The Fertility Diet: Groundbreaking Research Reveals Natural Ways to Boost Ovulation and Improve Your Chances of Getting Pregnant

This book taught me that, contrary to what many of us have been led to believe, fats are not evil. We women of fertile years NEED fat. Not too much, of course, but having enough is essential to ensure our bodies are working properly. My husband and I had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get pregnant for quite some time. I considered myself a healthy eater who led a healthy lifestyle. I had been a follower of a "clean" diet (See Tosca Reno's Eat-Clean Diet books--great for staying trim, and I still recommend them to people to teach them to avoid processed foods), and I exercised regularly, being a personal trainer as well. Reading this book opened my eyes to the need to incorporate more fats into my diet in order to boost my fertility. I ate ice cream, I drank milk that wasn't skim, and I followed other aspects of this "fertility diet" in the hopes I would prove the doctors (including the fertility specialists) wrong, that we COULD and WOULD get pregnant on our own. I was almost at my wit's end. Since I had begun tweaking my diet as the book suggested, my period had returned so I thought I was having cycles again. However, the "experts" still said pregnancy was nearly impossible since there was such a ridiculously slim chance I could be ovulating. The last statistic I was given was that I had a slim 4-5% chance of getting pregnant without an egg donor only if I was on hormone replacement therapy, but zero chance without. Meanwhile, I skipped yet another cycle. I thought it simply meant they were right, that I was going through menopause at the age of 28. This time, however, I was pregnant! I had been on the fertility diet for about 2 months, and now, almost a year later, I have a very healthy, beautiful, 4-month old baby girl. Not only that, but my cycles have been fairly regular since having her. Before pregnancy, I could expect to get maybe 4 or 5 periods a year. I have high hopes that not only has this book helped us have a child when we thought the only way for us to be parents was through adoption or an egg donor, but that we can get pregnant again when the time is right. Let me add that I had never begun taking fertility drugs of any sort. Each doctor I saw just ran tests and then sent me to yet another specialist. The last doctor who handed me the last statistic was only looking at test results from two and a half months prior to me seeing him and was waiting to run his own tests. He was so sure of his diagnosis of premature ovarian failure that he failed to run a pregnancy test to rule out that possibility! Had he run another test to check my hormone levels, I wonder what he would have found (other than the pregnancy). If you are trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant, you MUST read this book!

This book was an easy read and provided important nutrition and lifestyle information for women trying to become pregnant. The information seemed well-proven and effective. I put into practice some of the ideas immediately and found them easy to follow. I would highly recommend this book!

I read this text from cover to cover and thought that it contained excellent advice for infertility patients with ovulatory dysfunction (such as PCOS). Keith L. Blauer, MD Reproductive Endocrinologist Sandy, Utah

The Fertility Diet is an invaluable contribution to the literature on infertility. While Drs. Chavarro and make it perfectly clear that the dietary guildelines they put forward will not guarantee that a woman become pregnant, the data that they amassed from the Nurse's Health Study, and the conclusions they came to are truly eye-opening, particularly the difference between low-fat and full-fat dairy consumption, and the importance of balancing carbs and protein. Most importantly, following the advice in this book is virtually free, and has no negative side effects--in fact, for the most part, the nutritional guidelines presented here can set the stage for lifelong healthy eating habits. Highly recommended.