It Starts with the Egg (Second Edition): How the Science of Egg Quality Can Help You Get Pregnant Naturally, Prevent Miscarriage, and Improve Your Odds in IVF Kindle Edition

After two miscarriages, 4 failed fertility treatment cycles and being told by three separate fertility specialists that my husband and I had less than 5% chance of conceiving and carrying to term, we decided it was time to take a more proactive and informed approach to our infertility. Our search for solid information lead in many directions, including to this book. We bought it, devoured it, put as many of its suggestions into practice in our lives as we possibly could, and gave the program 4 months to work its magic while taking a break from fertility treatment. From it we learned that though women with high FSH like myself are often told its because we have "diminished ovarian reserve" and "poor egg quality", the science of egg development and quality is a lot more complicated and there are ways you can intervene to encourage the eggs you do have remaining to be the best they can be. I'm science minded enough to know that I can't draw any firm conclusions about whether the ideas in this book made the difference for us or we just got lucky, but after those four months we started trying to conceive again, did so right away, and I gave birth to our beautiful, healthy, miracle baby girl just a few days ago. My advice is, don't let doctors dictate what is or isn't possible based on their own repertoire of (limited) treatment options they make available to their patients. If you've struggled with infertility, and you're determined to not go down without a fight like me after the doctors have told you you're a lost cause and to start considering egg donors or adoption, this book simply MUST be one of the items in your arsenal of alternative approaches.

This book is everything! I would highly recommend reading this as a first step to anyone having trouble conceiving or having recurrent miscarriages. I had recurrent miscarriages and terrible fertility scores- an fsh of 14 and an AMH <1. My fertility doctors gave me about a 4-8% chance of an IUI helping me conceive. But i wanted to try it. So i did everything possible to improve my odds. I did acupuncture along with taking ubiquinol, melatonin, and DHEA as suggested in the book. 14 weeks after i added in the DHEA i got pregnant during my second IUI. I believe everything I did made all the difference. I do want to mention that i wish the author hadn't downplayed the importance of cutting out caffeine. Even a small amount of caffeine per day leading up to pregnancy may increase miscarriage risk- they don't have enough evidence disproving that. For me I think cutting it out completely was a vital (though difficult) step. I cut down on sugar but i didn't completely eliminate it like i did the caffeine and alcohol. Regardless- this book is so needed in a world where doctors often don't provide us with important information to improve our health. It makes sense that optimizing the body's health will help with fertility too. Read this book and do acupuncture regularly for at least 3 months before you try to conceive. I did acupuncture 2-3 times a week during the cycle that got my pregnant. My doctor was suprised i could get 3 follicles at my age and with my fertility numbers. But it's totally absolutely possible - you just need to give your body a chance to respond to the changes you make! This book is a must have whether you try naturally or with assistance.

After 5 years of trying to conceive, 3 miscarriages,failed ivf, countless other fertility treatments; I bought this book. I took the suggested supplements and I conceived within a couple months. My son was born May 2016. We decided to have another baby and I had a miscarriage. We were not successful until I began taking the supplments mentioned in this book. I went on the supplements and became pregnant within a couple of months. My daughter was born in November 2018. Without this book I know I wouldn't have my babies.

I appreciated this book because it explained reproduction and reproductive problems backed up by science, and talked about things my doctors weren't telling me. My doctors didn't recommend any of the tips in this book, but they didn't stop me from trying any of it, either. I implemented some of the strategies prior to IVF and did not get pregnant, nor did I get pregnant via IVF later, but I did produce 14 high-quality mature eggs during my IVF cycle, and perhaps some of that can be attributable to the supplements I took and the toxins I cut out as a result of reading this book. One word of caution: as someone with unexplained infertility, I already felt that everything I was doing/eating/putting on my body was causing my infertility, and this book only made me MORE paranoid.

This book contains good advice for anyone who would like to live a healthy lifestyle and reduce their exposure to toxins. I also think it is a good book for anyone who has struggled with infertility because all her suggestions can't hurt and it seems like they have helped other women. But unfortunately for me, following her plan did not change my IVF outcome. I did much of what she suggests -- reduced exposure to BPA and phthalates, followed the supplement suggestions, and reduced (though did not eliminate) refined carbs in my diet. I did this for 3-4 months between IVF cycles. In my subsequent cycle, I did have more eggs retrieved (so perhaps quantity improved) but the quality was still poor. I don't regret trying because again, her suggestions are probably good suggestions for anyone, but I did not see the impact.

After being diagnosed unexplained infertility and multiple failed treatments, I lost all the faith on medical help and myself after 3 years of trying. Running out of budget, we cannot afford another fertility treatment in a near future. So I turned my hope to diet and supplememt. This book is enlightening. I started taking ubiquonol, vitamin d and inositol. In addition, i cut off all the refined carb, candy and processed food. Eating nothing but nutritious lean meat, nuts and veggies. 4 cycles after I implement the plan instructed by the book, I first time ever saw a double line on my testing strip! This book is a life changer, telling the truth no fertility doctor will discuss with you.

If you're considering buying this book, don't think twice. At 39, and having been told my chances of conceiving naturally were practically zero, I started trying to get pregnant in a combination of ways; all failed. At 41, and exactly three months into taking all the supplements the author recommends (my IVF clinic also recommended DHEA), I got pregnant naturally. I'm now three months down the line and seem to be having the pregnancy of a 20-year-old. I don't have a baby in my arms quite yet, but I've seen its perfect little arms and legs wiggle on screen, and that feels like a miracle. I promised myself and all hopeful/despairing would-be mothers I'd write a review of this book at 12 weeks - and here it is.

We’d been trying to conceive for a year and looking down the road to IVF I wanted to try this book. The advice is very detailed and probably more science than I needed. It’s interesting and all but I’m busy and I just needed the headline points. These are: cut exposure to BPA, use toiletries with fewer toxins in, ditch any weird supplements you’re taking, take 200mg ubiquinol and a prenatal each day.I threw out all our plastic kitchen stuff and bought ceramic/glass containers and bowls etc. No takeaways as they come hot in plastic. No disposable coffee cups or receipts. No perfume. Only use moisturisers that are natural like Faith organics. Bodyshop would also be fine.Also bought a water filter and cut out alcohol and caffeine. Also cut out a lot of sugar and refined carbohydrates. After 14 months TTC I have a positive pregnancy test today - about 2 months after buying this book.

I bought this book in April 2019 after a failed IVF attempt and took 4 months to prepare to the next attempt.I took all the supplements advised in the book for my situation.Also followed all the advice :- got rid of all the plastic in the house- replaced toiletries and household products to non toxic- no perfume or nail polish- organic and healthy food- acupuncture- yoga- better sleep- no alcohol , no coffee ( I didn’t drink coffee before and not much alcohol so it was easy)- I was in a much better state and shape- I felt great and full of hopeBut despite the 4 months of preparation my results were worse in quantity and quality. We had the same meds just slightly higher dose and the same sperm from the same frozen batch so the only thing was different - were my eggs after all the preparation and there were less of them and they were worse quality.When they told me that I had less quantity - I still was full of hope and thought that at least the quality should be better but I was wrong.Here is the comparison.Before the book and change I had 6 eggs, 6 fertilized and 2 great quality embryos: one transferred and one frozen. It failed. But still have the frozen in the bank.After applying the advice from the book:5 eggs, 4 fertilized , 2 very average quality embryos , so both were transferred and none frozen, none took off.We had a successful IVF before those two attempts and have an amazing son.Unfortunately the book gave me false expectations and I was really surprised to see such poor results.I did enjoy making some of the changes and will keep them as part of my lifestyle.But this book and around £1500 I’ve spend on all the changes and supplements didn’t make any positive difference to our IVF cycle.

Like many on here I vowed to come back with my story to hopefully help other hopeful parents - just as past reviews of this book gave me hope when I was in despair.Exactly a year ago (Nov 18) DH (33) and I (29) were preparing for our IVF/ICSI cycle. This was due to severe Male Factor. His sperm was surgically retrieved a few months before and it was my turn. They then discovered I had low ovarian reserve so we weren’t expecting too many eggs but to our dismay we only got 5. Non of them fertilised (possibly coz of frozen sperm, sperm viability, possibly coz of egg quality). It was a really low point in life and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.I’m a reader and an optimist so I started researching heavily and came across this book in January this year. I followed some of the key bits of advice, and the advice relevant to me (changed my prenatal, started on CoQ10, and didn’t start on DHEA despite wanting to - my bloods came back normal so didn’t make sense to rock that boat yet). I also got my husband on supplements (vitamins, CoQ10) and his doctor prescribed him Clomid. We also (mildly) followed some of the lifestyle and diet recommendations.Now the clinic had agreed to batch retrieve my eggs as my count was low and the plan was collect and freeze eggs over a few cycles while DH is on Clomid and prepares for yet another MicroTese to try with fresh (but still immotile) sperm.HOWEVER at my retrieval in March (2–3 months after the changes), they got 14 eggs (12 mature!). It was unbelievable! I had another retrieval in May where they got 12 eggs. So I now had 26 eggs frozen away. From having 5 eggs just five months before....! I really want to thank you Rebecca!!The rest of the story is miraculous too...my DH’s microTese yielded good results and the clinic went out of their way to ensure the lab has the right sperm viability test this time (HOS test) and also made sure to use the sperm fresh from the tese. As the sperm sample was decent we decided to thaw all 26 of my eggs. 22 survived and were injected. 15 fertilised (!) and 7 made it to Blastocyst. Nothing short of a miracle and I still tear up thinking about it.We had a frozen embryo transfer in August and I’m blessed to say we’re 16w pregnant.Please buy this book - it changed our lives. You can get snippets of advice from reviews but it’s best to read the research, the analysis for yourself and see what’s best for your situation. I believe there’s a V2 - get that by all means. And all the very best on your journey.Thank you Rebecca - God bless you.

I don’t want to give false hope as I know ttc can be heartbreaking and this might not work for everyone. After trying two years for our second child (I was 41) and 2 miscarriages I read this book. Within 3 months of following some of the plan (I didn’t do so much of the diet) I’d had 2 pregnancies, the first I lost (as per the plan I needed to wait as there was a change the egg quality could result in a miscarriage). I have a beautiful baby girl and couldn’t be more grateful for the advice in this book that helped us conceive naturally. Thank you!