Nutrition During IVF: What It Can Do, and What It Cannot

By Tina Chagoury, Clinical Dietitian · 5 min read · 2026-09-28

A large group of the women I work with are going through IVF at the same time. Here is exactly what nutrition contributes, and what it does not.

A significant proportion of the women I work with are going through IVF at the same time, often referred to me by their own specialist.

The request from the doctor is usually the same: put her on an anti inflammatory protocol so her body responds better to the hormones, the medication and the treatment she is undergoing.

What nutrition is actually doing here

It is supporting the environment the treatment has to work in. Specifically:

Regulating hormones, or more accurately, supporting the conditions in which hormonal signalling works properly.

Reducing inflammation in the body, because a high inflammatory load affects everything from implantation to how you feel through a difficult process.

Stabilising blood sugar, which underpins hormonal regulation generally.

Supporting egg quality, which is influenced by nutrient status, oxidative stress and inflammation over the months preceding a cycle.

Identifying the right supplements for the specific stage of the IVF journey you are in, because the requirements are not identical throughout.

The boundary, stated plainly

Nutrition support is an important part of fertility and IVF support. It is not a replacement for medical treatment, and it is not a miracle cure.

It is a tool that helps the body, the hormones, inflammation and egg quality to work alongside medical intervention. Not instead of it.

I state this every time, because fertility is an area where desperate people are sold certainty by people who have none. If someone promises you a nutritional protocol that will make IVF succeed, they are not being honest with you.

Where the months before matter most

If there is one thing I would emphasise, it is timing.

Egg quality reflects a development window of several months. Which means the nutritional work that influences a cycle is the work done in the months before it, not during it.

This is the case for preconception priming: correcting deficiencies, reducing inflammation, stabilising blood sugar and building nutrient stores well in advance rather than scrambling once a cycle is scheduled.

What I would test before starting

• Ferritin and full iron studies
• Vitamin D
• B12 and folate
• A full thyroid panel including antibodies, because thyroid function matters enormously here
• Fasting glucose and fasting insulin
• Inflammatory markers

Thyroid antibodies in particular are frequently missed and genuinely relevant.

The realistic framing

IVF is difficult, emotionally and physically. Nutrition will not make it easy, and it will not guarantee an outcome.

What it can do is make sure that the variables within your control are actually working in your favour: that you are not deficient, not inflamed, not running on unstable blood sugar, and not additionally stressed by a restrictive diet you cannot sustain.

That is a meaningful contribution. It is also an honest one.

This article is nutrition education, not medical advice. All fertility treatment decisions belong with your fertility specialist.

Tina Chagoury is a licensed clinical dietitian specialising in women's hormonal health, and the creator of the Hormone Reset Method™. Learn more and start here.