FERTILITY SUPPLEMENTS THAT REALLY WORK
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Let’s get big-picture and holistic about supplements for a second.
I think it’s incredibly ethical and absolutely important to drop the silver-bullet, too-good-to-be-true narrative around things like fixing eggs or overhauling hormones. If fixing infertility were as simple as swallowing the right handful of pills, no one would need IVF. And ditto for curing cancer or any other complicated biological condition.
It’s true that smart, select, high-quality supplements can give you a nudge in a positive direction — which can be wonderful. But I always want you to start from an evidence-based and realistic baseline when it comes to making choices about what supplements to take for infertility — or for anything really.
If you haven’t already watched the Which Fertility Supplements Should I Take? video above, please do. It’ll save you a lot of headaches (possibly even literally), not to mention money. Plus, it’ll make sure any supplements you do take are legit both from a scientific perspective and from a quality-assurance one too!
It’s an easy watch under 13 minutes, and here’s what I’m going to cover for you:
Dosing considerations
Food vs supplements (and food-based supplements)
Hormonal side effects
Historical times we’ve gotten it wrong — eek!
Quality control or lack of
Seriously, what’s the goal?
Finding evidence based supplement info
Which brands are legit
Now, before we continue, a disclaimer. All of this information is for educational purposes and should not replace medical care from your trusted team. Always run your options by your doctor or provider to make sure any supplement is a good fit for you, especially if you take prescription medications or have complicated health issues.
Onward!
What supplements do I personally sell for fertility?
A lot of people are surprised that my answer to this is NONE. I don’t sell any western supplements at my clinic because I believe healthcare providers — of any type — should never make extra money by prescribing supplements or medications. This is the ethical standard in Western mainstream medicine, and I strongly believe it should be the same in holistic healthcare too.
If you have a provider selling you 12 supplements — typically marked up 100% or more from their wholesale cost — it’s hard to know what’s good for you and what’s another revenue stream for them. It’s a big faux holistic trap.
Supplements should be available via trusted and tested 3rd-party sellers to ensure there’s no conflict of interest. That’s why I provide the resources people need to buy their supplements on their own with no affiliate ties to me.
So, with all of the big-picture covered, here are some of the supplements I sometimes suggest that may be helpful when taken correctly.
Iron for fertility.
I recommend iron for fertility for:
People with iron deficient anemia
People with TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) blood deficiency patterns (TCM blood deficiency signs include: dizziness and seeing floaters in your vision, hands and feet falling asleep often, difficulty falling to sleep, restless sleep, heart palpitations, pale inner eyelids, thin pulse)
Folks with scanty or missing menstrual flows
Regularly menstruating women, but only 1 - 2 bottles per year
After childbirth, especially with excessive blood loss
When there’s low milk supply when breast or chest feeding
People with insomnia
I recommend the following brands:
Floradix Liquid Iron and Herbs — it’s liquid and fabulous, but spoils a month from opening and taste strongly of iron
Barimelts Iron and C — melt-a-way, good taste
Renzos Iron Strong — melt-a-way, best for kids or those with sensitive stomachs
NOW Iron or Fergon — consumer lab-tested and budget-friendly options that are less likely to cause GI upset
Floradix Iron has been specifically okayed by the MFM perinatologist group in the Twin Cities for pregnant patients to use. It is great for pregnancy or while trying to conceive, especially if you have thin lining concerns.
Just be careful when it comes to iron supplements. Hemochromatosis is a genetic disorder that leads to too high of iron levels. If you aren’t sure what your levels actually are, have your clinic run a test to be sure it’s safe for you to add iron to your routine.
Fish Oil for fertility.
I recommend fish oil for fertility for:
Decreasing inflammation for immune and pain issues
Thinning the blood for circulation or clotting concerns
Certain recurring pregnancy loss cases
Anyone who doesn't regularly eat fatty fish, take 2 - 3 times per week
Some brands of fish oil I’ve used and trust include: Carlsons, Blue Ice Fermented Cod Oil, Kirkland’s Best, and Nordic Naturals. Deva Vegan Omega is vegan and tests high for EPA / DHA without breaking the bank. Nordic Naturals is the brand the American Pregnancy Association endorses.
Vitamin D for fertility.
I recommend Vitamin D for fertility for:
All lower melanin skinned people living in the Midwest from November - April
Breastfed babies and lactating moms
People who test under 20ng/ml (you don’t need high Vitamin D as prior recommendations are out of date)
Brands I trust: Kirkland’s Best, NOW, Nature’s Made, Garden of Life, and Nordic Naturals. Pure Encapsulation or Carlson brands are good liquid options.
Vitamin D is fat soluble, so taking it in a liquid form like medium chain triglyceride oil can be helpful with absorption rates if you have weaker digestion issues vs a pill or gummy.
But don’t overdo it! If your Vitamin D is over 20ng/ml, you probably don’t need more. If it’s over 35ng/ml, you may be harming more than you’re helping by adding more. Too high of Vitamin D is linked to many things from bone fractures to cancer — more is not better.
Folic Acid (aka Folate or B9) for fertility.
I recommend folic acid for fertility for:
Women who are trying to conceive or actively pregnant — take most days of the week
Women who have had abnormal pap results — take at a higher dose
Anyone who has taken methotrexate, but only AFTER they are given the okay to start by their MD
Those with the MTHFR mutation
Women especially in their first trimester of pregnancy — and often beyond
Women under 30 years of age should take 400 iu/day, ages 30 - 40 should take 800 iu/day, and 40+ or with MTHFR, abnormal paps, methotrexate should take 1200+ iu/day
Brands I trust: Jamieson Chewable B Multi is a solid option without super high doses. Doctor’s Best Folate is budget-friendly. New Chapter Fermented B Vitamin Liquid is a good liquid option.
Folate is the naturally occurring form of folic acid, where as folic acid is actually the synthesized version. Based on the most recent data I've seen (and contrary to what social media will say), both are actually equally bio-available. You do NOT need to buy the expensive 5-methyl-folate to get good results!
Prenatal Vitamins for fertility.
I recommend prenatal vitamins for fertility for:
Women to take regularly for 3 months prior to TTC
Every other day or even every 3rd day after that, if you eat a varied diet (or most days if you don’t eat a varied diet)
Brands I trust: Smarty Pants Gummies (really!), One a Day Prenatal Advanced is the Consumer Lab’s current top pick, Nature Made Prenatal + DHA and TheraNatal Complete also test well.
My two cents, I'd much rather a person eat well first, but a reputable prenatal vitamin brand can help you make sure nothing is missing.
Probiotics for fertility — really!
I’ve got a whole blog post about probiotics for fertility and pregnancy-specific concerns — as probiotics for fertility is one a lot of folks miss.
I recommend probiotics for fertility for:
Anytime you take antibiotics, have a yeast infection, BV — take at least 2 hours apart from any antibiotics so they both can work well
Those with digestive or anxiety-related main concerns
Folks with endometriosis or PID (pelvic inflammatory disease)
Everyone every-now-and-then for good measure — including while pregnant and nursing
Brands I trust: Align, Culturelle, Jarrow, Swanson, Garden of Life, Nature’s Way, RePHresh (for vaginal flora), and Spring Valley all pass quality tests. I find rotating various types to be helpful too because certain strains can be useful for certain issues. Read my more in-depth blog post if you’re considering probiotics.
Now, before taking probiotic supplements, I’d love it if you could also choose unpasteurized fermented food first. Did you know only one serving of some sour krauts have a larger variety and number of "probiotics" than an entire bottle of supplements?! But in lieu of options like drinking kefir, kombucha, miso soup, and eating kraut, kimchee, fermented veggies and yogurt, try rotating a variety of high-quality probiotics found at a local co-op or health food store.
With probiotics, shelf life can be a concern. So if you rotate brands you'll get a variety of strains and hedge your bets in case any one brand ends up being a dud.
Magnesium for fertility.
I recommend magnesium for fertility for:
People who get migraines — magnesium citrate 600mg divided into 2 - 3 doses
People with a history of bad period cramps
Pregnant people with leg cramps — try magnesium bisglycinate chelate
People with constipation — high doses of magnesium citrate or oxide
People who take PPI (heartburn) medications long-term often deplete their magnesium, and sometimes supplementation isn’t enough to bring it back to normal and PPIs should be discontinued — talk to me I’ve got some other suggestions if your heartburn is bad and you’re afraid to go off PPIs
People who can’t fall asleep — try mag glycinate or epsom baths before bed
Brands I trust: NOW Magnesium Citrate, Deva Vegan Mag Bisglycinate, and Natural Vitality Calm.
Epsom salt baths and spritzes seem to get magnesium into the body with less digestive and laxative changes. I recommend trying 2 cups of epsom salt in a 15-minute bath as needed. Remember, higher doses of any type of magnesium are more likely to cause loose stools.
And those are my most frequently suggested fertility supplements with the accompanying situations that make me suggest them!
Now, what about all the It Starts with the Egg supplements or suggestions on fertility forums?!
Of course, there’s a huge list of “other supplements” that you’ll hear suggested. I’m more than happy to talk about lots more in-depth options in-person, and I’m very familiar with the most common suggestions. That being said, here’s a little bit about my take on those suggestions and brands that have been tested — in alphabetical order:
Alpha-Lipoic Acid (Note: you do NOT need to pay more for r form): Puritan's Pride Alpha Lipoic Acid 200 mg — this is great for SCH (a certain form of bleeding in pregnancy) and is a good antioxidant that can benefit both male and female fertility
B-12 Mason Natural, Nature Made — especially good for anovulation issues and a must for those who are vegan and probably a good idea for most vegetarians too
B Vitamins Kirkland Signature Super-B Complex — same as B12, but covers folic acid too
Vitamin C Natures Plus Chewable Orange Juice JR, Solaray Vitamin C Powder, Swanson, Microingredients Organic Acerola Powder — a good antioxidant for aging eggs and sperm quality, particularly helpful for progesterone deficiencies, but can be hard on digestion and cause diarrhea if dose is too high — more is not better
Chromium (Picolinate) 365, EZmelts, GNC, Puritan’s Pride, Spring Valley — might help blood sugar issues, best fit for male/female folks with infertility and type 2 diabetes, obesity, and typical PCOS
CoQ10 (Ubiquinol) Doctor's Best with Black Pepper, Swanson Ubiquinol (for >40yo), Garden of Life Gummy — an antioxidant that’s good for sperm and egg quality and also boosts mitochondria function (energy) in cells, so particularly helpful for older eggs (Ubiquinol seems to be best for over 40, CoQ10 for under 40)
Vitamin E Natural, GNC, Solgar Liquid — there are cheap lab made types, but these are better quality and definitely worth taking for thin lining issues (often with 81mg aspirin), good for multiple layers — antioxidant, balancing hormones, lining and implantation — but this is a blood thinner so watch for bruising or bleeding, more is not better
L-Arginine Swanson, Vitacost — a vasodilator to improve pelvic blood flow, good for male and female fertility, lining issues, poor response to medications due to poor blood flow, past placental issues and high PI doppler scans
L-Carnitine Bluebonnet, Doctor's Best, and Jarrow Formulas — seems to be somewhat similar to CoQ10 an antioxidant that also improves mitochondria function
L-Theanine Best, Jarrow, GNC, Nature’s Trove, Swanson — not specifically for reproductive issues, but good for anxiety and high levels of cortisol from stress which can make great ripples and be a way to address a deeper root issue for some folks
Myo-Inositol NOW — seems to be best for folks with PCOS or other insulin resistance issues
Pycnogenol Helps with inflammation and blood flow most often used for MFI and endometriosis — I’m not aware of any sure testing, but this one seems to be worth spending a little more on and looking for Pinus pinaster as the source — other forms are less expensive, but not as well researched
Selenium Spring Valley, 365, NOW, MegaFood, Nature’s Way — good for thyroid function, really only needed if there’s a deficiency — I prefer eating some foods with it like brazil nuts to prevent deficiency
Zinc Solgar Zinc Picolinate, Vitacost Chelated Zinc Glycinate 30 mg, Cold-Eeze Lozenges, Mary Ruth's Liquid Ionic Zinc — if deficient it can be linked to low sperm and egg maturation issues, but check your prenatal and don’t add extra — but some might be useful
If you’re a Life Healing Life patient, let me know if you’d like to discuss supplements more in-depth. If you'd like to check out the research and hard data on various supplements you can find a lot of good supplement info and data at Examine — this site is a great resource. It not only compiles the research, but rates the study’s strength and says how much the various studies agree or contradict one another.
I have and will continue to consult Consumerlab to suggest brands that are shown to be not only of the best quality and consistency levels, but also the most cost-effective.
No matter where you are in your life — puberty, periods, fertility, pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause — I hope that this video and post will give you a great foundation for all things supplements. Thanks for watching and reading!
Warmly,
Nicole
Nicole Lange
LICENSED ACUPUNCTURIST
HOLISTIC FERTILITY EDUCATOR
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So this is a subject I know a lot of you are hoping for a magic bullet quick and easy answer on. Which vitamins and supplements actually help infertility.
Now this is a huge topic. I could do entire videos on individual supplements. And maybe I will in the future. But for now I wanna give you the best overview possible. So this is the Which Fertility Supplements Should I Take video and here's what you're about to learn.
Pump the brakes. Before you put anything in your body we have to start out by getting clear about why you need to be smart about potential fertility and other risks so that you can land on the legit best safest options for you.
Finding high quality evidence. Once you're clear about being safer with supplements, I wanna tell you where to research and fact check anything you're considering or that's suggested to you to find out what's truly worth your money and your efforts.
And last, finding quality brands. Here I'll teach you how to find the brands that you can trust to deliver the ingredients they claim they have in 'em. Because spoiler alert, many don't.
Okay. So people tend to think that natural is generally safe and that more might be better. But especially for supplements, too much can be straight up harmful. So my very first warning is about high dosing.
You would not eat a barrel of oranges or 50 pounds of fish a day. So you probably shouldn't take the vitamin C or fish oil equivalent. At least not long term. Vitamin D for example does all sorts of really nifty things if you're deficient. But if you're not, you taking a supplement with a very high dose of it can make you really sick.
Vitamin C can cause diarrhea and stomach upset. High dose CoQ10 can cause nausea and trigger wicked headaches in people. High dose fish oil can cause bleeding and low blood pressure. Melatonin can make depression worse. The list goes on and on.
So more is not better. Especially long term. And by long term for fertility I'd say three months would be my absolute max for taking a relatively high dose of most things.
And let's just explore that vitamin C equivalent to a barrel of oranges idea a bit more here. An orange isn't at all the same thing as a vitamin C pill or supplement. Another thing that might not exactly make supplements dangerous, but definitely makes them pretty flawed, is lack of complexity. There are all sorts of other nutrients and interplay that happen in food that a pill is never gonna replicate.
So it's way better to just eat the food that contains the specific nutrient that you're wanting than to take a bunch of the lab made specific nutrient by itself.
And you might be saying to yourself, "But Nicole, my supplement isn't lab made. It's made out of real food. And it's real ingredients." And to that, I'd say, okay. But that pill that's got three types of mushrooms and beets and licorice and alfalfa in it? How much of that stuff can they get in a pill or even a handful of those pills?
The food is gonna be better. Beyond food being more complex and more complete, and the dose of the nutrients you'll get from food being not bonkers high, supplements can actually hurt you in several other very real ways.
Next on the list is by making bad ripple effects. DHEA and melatonin for example are common fertility supplement suggestions. But they're actual hormones. And if you change one hormone you will make ripples in other hormones. Because hormones are all kicking in and turning off based on interconnected feedback loops. This is why high dose melatonin can make you stop ovulating. And DHEA supplementation can make you start to grow facial hair and develop a deeper voice.
And it's not just the supplements that are hormones themselves. There are loads of other supplements that have known secondary effects on hormones. And then those hormonal changes can make either positive or negative secondary ripples depending on whether they're actually needed by your particular unique body or not.
Chasteberry, otherwise known as Vitex, is a supplement I get asked about all of the time. And it does this sort of secondary hormonal change. People who need the hormonal changes it creates feel good and have better cycles on it. But I've seen plenty of people who don't need these changes take it, and stop cycling for several months.
You really really need to understand what your body is telling you and what your hormones are actually doing. And it is possible to do this and understand this.
If you haven't already done tests, I've got multiple videos and handouts about which tests are helpful. And also about how to interpret your body's signs and symptoms to make an observation-based educated hypothesis.
I have people who do this and then they go in and they ask their doctors for the exact test for what they think they have. And the doctors are always impressed at how much they knew before they even ran the test.
I teach how to do this in the Nursery module in my 90 day program.
Now my third word of supplement warning is just look at history. There is a rich sad history of supplements being touted as cure-alls only to find out that they're straight up toxic.
We used to put lead in food and toothpaste. We used to use mercury as a medicine. More recently, people have taken herbs that have classically been used very safely for specific things and abused them in other ways. And then gotten very sick or even died as a result.
Now these might seem like pretty extreme examples. But too much iron or vitamin A can cause organ damage. And higher dose supplements with vitamin E or calcium seems to increase certain cancer risks in certain people.
The point is, the more immoderate and extreme ways that we start to take vitamins and supplements, the more we risk bad outcomes that people in the future might look back at and say "duh" about.
Consideration number four, quality control.
Vitamins and supplements aren't necessarily tested for purity or even content. So there's always a risk of hazardous accidental substitutions, pesticides and other impurities, especially in herbal formulas.
Now some Chinese herbs that are imported have also been shown to be 'contaminated' with over the counter medications like Sudafed and ibuprofen. And when the New York state attorney general's office conducted an investigation in 2016 on store brand supplements at four big national retailers, GNC, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart, they found that the dietary supplements that they were testing often didn't contain the full dose they were advertising, or sometimes ANY of the main ingredients that they were purportedly selling at all. Instead they were often full of fillers that contained potential allergens that weren't even listed on the ingredients.
Side note. I really do love Chinese herbs. I prescribe Chinese herbs. I take them myself. And when they're given by a skilled provider who is fully trained and who buys their herbs from a company that uses third party purity testing, Chinese herbs can be fantastic for lots of things. But make sure that's what you're taking if you take them.
My final warning is holistic but a huge one. Vitamins and supplements are often crazymaking. This is because supplements are a super slippery slope when it comes to succumbing to something that I call putting on Baby Blinders.
Now, Baby Blinders is basically the mindset that all you care about is if something is technically good for your fertility. Or even if someone says it's good for your fertility and it might not be. And then you go all in without actually noticing what it's doing to your body, your mind, and your quality of life.
Now when you put on the Baby Blinders, before you know it you'll be taking 25 supplements and doing 25 things that are arguably helpful, but you're doing them in a way that makes you feel entirely stressed out and threatened and overwhelmed. Which ironically creates a very real sense of danger that makes your body wanna get pregnant less the harder and harder you try.
So, one supplement alone is definitely not gonna take over your entire life and hurt you in this way. But 15 supplements, plus the worry that you've got 15 things to fix which is why you're taking the supplements, plus the cost, plus the possible side effects and adverse interactions, and the energy you're spending going to see providers who are giving you all these supplements and telling you that you've got all this stuff to fix. At best? That's often one step forward and two or three back.
So be aware. Certain supplements are well-studied and can do cool things if you have specific circumstances and fertility needs. For example, inositol can improve ovulation rates in people with anovulatory PCOS that's been linked to underlying insulin issues. And L-Carnitine seems to pretty reliably improve sperm in cases of low sperm counts and motility.
But, way more often than not, people put way too much energy and effort into taking lots of things that aren't so backed by science. And it's a waste of their resources. If you wanna get savvy on which supplements are actually worth taking you need to look for unbiased and evidence-based sources of supplement research. And that website that's all about fixing your egg quality? Or that provider who has shelves and shelves of supplements to sell you? They might not actually be unbiased or research-backed at all.
Then again, they might be. But the point is you really have to fact check it yourself. And thankfully there's a really great one stop shop that can help a ton. My number one go to easy place, if I had to pick just one, is a website called Examine.com. Now when you go to this site, which I get absolutely no financial kickback from, you will see a ton of free info, and even more if you subscribe. And you can type in the supplement you're thinking of taking and it's gonna pull up an entire page where it breaks down the dosing and background info, as well as the research conclusions from many many many studies. All funneled into one place.
And it's also gonna add notes about possible flaws in these studies. Now, if the results are consistent it's gonna tell you that from study to study, and it's gonna tell you so much more. The people who run Examine.com call themselves 'the neutral Switzerland of dietary and supplement data' which I love.
Now the one downside of this site is that they don't have every possible supplement. But there are a ton and it's constantly expanding.
Some other places you can look include websites of trusted non-fertility medical clinics or colleges, like Mayo or Harvard. Or on the National Institute of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements pages. I'll put some links in the video description.
I already mentioned a whole bunch of big name stores were selling supplements that didn't even contain the main ingredient they claim they were selling. So once you decide that it's a good idea to add a supplement, you also need to know what brand is gonna deliver a quality product. Consumerlab.com is another site with some free and some paid content that's worth checking out. Again, not affiliated.
Much of what they do is compare different brands and give recommendations on what to buy. Now I'll be honest. This is a site where you're probably gonna have to pay a little bit to get what you need. But if you're on a lot of supplements already or you're in the thick of fertility struggles and you really wanna research and be sure what you're taking is legit, it's probably worth the cost of subscribing for a year.
Again, not affiliated with this site. I currently pay for both of these sites myself.
So that's it. When it comes to 'best fertility supplements', now you can see why there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all. But you've got what you need to dig in and do a little fact-finding and get to the heart of what you need while also staying safe and healthy too.
If you wanna be able to understand more about what your unique body and your symptoms and your menstrual cycle are telling you, I'd love you to check out my program. There's an entire module diving into the nuts and bolts of all things reproductive. From feedback loops to signs of hormonal issues and so much more.
Here's what we just covered. Pump the brakes. I shared five very important things to be aware of. High dosing, ripple effects, history, quality control, and those crazy making Baby Blinders.
Finding high quality evidence. Now you can fact check recommendations and see if they're actually worth taking.
And last, finding quality brands. Now you know where to look to find which brands to trust.
Did this video make you think about fertility supplements differently? Let me know in the comments. And as always, thank you for spending this time with me.
Now get out there, eat the rainbow, and be moderate in what you do. I'll see you again soon.
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