It Starts with the Egg: The Science of Egg Quality for Fertility, Miscarriage, and IVF (Third Edition) Paperback – August 29, 2023

I read this whole book in one day and I haven’t done anything like that in about 15 years lol. I’m in my 30s and I was diagnosed with a diminished ovarian reserve last year. I have never been pregnant. I was told that my odds were very low. My first egg retrieval my doctor got double the eggs she was expecting (which was still under 10, 10 is the least amount ideal for IVF) but all embryos were abnormal. 2nd retrieval, same amount of eggs and 2 normal embryos. Now this wasn’t because of the book...I believe that happened due to Coq10 my husband and I were taking, which I later found the book mentions highly. Unfortunately my first transfer last week was a fail. Now to the book. I just finished reading. I honestly wish I read this years ago. With all the knowledge I learned about IVF but now reading this book, I believe this could have gotten me pregnant naturally years ago. This book has amazing information, easy to understand, and case studies to back it up. My plan is to give my body a break from almost a year of IVF and try naturally based on suggestions of this book. If it doesn’t work in 6 months, I believe my body will at least be fully ready to accept my next IVF transfer.My take aways from this book are: If you are trying to convince naturally and would never consider IVF down the line, understand this book mentions IVF ALOT so go into it knowing that. For me that’s great since I went through it and there’s a possibility I may have to again. I understood all the terminology and it made sense. However based on the reviews, this book is still extremely helpful for natural pregnancy which is my new goal and focus now anyway. It looks like most of the reviews were a result of a natural pregnancy.The book only has one chapter for male issues so if you are looking for more context, this book doesn’t give it. But that should be expected, the purpose of the book is to concentrate on the egg not sperm.I suggest do your own research on acupuncture which is supposed to be very helpful. They touched on it very briefly, not a lot of context, but maybe because acupuncture helps other fertility factors and not necessarily the egg.Don’t put too much weight on getting rid of every toxic item you have. If you did that you would have nothing left. Also, you don’t have to change every single thing you eat. The book clearly states that’s not practical, but the idea is to switch out as many toxic items/foods as you possibly can for safer alternatives.I truly believe this book will work and I will be sure to update this review hopefully with good news by year end!

I read the book first time trying to conceive and within a month of implementing the supplements, I got pregnant. Thanks!! I love that everything is evidence based and she provides a good break down of what it means.

This helps understand how to better prepare your body for pregnancy

UPDATE: On August 29, 2022 at age 40, I had a totally healthy baby girl named Athena. She’s now 4 months old and is sleeping peacefully in my arms!I promised myself I’d write this review if we made it past 12 weeks and baby was normal, and here we are!I had a devastating miscarriage at age 38 and then five chemical pregnancies back-to-back before someone recommended this book to me. I was very skeptical.It was a short read, was logical, and had simple protocols to follow, which my husband and I both did for two months. A fertility doctor told me I likely couldn’t have a genetically normal pregnancy without IVF, but my AMH level was really amazing for my age (3.7), so he was optimistic that there was hope for us, he told me to try for three months and then come back to him for next steps.I already didn’t consume sugar or gluten and almost never drank alcohol, so that was easy. A huge takeaway was the information on L-Arginine, which I had been taking for over a year at the recommendation of a different fertility book. I removed that and ate super clean, Mediterranean style, as she suggested. All organic, lots of salad and protein! I also lowered my caffeine significantly, which was probably the hardest part initially. We already used clean products and all glass Tupperware.Two months later we were pregnant and it’s our first pregnancy to make it past six weeks (we’re 13 weeks now). NIPT results just came back with no chromosomal abnormalities and it’s a healthy baby girl. I turned 40 during this pregnancy and I can’t believe this was possible with just some simple changes. So happy! Everyone should read this book who wants to conceive or has been diagnosed with the ever-elusive “secondary infertility.”

Useful information that no one gives you in the ob clinics