I’ve done a bit of pseudo research about which vitamins and supplements both of us should be taking to help with fertility. All of this was done with a few google searches and some notes I took from the book “It Starts With The Egg”. Please note that this is what my husband and I are taking and obviously is not law and probably shouldn’t be taken without talking to your doctor first. Also, if you think of anything you feel I should be adding or removing please let me know. Most of these were bought on Amazon.
Ubiquinol
I did a post previously about which brand of ubiquinol is the best. I ended up going with the Life Extension brand even though it’s very expensive (about $65 for a month’s supply for both of us). We’re both taking 200mg a day. Ubiquinol seems to be the infertility must-have. It’s an antioxidant that improves egg and sperm quality. I went to this site to decide which was the best one to go for. When looking at the ingredient labels it should say ubiquinol and not CoQ10 or ubiquinone. Most articles say that ubiquinol is superior but I did find one article that said it doesn’t matter which because your body will use both forms correctly. I’m sticking with ubiquinol though.
Fish Oil
I’m taking 2,400mg (2 pills) a day. This is good if you’re doing IVF treatments as it’s supposed to help with embryo quality. They say not to take Flax Seed (has phytoestrogens that may cause miscarriage) or Cod Liver oil (may put you over your vitamin A limit that should be in your prenatal already).
Vitamin B12
We each take one of these chewable tablets a day. They say a deficiency in B12 could interfere with ovulation and normal cell division and we can’t have any of that.
Vitamin E
Another antioxidant that helps with infertility. There is vitamin E in my prenatal but not not enough so I’m adding 1 of these a day.
Vitamin D
We all know how important vitamin D is for fertility and life in general but if not this article says it perfectly. I’m taking 2,000iu a day.
Vitamin C
Another antioxidant. It’s said to help prevent luteal phase defects. Also it helps with ovulation when taken alongside clomid.
Folate
Another must-have. If not the biggest must-have for women before pregnancy to help prevent neural tube defects. Folic acid can be found in your prenatal but I read that folate is better than folic acid so I’m taking 400mcg of folate a day.
Prenatal Multivitamin
Now, I’m taking this out of habit because you’re supposed to take a prenatal before pregnancy. But right now I’m taking it mostly for the zinc and iron. Zinc is important for everything from keeping hormone levels stable to help eggs mature for fertilization. Iron helps with ovulation.
And that’s it for me. Tomorrow I’ll tell you what hubby is taking. If you have any other fertility supplement information please let me know. I’m not taking Vitex or Maca. Even though I’ve heard good things about them I’m not sure they’re good to take in combination with IVF hormone treatment. Do you have any input on these herbal supplements?
You can check out these sites to see where I got my information from:
http://www.thebump.com/a/vitamins-you-need-to-conceive
http://www.marilynglenville.com/womens-health-issues/fertility/
http://wellnessmama.com/1326/get-pregnant-naturally/
http://natural-fertility-info.com/vitamins-good-for-fertility
Tales of a 30 Year Old Nothing 
So informative! Thank u!
You’re very welcome!
Those are all in the rebecca fett book, I believe. I took most of those too, for 3 months before my 3rd & successful ivf cycle. Good luck!!
thank you! that makes me feel better. I’m hoping these will give me better eggs next time.
What a great post!
Why thank you!
I did the ubiquinol, omega 3 fish oil, and vitamin D the most recent IVF#2 that we did. While I have very little evidence to make this comparison, I think that it might have helped in allowing us to have just as many good blastocysts this year as last year, despite me being a year older.
This is so helpful- thank you!
You are most welcome!
Agree with all of those. I was told to take those by two FS and whilst my #2 did not eventuate there is a lot of evidence to suggest it should help in most cases. The other one I was also prescribed was melotonin. This however is a compound drug so it will need to be presecribed by your specialist.
Oh yeah! I remember reading about melatonin. I was going to do that when I start treatments again. Thanks for the tips!!
Love this post…I wish I had seen it when I started my fertility journey. I’m a huge fan of Life Extensions. If you do a recurrent order the shipping is free and you get their lowest price (they have a lot of sales). I get my Ubiquinol through them as well as their “optimized” folate. I also spring for the Mitochondrial Optimizer. (Yes, I’m a total LE convert)
Good stuff you got there!
Thanks. I’m really happy with LE too. Maybe I should try their folate because I went with what was cheaper on that one.
This gives me confirmation on the supplements I’ve decided to take. Ubiquinol, for sure! I’ve read that is you’re over 35 or so you can more easily convert ubiquinol, as opposed to ubiquinone/coq10. Also, I’m big on vitamin D. As a point of reference, I’ve been taking about 10,000iu of D3 for a year or so and I asked my nurse what my levels were after my last draw on 7/21 and she said 72ng/ml! She said this was the highest she’s ever seen. I think they recommend levels anywhere over 30ng/ml. Since vitamin d is water soluble there’s no harm in overdosing so I’m sticking to the plan, especially since they say women who sunbathed (natural vit d) a month before ivf had good quality eggs at retrieval. Good luck to you! Keep up the good work!
Oh maybe I should up my vitamin D. I was worried about overdosing. Well done on those awesome levels and thanks for the information :).