Dr. Ali Ainsworth: The one that comes to mind is actually after embryo transfer, which is pretty far down the path of infertility, but there is, I haven’t seen a study on it. But there’s a myth, at least, that eating McDonald’s french fries improves the embryo transfer outcome. I laugh with my patients that that was a good marketing campaign.
It’s not any french fry, but McDonald’s. Does it hurt? No but I, I don’t think there’s a difference in our embryo transfer outcome from that.
Tara Schmidt: Yeah, maybe I was gonna say we should do a study.
Dr. Ali Ainsworth: Lots of patients do this.
Tara Schmidt: I have a feeling that they have enough money to sponsor it over there at Mickey D’s.
Dr. Ali Ainsworth: Yeah.
Tara Schmidt: Okay. There’s no magical food that will help you get pregnant, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a ton of other factors that can complicate conception. First, let’s stick into the scientific definition of infertility. Is there a difference between infertility and just having trouble or struggling to conceive?
Dr. Ali Ainsworth: Infertility is really common. The World Health Organization came up with an update, I think it was last year, that one in six people trying for pregnancy will struggle to conceive. Really common, but not that often talked about. The infertility differs depending on age, female age, and to acknowledge that we often talk about male and female, which is somewhat binary.
For people with ovaries, age under 35, if they have been trying for over a year, and in that time, have regular cycles, no risk factors for blocked fallopian tubes—to have a partner with sperm, a year without pregnancy, under age 35, is infertility, over age 35, six months, it’s a shorter window because as we age, the likelihood of conception decreases, and over age 40.
Recommendations are at least to be seen for a fertility evaluation, because that reproductive window really is much shorter than in our younger years,
Tara Schmidt: You want to get seen sooner if you are less likely to be able to conceive because of your age being a risk factor.
Dr. Ali Ainsworth: There are other risk factors. I mentioned a year of regular menstrual cycles, meaning regular ovulatory events. But if you don’t have that, if you have polycystic ovary syndrome and you have two periods a year, it’s going to be really hard to get pregnant. You don’t need to wait a year, you could be seen sooner.
Tara Schmidt: Is there any counseling that you give on what to eat and kind of the connection between what we eat and fertility?
Dr. Ali Ainsworth: The way that I generally frame it to patients is, first of all, diet is hard to study. There’s a lot of different diets marketed to all of us and different diets marketed to people trying for pregnancy. There is no specific fertility diet. In general, the studies land on the Mediterranean diet, fresh foods, fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, avoiding processed foods. But it’s not different, than overall health and many other conditions that come to the same conclusions.
Tara Schmidt: Yeah, and we talk about this when we talk about nutrition and pregnancy because a lot of people won’t necessarily know when they are becoming pregnant per se. We can set you up the best we can for when you do become pregnant. Let’s get all of the macro and micronutrients in you. Let’s start taking a prenatal just in case, to cover those bases. It’s not a direct link but it’s certainly going to set you up to be a healthy pregnant person and healthy baby.
Dr. Ali Ainsworth: As it ties into weight, especially, PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) is common. For people who have irregular cycles and are overweight, losing even 10 percent of their body weight can bring regular cycles back, which makes trying for pregnancy easier and makes pregnancy safer .There’s a link in that way, but not so specific to exact diets or prescriptive diets, if you will.
Tara Schmidt: Yeah, exactly. We hear a little bit about people wanting to detox. And I say that with that voice because I hear it more often than I would like to. I believe that your kidneys and your liver do a great job of detoxing by themselves. If people want to improve their organ functioning, with better eating patterns and a plant based diet, I’m all for that. Is there any link to doing that and an impact on fertility?
Dr. Ali Ainsworth: It depends on how that plant based diet is done. If we are maintaining adequate caloric intake, if there is protein, and as you said, all of the components of the diet are there, I don’t have a problem with it. I, again, don’t think it’s a magic fix to any of this.
Tara Schmidt: I agree. There’s not really a difference between what you should be doing if you’re trying to conceive and everyone else in the world. But you might be more motivated, which works for me.
Dr. Ali Ainsworth: Sometimes I feel like my job on that first visit in my area of infertility is to release people from the restrictions that they have put on themselves. It is clearly not a complete avoidance of chocolate cake that’s going to fix this. I often tell my patients—within reason, take the permission to live your life a little bit. If that extra cup of coffee makes you happy, especially if it’s before ovulation, you can do that and life will go on and the outcome will probably not be different,