Pregnancy Health: On Supporting Fertility
Part 4 in an ongoing series on pregnancy health
My Experience
For years after my husband and I got married (ten years ago!), we struggled with infertility and miscarriages.
On Mother’s Day 2017, I woke up bleeding. I was 6 weeks pregnant. I will never forget sitting in the bathroom with my husband at my feet, losing our first child. It was devastating.
We were fortunate to eventually get and stay pregnant without any medical intervention, and we had our first child a year later. The pregnancy was difficult as I struggled with a number of undiagnosed chronic and genetic conditions. I discussed this at length in my first post on pregnancy health. This was before I had any knowledge of biochemistry and holistic health.
About a year and a half after we had our daughter, we began trying to have another child. In February 2020 — right before the pandemic began, and just weeks before our whole family got Covid at the outset of the pandemic — we had yet another miscarriage.
I finally got a referral to a fertility specialist — and then the world shut down.
Fortunately, this fork in the road was a double edged sword that led me to figuring out a tremendous amount about my health, and I have since had two more children with increasingly healthy pregnancies and no issues at all getting and staying pregnant.
This article contains everything I wish I knew about fertility health ten years ago, when we first started trying to have kids.
In case you missed it, I have written three previous articles on pregnancy health:
Are you Infertile, or Subfertile?
The technical definition of infertility is an inability to get pregnant naturally after a year of trying. While I personally experienced this, I actually was not infertile, I was subfertile. And I believe subfertility is what is ailing most people dealing with this issue.
Subfertility results in not optimal fertility due to a wide variety of issues that affect fertility. Not optimal fertility could be characterized as anything from delayed conception to recurrent miscarriages — struggles with getting and/or staying pregnant, with or without a clear cause.
Most of the information in this article applies to subfertility, which rapidly risen in modern times. From decreased birthrates to plummeting sperm counts to anti-family societal shifts, there is a clear reduction in population that is impacting couples and families on a very individual and heartbreaking level.
Optimizing Fertility
First, if you’re trying to conceive, there are some basic things you can do to optimize your fertility and significantly increase your chances of getting pregnant.
Identifying your fertile window — You are most likely to conceive in the days leading up to and 24 hours after ovulation. Sperm typically live about 3-5 days in the vaginal tract. Having sex every one to two days during your ovulation window ensures that sperm are available when the egg is released, maximizing your odds of fertilization. You can learn to track your ovulation using these methods:
Basal body temperature charting — easy if you have an Oura ring or other similar device
Monitoring cervical mucus changes — also pretty easy once you get the hang of it (and free)
Using ovulation predictor kits — can be one of the most accurate if you aren’t as well versed in the above options
Lifestyle also plays a crucial role in fertility for both partners — Managing stress, exercising, good sleep hygiene, and optimizing circadian rhythm are critical to supporting hormonal balance.
Nutrition — maintaining a healthy weight (including not under-eating), eating a balanced diet rich in whole foods, and taking prenatal supplements with folate (not folic acid) can all support reproductive health
Avoiding chemicals and stimulants that inhibit reproduction including ceasing smoking, alcohol and other substances, and sticking to a moderate caffeine intake (less than 200 mg per day is typically recommended).
Don’t forget about male fertility — encourage your partner to adopt healthy habits, avoiding drugs, alcohol, and excessive heat exposure, all of which can affect sperm quality.
If you've already been doing all of this, keep reading for more detailed information on the most important factor for supporting fertility — nutrition.
Main Causes of Subfertility
If you’re looking for a quick and easy answer — basically everything I have written about with regards to pregnancy health comes down to nutrition.
The main causes of infertility are:
Nutrient deficiencies
Oxidative stress and poor mitochondrial function
Gut dysbiosis or chronic inflammation
Blood sugar dysregulation (especially in PCOS or insulin resistance)
Toxin exposure (plastics, pesticides, heavy metals)
Chronic stress and cortisol imbalance
The issues on this list can lead to ovulatory disorders, thyroid disorders, inflammatory disorders, sperm abnormalities, and more.
And while there are a host of different issues that can affect a couple’s ability to get pregnant, in my opinion the real root cause for the majority of people struggling with infertility predominantly comes down to item #1 — nutrient deficiencies. This whole list is all caused or worsened by nutrient deficiencies.
Struggling to get pregnant? You likely have nutrient deficiencies.
Severe morning sickness? Nutrient deficiencies.
What’s the best prenatal? Actual food.
And this tends to hold true even when you have identified a more specific health issue that can be impacting fertility —
Have a chronic illness? The symptoms are exacerbated by specific nutrient deficiencies.
Have an issue with heavy metals? They’re displacing nutrients, because metals and minerals compete for the same biochemical pathways — and if you were replete in those nutrients metals would be far less likely to build up. (For example, low calcium leads to more lead uptake, low selenium can cause increased arsenic toxicity, and magnesium is critical to support detox pathways.)
Have an issue with parasites? Once again they have proliferated due to nutrient deficiencies and your immune system’s inability to fire on all cylinders and keep those opportunistic pathogens in check.
Have PCOS? Endometriosis? Experiencing recurrent miscarriages due to low progesterone? Minerals are upstream of hormones in terms of production and balance, and are required to produce enough of the right hormones to get and stay pregnant.
Have MTHFR and/or RCCX genes? Well, all that really means is that you need certain forms of nutrients, and run through vitamins and minerals much faster than the average population and you need a lot more of them — and yes, you also need to work on your stress response.
Now, this doesn’t mean you can fix everything with nutrition alone.
Sometimes we have been deficient for so long, even intergenerationally, and have been exposed to so many detrimental environmental factors that it has altered our gene and hormonal expression, and it may have caused permanent damage, and there may be other interventions required to resolve.
Looking at the issue of fertility with a focus on nutrition and hormones, it could be estimated that 50-75% of those experiencing infertility are actually experiencing subfertility, and by making just a few changes (primarily, eating more nutrient dense food) could see their fertility improve within a few months.
Nutrition & Hormones
Some of the most interesting and helpful research on nutrition, hormones, and fertility has been presented by Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist who studied the successful health practices of indigenous people, and Ray Peat, who focused his research and work on hormonal balance, metabolism, and environmental stressors.
Dr. Weston A. Price Perspective
For those unfamiliar, Weston A. Price was a pioneering dentist and researcher whose work in the early 20th century showed that traditional diets high in nutrient-dense, whole foods supported strong fertility and healthy reproduction, alongside optimal physical and dental health, while modern processed diets led to declining fertility and physical degeneration across generations.
Specifically, Dr. Weston A. Price found:
Traditional societies consuming unrefined, whole foods had high fertility rates, easy childbirth, and healthy children with well-formed facial structures and strong immunity.
Preconception nutrition was emphasized—many cultures had special fertility diets rich in fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K2), minerals, and animal foods like liver, fish eggs, and raw dairy.
When populations shifted to modern diets (white flour, sugar, canned foods), Price observed a rise in infertility, birth defects, dental issues, and narrowed facial structures.
He concluded that fertility and reproductive health are directly tied to nutritional status, not genetics or modern medical care.
In short: Proper nutrition before and during pregnancy determines not just the ability to conceive, but the long-term health of future generations.
Weston A. Price’s research laid the foundation for many modern movements in ancestral health, holistic dentistry, and real-food nutrition. His work can be further explored in his seminal book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, and through the continuing work of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Ray Peat Perspective
Ray Peat was a biologist and researcher who spent his career studying nutrition, hormones, and metabolism. He held a PhD in biology with a specialization in endocrine physiology and spent decades exploring the interactions between hormones, diet, and disease with a focus on thyroid function, estrogen and progesterone, and the effect of polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) on human health.
He wrote at length about infertility, particularly from the perspective of hormonal balance, metabolism, nutrition, and environmental stressors, finding:
Thyroid function is central to fertility and overall health — Peat believed many chronic diseases (including infertility) stem from hypothyroidism and poor metabolic function. Low metabolic rate from hypothyroidism disrupts progesterone production, increases cortisol and prolactin (which impair ovulation), and leads to cold extremities, low libido, fatigue, and cycle irregularities. Peat recommended tracking pulse and temperature as markers of thyroid/metabolic health, with low temperatures indicating sub-optimal health and fertility.
Estrogen dominance decreases fertility — Peat argued that estrogen has been wrongly labeled as protective, and excessive estrogen relative to progesterone can interfere with ovulation, implantation, and overall fertility. In women, excess estrogen can lead to irregular cycles, poor endometrial health, PMS and anovulation, and PCOS-like symptoms.
Progesterone increases fertility — supporting implantation, protecting the developing embryo, and countering the harmful effects of estrogen and cortisol. He identified that vitamin E supports progesterone, and recommended bio-identical progesterone in cases where supplementation was needed.
Pro-metabolic foods are critical for supporting thyroid and hormonal health — Peat recommended a diet that includes dairy (calcium-rich), fruits (like orange juice for glucose and potassium), shellfish and liver (for copper, zinc, vitamin A), and gelatin (from bone broth or collagen powder). Peat was one of the first to identify that polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) are toxic, warning about the dangers of consuming seed oils (like canola, soybean, and corn oils) because they suppress metabolism and promote inflammation and aging.
Chronic stress increases cortisol and prolactin, which can reduce fertility by suppressing ovulation and depleting progesterone.
Overall, Ray Peat often linked infertility with a stressful metabolic state, driven by poor diet, low thyroid function, and environmental toxins.
Fertility Supportive Diet
Focusing on a nutrient dense diet — and ensuring you aren’t underrating, especially protein — is the number one most important factor for conception. Nutrients that are important for supporting fertility include folate, zinc, iron, selenium, iodine, magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin E, omega-3s, and other antioxidants. Regulating blood sugar through diet is also critical for supporting fertility in both partners (and is especially necessary for those with PCOS).
Foods that should be incorporated to support fertility in both partners include:
Grass-fed beef or chicken liver (for B vitamins, folate, iron, copper, and retinol)
Shellfish like oysters, clams, shrimp (zinc, copper, selenium, iodine and B12)
Red meat like grass fed beef, lamb, bison (for iron, zinc, B vitamins, carnitine)
Grass-fed butter or ghee (vitamins A, D, K2, healthy fats)
Full-fat dairy (for calcium, iodine, and vitamin K2)
Egg yolks (rich in choline, vitamin A, omega-3/DHA)
Bone broth + slow-cooked meats (for glycine and collagen)
Wild caught fish like salmon and sardines (omega-3/DHA, selenium, protein) *avoid high mercury fish
Organic chicken with skin and bones (protein, glycine, collagen) tip: make bone broth with leftover bones
Fresh fruit (rich in vitamin C, potassium, natural sugar)
Root vegetables (easy carbs for energy and blood sugar balance)
Raw carrot salad to support gut health and digestion, fiber, and estrogen detox (shred carrots and prepare with vinegar and olive oil)
Fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut to support gut health with probiotics and and enzymes
Sea salt and other electrolytes as needed to support fluid and mineral balance
Spring and mineral water to support fluid and mineral intake
Supportive Supplements and Medications
Many fertility protocols and programs, like IVF (in-vitro fertilization) recommend supplements and medications for both partners that target egg and sperm quality, hormonal balance, uterine health, and overall nutritional status — all of which can influence the chances of conception and reduce the risk of miscarriage. Funny enough, there is a significant percentage of people who find they can get pregnant on their own once they incorporate some of these supplements and treatments, prior to going through fertility treatments.
Supplements and treatments often recommended to improve fertility outcomes include:
CoQ10 (Coenzyme Q10) — antioxidant, improves egg quality, supports mitochondrial function and may decrease the rate of abnormal chromosomes.
N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) — antioxidant, boosts glutathione levels, improves egg and sperm quality by reducing oxidative stress, balances hormones and insulin sensitivity, and can enhance ovulation and pregnancy rates particularly in conditions like PCOS
Folate — reduces neural tube defects and risk of miscarriage, especially in those with MTHFR gene mutations (NOT folic acid, which can make things worse in those with MTHFR mutations)
Omega-3 Fatty Acids — anti-inflammatory, improves egg quality and embryo implantation
Progesterone — critical for maintaining early pregnancy in the first trimester before placenta takes over hormone production
DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) — hormone precursor, may improve egg quality and quantity for women with diminished ovarian reserve (not recommended for women with normal ovarian reserve or PCOS)
Myo-inositol — supports blood sugar regulation, egg and embryo quality, often recommended for women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
To support sperm health, men are often advised to take supplements such as:
CoQ10
L-Carnitine
Zinc
Selenium
Omega-3 fatty acids
Healing My Subfertility
In early 2022, as I was climbing out of my health crisis, my husband and I were shocked to learn that I was pregnant.
After previously experiencing multiple miscarriages and secondary infertility, we unexpectedly got pregnant after having sex just once during a fertile window. That window fell right in the middle of one of the most stressful periods of our lives - moving across states with a toddler, all in pursuit of a better quality of life and improved health. I was still very sick, and unlike past attempts, I wasn’t tracking ovulation with apps or test sticks. I was wearing an Oura ring and based on my cervical mucus I knew I was in my fertile window, but I truly did not believe conception was in the realm of possibility due to stress. I had always assumed that stress outweighed everything else when it came to fertility. But as it turns out, the simple nutritional changes my husband and I had made mattered much more than I realized. The nutrients were counteracting the fact that I was burning through them faster due to stress.
Nutritional status of both partners is by far the most important factor in fertility and pregnancy health.
I knew my nutritional choices had led to me fixing my fertility without even explicitly focusing on fertility. The specific things I was doing at the time included:
Managing MCAS with quercetin, magnesium, and vitamin C
Viewing the sunrise every morning for circadian rhythm and sleep hygiene support
Taking beef liver (copper, B vitamins/folate, iron support, retinol vitamin A) — resolved my lifelong iron deficient anemia and pernicious anemia (B12 deficiency)
Taking oysters (zinc) and cod liver oil (Omega-3s and retinol vitamin A)
Taking Vitamin E and systemic enzymes for scar tissue (which also supported resolving clotting issues — see next section)
Cut gluten and other inflammatory foods
Eating raw carrot salad daily
Castor oil packs
Red light therapy and sauna
And the things my husband was doing included:
Regularly eating oysters for zinc
Cut gluten and other inflammatory foods
Taking magnesium and quercetin for MCAS
Periodically took berberine for blood sugar support
We were nearly two years into my illness — so severe that I’d been bedridden and told I might never have more children or live a normal life again. After being let down by the medical system, I had finally made enough progress in my recovery to embark on a multi-state road trip. We had explored new places that might better support my healing, and while on this trip I actually made remarkable improvement in my health. For the first time in years, we were able to take full control of our future —choosing to move somewhere that offered a healthier, more hopeful life for our family.
Covid, Clotting, and Placenta Issues
One of the things that has become clear during the Covid era is that Covid causes widespread vascular damage, which is resulting in widespread fertility issues.
Vascular damage is a problem for the placenta — a vascular organ, whose entire job it is to supply nutrients to the baby. Covid has caused fertility damage in myriad ways, from delayed periods and/or excessive bleeding to increased miscarriages, birth defects, and stillbirths.
In 2022, I spoke to a couple of midwives who reported that there had been a massive uptick in damaged placentas due to people either having Covid or the vaccine (or being exposed to others who were recently vaccinated) during or prior to pregnancy.
They reported seeing placentas that are totally calcified, smaller than usual, with very odd vasculature and other deformities. They said their goal in supporting births now includes getting the placenta out as soon as possible, especially in women who had Covid in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters, because they have absolutely no idea what shape the placenta is going to be in. They also reported that this results in smaller babies, more birth defects, and more complications in labor than they’ve ever seen before.
The placenta is a vascular organ, supporting both maternal-placental circulation and placental-fetal circulation. When the placenta is malformed in some way and cannot do its job effectively, it puts more strain on the mother’s heart to push nutrients and blood supply through the placenta to the baby. This can cause clotting disorders (which can result in increased miscarriages), blood pressure issues, higher heart rates, and overall an increased burden on the mother’s body to keep her unborn child alive.
After I had Covid in 2020, my blood was incredibly thick, full of micro-clots, and I had suffered multiple mini strokes and ruptured veins with seemingly no cause (because no one was yet reporting that Covid caused vascular issues). Fortunately, by early 2021, I had learned that systemic enzymes could help with the extensive micro-clotting I was dealing with. I also started taking vitamin E to support the integrity of my small vessels, which had been damaged the most by Covid. Red light therapy was another tool I used to support my veins. I didn’t know it at the time, but all of this supported the development of healthy vasculature of my placenta when I got pregnant in 2022.
By the time I got pregnant again in 2025, even mainstream OBs knew that Covid was causing vascular issues, placental issues, and strokes. When I told my (very mainstream) OB about my health history, she insisted we run a full set of labs to rule out clotting disorders — from d-dimer to a lupus panel to factor V Leiden. Fortunately, I no longer have any clotting issues, and I know what supports to rely on if they show up again (in particular, systemic enzymes including nattokinase and serrapeptase).
Prayer
I would be remiss if I didn’t include a note here that prayer and a relationship with God is a very powerful fertility and overall health support. It is, of course, not a guarantee of our specifically desired results, and we can never know why God does or does not answer particular prayers — but the health benefits of prayer are undeniable. It reduces stress and increases emotional resilience, in turn improving immune function and overall health, all of which directly impact fertility. There are numerous studies on the benefits of prayer on specific health outcomes, from anxiety to cardiovascular function and more.
Believing that there is a higher purpose in the world and an all-powerful God ruling it can truly improve our quality of life, in both measurable and immeasurable ways.
Conclusion
The information presented in this article can help most people — men and women — improve their infertility/subfertility issues. It helped me, after years of difficulty.
However, not everyone struggling with these issues will be able to get and remain pregnant on these best practices alone.
If I had continued struggling with subfertility and recurrent miscarriage, I would have sought out a NaPro fertility specialist to identify and treat the underlying causes of reduced fertility.
The information presented in this article is for discussion only and does not constitute medical advice. Any treatment protocol should be discussed with your healthcare provider prior to implementation.
Explore related articles in our Pregnancy Health series at the links below:
Pregnancy Health: On Nutrition, Prenatals, and Learning Along the Way
Pregnancy Health: On Prenatals
Pregnancy Health: On Morning Sickness and Hyperemesis Gravidarum
Bless you for making this article free! I love your health articles (all of your articles really!) but right now we are (not by choice) a one income household and I can’t afford a lot of “extra” things like Substack subs. And I love that you emphasized prayer. Ultimately, God is sovereign and He knows our hearts.
Thank you for this article and the whole series!
What do you think about prenatal screening/testing/ultrasounds?
Would you decline any ultrasounds? I am getting pushed to do the dating one, I don't know why they can't just use my period.
Were you subjected to a whole array of other recommendations being over 40? Suddenly the induction recommendation is at 39 weeks instead of 42.... And they want you to take aspirin for preeclampsia "just in case" ......