Preparing for Egg Freezing

There is a lot of information on the internet, much of it unsubstantiated, about how you can prepare for your IVF cycle. Special diets, Chinese herbs, yoga, acupuncture, supplements, and meditation are all part of the key to successful IVF according to some people--in particular women on IVF boards, but also in some cases the doctors.  Because  the stimulation phase and egg retrieval in egg freezing are  the same as the first part of an IVF cycle, it makes sense that some of these techniques might be helpful for egg freezing too. But which ones? There doesn’t seem to be much information  on which things would be helpful for retrieving eggs for freezing, versus for going through an entire IVF cycle that includes embryo transfer.

For example, my doctor sent me a packet of information on “maximizing IVF success” even though he knows I am doing egg freezing.  In this packet, it shows statistics about how the higher a woman’s BMI is, the lower the pregnancy rate is (up to a certain point--being underweight is also bad). Fine. But I am not trying to get pregnant right  now. I am just trying to retrieve a large number of high-quality eggs. Will lowering my BMI help improve the egg retrieval? Or  does it not matter for eggs, and only matter at the embryo transfer stage?

The information packet also says “...studies conducted in the Bay Area have shown that nutritional supplements such as antioxidants, multivitamins and amino acids can enhance both egg and sperm production leading to better fertility outcomes.” Enhancing egg production sounds good to me, so I have decided to do some supplements. I already have vitamin D and omega 3 supplements, though I haven’t been taking them, so I will start. I also ordered pre-natal vitamins and coenzyme Q10 and they arrived today. So I am starting my supplement routine! The other supplement recommended in the packet is wheatgrass/chlorophyll, apparently you can get liquid chlorophyll at Whole Foods and add it to lemon or lime juice and water. Maybe I will pick that up sometime this week.

If you  have information about which techniques may be helpful for improving egg freezing outcomes, please let me know in the comments!