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

This book is a wonderful read! Doesn’t matter if you’re new to trying to conceive or in the depths of it. I had a hard time putting it down. It was very informative!! I worked in OB/GYN and I still learned things I wasn’t aware of. She also shares some interesting insights and studies. All of her sources are in the back of the book.

This book was extremely helpful for me on my fertility journey. It was an easy read and had extremely useful information on changes that can be made in my daily life such as swapping nail polish and plastic to glass containers. I also enjoy that there are updated editions with current research and data. I was able to bring some of the medication suggestions to my doctor as well. I encourage all women going through a fertility battle to read this book!

This book has been so helpful in helping to understand all the possibilities of why fertility may be a bit more challenging. From PCOS to IVF, I absolutely love the easy break down to how/why things may be a challenge. As well as suggestions to add certain vitamins/supplements to your routine that may aid in the process.

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!

There are so many books about conception and infertility these days but many are disappointing, flowery, unproven and simply a rehash of other unproven literature. This book seems to be more investigative, practical and informative. The author talks about her experience with IVF after she'd adopted new dietary changes and rid her life of bpa's and pthalates (easy to reduce but you have to rebuy everything again = costly) but quickly moves on to practical lists of supplements to consider, and changes to make in your own life. She does back up a lot of her advice and cites studies to read if you're the type to follow up. She also talks about hormones and endocrine disruption which could be the basis of most people's struggles. There are a few supplements that she debunks like royal jelly (thank goodness I was highly suspicious of that idea) and some that she advocates although with caution and with helpful detail about what to look for (not all supplements are made well). Some people may not find that she has uncovered many fresh facts here but what she has done is articulate and simplify the research for us as well as weigh it up against other studies she has decided are relevant. I particularly appreciate her findings around DHEA and COQ10 which has helped me decide whether to discontinue or start using them and other supplements. Definitely worth a read particularly if you're considering IVF.

Late 30s hopeful mom-to-be. Sometimes life doesn't work out the way you hoped...Ordered this book when AMH scores tested low. Not sure how that's going to work out after implementing instructions, but book mentioned some basic vitamins which are helpful. I was told in the past to take vitamin D by my gyno (prior to fertility journey) and did for a while but eventually forgot. Book reminded me of the importance of vitamin D generally but also in making quality eggs. I started taking vitamin D & B as well as other things she includes, and my life has turned around in ways I did not expect. I used to struggle with severe sadness in the week before period. I'm talking crying all day long for 2 days, feeling like I couldn't do basic things, and like I was generally unloved despite the very supportive and wonderful people in my life telling me otherwise. I had isolated myself from friends to an extent and thought maybe I needed to seek out medication for depression, since I had been on it before. Add to it the fact that the conception journey is BRUTAL when you struggle and all the intrusive thoughts about aging etc. that encumber you as you learn the reality of how much time you have. It's only been one month of taking the vitamins, and I haven't been able to get in to see my doctor to confirm, but I'm betting I had a deficiency, as many women do--especially those of us working in offices. I feel lighter and more energetic generally, and I did not have any of the same drastic feelings this month as menses approached. Even though I was sad when I the dreaded period came again, and I had some minor irritability on a home depot run, I didn't suffer the way I have months prior. This is life changing for me personally. Maybe it also feels like I am empowered to do something while I wait for fertility clinic referral, but I think it's more, something subtle and under the surface is just clicking better. I'm thankful to the writer and will update if I have success getting that AMH up a little.

I really, really enjoyed this book. It took me two years to get pregnant and I read a lot of really crappy advice on getting pregnant during that time - I think most women will take anything and everything they can get after a certain amount of time. I got really tired really quick of fertility tips that seemed pulled out of a hat - this book was the complete opposite of that. It is easy to read but contains research based information and had a lot of new ideas on things that I could try to increase fertility by increasing the quality of my eggs. I read this just before I read The Art of Tidying Up, which resulted in a deep dive into purging my kitchen of plastics and replacing items with BPA free alternatives. I did end up getting pregnant the month after taking a bunch of the advice in this book. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up though, as I was also working really closely with my OB-GYN and had tried a new prescription to help with ovulation at the same time. I credit (finally!) becoming pregnant less with this book and more with other interventions, but I think there were two really positive results of this book. The first is that I had already cleansed my home of BPAs and Phthalates by the time I became pregnant - both of these can have harmful effects on a fetus and it was really nice to already have this checked off my to-do list. The second is that trying to get pregnant can seem like a really hopeless situation sometimes, especially since it doesn't often feel like any of it is within your control. Reading this book and following through on the advice it gave was really mental gratifying during the long two week wait - at least I was doing something to contribute positively to the process.

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.