Anyone who has struggled to conceive knows, infertility can be a hard journey. It’s difficult to understand what treatments are right for you. There are many supplements to increase fertility available, but what are the most effective?

Making sure you are healthy and getting the correct nutrients is crucial to boosting your baby-making chances. The good news is that it’s relatively simple, natural, noninvasive and not cost prohibitive like IVF. Here are the boxes to check off before you bring in the big gun fertility treatments. 

Take the Right Supplements

The right supplementation can make all the difference on the fertility journey. There are naturally occurring powerhouse herbs and adaptogens that have been proven to boost fertility. Here are the superstars:

• Ashwagandha: Regulates hormones and the immune system. Lowers stress, anxiety, cortisol levels and food cravings. Improves energy levels, cognitive function and concentration. Enhances sexual performance health.
• Chasteberry: Decreases levels of prolactin, which in return balances out estrogen and progesterone. Reduces PMS and menopausal symptoms, heavy periods, migraines, and acne. Also used as an infertility treatment for women. Studies of over 5,000 women have found it effective.
• Dong Quai: Used for menstrual cramps, PMS, menopausal symptoms and to manage infertility. Has been used as an herbal medication for over 2,000 years.
• Shavatari: Helps regulate cycles, relieve menstrual cramps, balance hormones, and addresses polycystic ovarian syndrome, oocyte quality, follicular growth/development and infertility
• Black Cohosh: Early research suggests that taking black cohosh daily can increase pregnancy rates in infertile women. Black Cohosh promotes a strong, healthy uterine lining which is crucial to getting and staying pregnant.

We recommend Ladywell’s Daily Hormone Balance as your daily supplement to increase fertility. Its comprehensive formula contains the most powerful natural ingredients to get you pregnant faster.

Take B Vitamins

B Vitamins balance hormone production, help promote egg health and prevent ovulatory infertility. Experts believe that B vitamins may give sperm a quality boost as well so make sure your partner is taking the right supplements as well.

A vitamin B deficiency can create estrogen imbalance contributing to fertility issues, fatigue and mood swings. In the Nurses Health Study— a large, long-running public health study — a higher intake of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, and B12 was associated with lower risk of ovulatory infertility (an ovulation disorder that causes infertility).

Some studies have linked low levels of vitamin B12 with female infertility. Plus, a 2015 study  found that having higher levels of B12 and folate may enhance fertility in women undergoing infertility treatment.

A B-complex multivitamin can provide adequate amounts of many, if not all, of your daily B’s. We recommend Ladywell’s Daily Hormone Balance as your daily supplementation to increase your fertility. Its comprehensive formula contains the most powerful natural ingredients to get you pregnant faster.

Take Amino Acids

Amino acids play pivotal roles in hormonal secretion and synthesis. Deficiency can result in fertility issues as well as many other health issues. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and are essential to human life. Our bodies create some amino acids on their own, but others must be consumed through diet. Two amino acids commonly added to fertility supplements are L-arginine and L-carnitine.

L-arginine might improve blood flow to the uterus and ovaries. Studies on the possible benefits of L-carnitine have been small, but it might improve sperm motility (movement) and morphology (shape).

We recommend Ladywell’s Daily Hormone Balance as your daily supplementation to increase your fertility. Its comprehensive formula contains the most powerful natural ingredients to get you pregnant faster.

Follow a Fertility Diet

Published by a team of Harvard researchers, the "Fertility Diet" study— found women with ovulatory infertility who followed this eating pattern had a 66% lower risk of ovulatory infertility and a 27% reduced risk of infertility from other causes than women who didn't follow the diet closely.

The fertility diet is:

• Less trans fat and more monounsaturated fat (from foods such as avocados and olive oil)
• Less animal protein and more vegetable protein
• More high-fiber, low-glycemic carbohydrate-rich foods (including whole grains)
• More vegetarian sources of iron and fewer meat sources
• Multivitamins
• High-fat dairy instead of low-fat dairy

In general, you want to eat a good amount of and a varied types of vegetables daily. You want to eat healthy monounsaturated fats instead of saturated and trans fats, making at least half your grains whole, and getting enough calcium-rich foods — including dairy — will help you meet nutrient needs and promote a healthy weight.

Eat eggs daily. Packed with protein, loaded with Vitamins B12 and E, and often enriched with good monounsaturated fat like DHA, eggs are frequently cited among the most effective foods for promoting your fertility. Eggs are also a great source of iron which is important to increasing your fertility. 

Track Your Menstrual Cycle

Getting pregnant is simple and complicated all at the same time. It’s helpful to understand how your body works in order to set yourself up for a quicker journey.

You should monitor whether the first days of your periods are regular or irregular. Meaning if it tends to occur the same number of days apart every month or if you cycle lengths vary from month to month. By tracking this information on a calendar, you can better predict when you might be ovulating. Ovulating is the time every month when your ovaries should be releasing an egg allowing you to get pregnant. Your egg is fertile for only 12 to 24 hours after its release so it’s important to make sure you are having sex during the fertile window. Sperm can survive in a woman's body for up to five days so there is a chance of becoming pregnant if you have sex outside of that 12-24 hour window.

We strongly recommend period tracking apps. The iphone allows for basic period tracking within the health app. For more advanced period tracking apps we recommend:

Eve by Glow: Best Overall Tracker

Ovia: Best for Trying to Get Pregnant

MyFLO: Best for those with Irregular Periods

Period Tracker Period Calendar: Best for First-Timers

Clue: Best for the Newly Birth-Control Free

Glow: Best for Data

Cycles: Best for Couples

 As always with this type of information make sure to speak to a medical professional as this advice is broad and you may require specialist attention.