that they made a difference? I am open to buying the vitamins, but I am worried that any additional supplements would impact my hormones. I recently added coq10 ubiquinol. Is that ok? Is Vitamin D ok as well?

[Anonymous]

I’ve been supplementing with Vitamin D for a while because my levels were low. I started CoQ10 3 months ago and have my first IUI tomorrow after about 8 months of trying on our own. Will report back!

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks so much. Which brand are you using?

[Anonymous]

I was told to supplement vitamin D because my levels were low. My doctor said to make sure to take D3, not D2. She also had me start on ubiquonol, in addition to the prenatals.

[Anonymous]

I use Kaneka CoC10 that I get at Whole Foods. It is branded by Whole Foods. I take 600.

[Anonymous]

I took ALL the supplements in that book in 2016 starting about 6 months before retrieval. I can't say that was the reason for my success, but my doctor was very pleasantly surprised by my egg numbers and quality as compared to my initial consult stats. I was 35, got 16 eggs, and ended up with 6 viable embryos, 1 is 3 and 1/2 year old DD, and 2nd is 1 year old DS.

[Anonymous]

I used coq10 for three months including retrieval and had success. Not sure if it helped (endometriosis and male factor) but it didn’t hurt.

[Anonymous]

I took coq10, vitamin D, calcium, and baby aspirin in addition to a prenatal with methyl folate. I got pregnant the month I started the baby aspirin and prenatal with methyl folate (previously took one without, discovered I have double MTHFR variant). I had been trying 9-10 months with one early loss.

These are the vitamins that I deemed fairly safe and uncontroversial. A lot of OBs don’t recommend anything because they aren’t experts in this area. If you aren’t pregnant in a year, they just move you on to the fertility docs.

[Anonymous]

I've been taking supplements since last summer (kept on having to push the procedure for various reasons), but I haven't noticed any negative side effects and hopefully it helps! I've been taking a prenatal, ubiquinol, and vitamin D.

I found It Starts with the Egg very helpful for just lifestyle matters as well such as avoiding plastic and incorporating a greater diversity of healthy foods into my diet. I was reusing old takeout containers for years, and it was so easy to just convert to glass and add in a greater range of vegetables to meals. Great book and good luck!