With diminished ovarian reserve and 2 back to back miscarriages, I asked my RE about supplements and she gave me a list. (Between those and what I was already taking to regulate my cycle, I take about 20 pills every morning!) Anyway I got a product called Ovaboost that has a lot of the supplements in the quantities she recommended. Just wondering if anyone else has ever used supplements and actually been able to improve their egg quality. Did it work?
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I saw a naturopath who gave me a tincture to take, and egg health was one of the things it treated. Thats a ton of pills! Have you added them all yourself, or did someone tell you what to take?
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Yes I've been seeing a nutritionist and most of them are from her. Some of the supplements you have to take two or three pills though. The ones from the nutritionist have crazy names like Tribulus and chaste tree, but they worked awesome in regulating my cycle. The ones from the doctor are like omega-3 fatty acids, CoQ10 etc. @Mrs.Someone: (sorry my phone is being weird and it isn't letting me put the tag at the beginning of what I said!)
Eta: I also have my regular prenatal and a vitamin D supplement because I'm deficient. -
@travellingbee: I'd be a little wary of a nutritionist "prescribing" that much stuff.. Not sure how much medical training they have. Does she specialize in fertility?
Maybe I'm a little biased since Seattle is so full of Naturopaths (the top school in the country is here)!
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@travellingbee: how much CoQ10 are you taking? I've had two failed IVF cycles, where none of my embryos made it to freeze, so egg quality has been mentioned as a possible issue. I haven't asked about supplements, but I know CoQ10 is supposed to be a good one.
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@travellingbee: By chaste tree do you mean vitex? I'm not sure you'd want to be taking that for DOR. FWIW I took the ubiquinol version of coq10.
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I did. And I'm convinced it was helpful as I responded better than expected (I was on the highest dose possible for stimming).
I was taking CoQ10, fish oil, Vit D and a regular prenatal MV.
I also included diatery changes and went dairy/gluten free for 3 months leading up to IVF.
All was done as per my acupuncturist who works very closely with our infertility clinic.He told me not to take more than 4 supplements at a time. If I wanted to take something else he asked me to stop another.
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@Mrs.Someone: It's not that much stuff. It is Tribulus, Chaste Tree, and Symplex F. I just have to take several pills of each. She does specialize in fertility and it has really helped my cycle regulate.
@spaniellove: No idea if it is the same as Vitex. I'm not taking it for DOR. I'm taking it to keep my cycles regular. Overtime, my cycles tend to shorten and I was having 24/25 day cycles. My RE knows about them and is fine with them.
I didn't mean to be confusing in my post. I wasn't really wondering about the other supplements. I've been on them a while and they work well for me. I really wanted to know if anyone had any success with supplements for egg quality, specifically. I am taking CoQ10, Omega 3 Fatty acid and I started Ovaboost today.
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@Shutterbug: I know that a lot of people swear by DHEA to improve egg quality. I didn't take it as I was already doing a lot of other things but it might be worth checking with your RE.
Ah, and I was taking 400 CoQ10 but from what I've been reading 600 is quiet common. However my AP was against taking that much in my situation.
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@elchalten: Thanks, that is encouraging. Hmmm, I wonder why the magic number of 4? I am not generally someone who even takes vitamins,(except prenatals) but the ones from the nutritionist worked so well, I thought I would ask my RE if there was anything else I can do for egg quality.
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@Shutterbug: The RE told me 400mg twice a day or 200mg 3 times a day.
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@travellingbee: I think part of it was to really make me understand that in this process you can't control everything. I was super sressed at the time. Couldn't sleep, concentrate etc.
And I think it worked. It helped me feel like I did everything I could but took the pressure away to do even more. Because I simply wasn't allowed to.
Just curious, did you get a recommendation regarding diet?
We are planning to do our FET later this year and I'm wondering if I should jump back on the gluten/dairy free diet. We don't plan to do another fresh cycle if this one fails so it's not to improve egg quality but rather just the overall 'environment'.
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@elchalten: No, I hadn't heard anything about a diet. I was dairy free when breast feeding because LO reacted to it, but it was soooooo hard. I don't look forward to the idea of doing that again. What is the reasoning behind no gluten/dairy. That's a lot of foods eliminated!
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I'm taking CoQ10 and baby aspirin that my RE suggested I take. From what I looked, those two helps will egg quality.
I didn't try anything off script other than acupuncture.
Oh, I'm suppose to take 800 mg a day of Coq10 but I can only stomach 400 because the one pill is big enough. I might switch to the gummy version of Coq10. With all the other pills I'm taking, I'm already starting to develop a gag reflex.
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@travellingbee: I agree, it's hard! it's mostly to reduce any immflamation in the body. Even though it was tough to do I actually felt great. No bloating, super regular BM, great clear skin. LO also didn't tolerate dairy at first but is now doing fine.
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@bluestriped bee: I was taking the Gummi's, but they're only 100 mg each.in order to get enough, I was eating at least four of them, and they were like 20 calories each. I'm trying to watch my weight so I decided I couldn't deal with an extra 80 cal In supplements each day.
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@travellingbee: I think the short cycles are common with DOR and my RE ended up doing a few interventions because of that. I only got pregnant in cycles when I didn't ovulate early, and of those times the only sticky one was when there was a lot of suppression with Estrace beforehand and then a trigger shot. So basically I did the supplements for several months but needed the right interventions!
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coq10 is highly regarded for egg quality, so I take that during any of my IVF cycles. I was told NOT to take vitex during IVF due to conflicting hormones.
Hopefully those little changes help you out. xx
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@travellingbee: I'm curious as to whether you think the Ovaboost helped with your egg quality. I am dealing with a DOR issue as well and after 5 months of trying, I conceived and then miscarried at 7 weeks. I just ordered Fertinatal and was thinking about trying myo-isonatal as well (which I think is an ingredient is Ovaboost - I'm already taking coQ10, vitamin E, fish oil, Chinese herbs, and a prenatal and quit drinking alcohol, reduced caffeine, etc.). Do you think the Ovaboost helped? (I think I saw on these boards that you are pregnant and all is going well so far).
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@Shantuck: hard to say but I think so...? It certain didn't hurt.
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My fertility doc has me on folic acid, dha, coq10, and a special prenatal. The prenatal is from p2i baby. I don't know if it's helped though this is my first month going through everything and she said everything looked good, but I don't know! Not much help... But that's all the stuff I take! Good luck to you! I hope what you are taking helps
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