As you can see in recent posts, we're getting very happy results with our nutrition/supplement protocol. If you've decided to try IVF, some of the concepts we promote might help you as well.
In a study of 18 women undergoing IVF treatment, it was found that the lower their melatonin levels, the higher the levels were of certain damaging oxidative chemicals.
An additional 115 women who had failed IVF were divided into two groups: 56 received melatonin supplementation and 59 did not. Melatonin supplementation improved the success rate of the IVF procedure.
In an additional study done in mice, eggs were incubated with a highly oxidative substance for 12 hours. The result was that egg quality suffered. By adding melatonin, this deterioration in quality was blocked.
The researchers concluded, "oxidative stress causes toxic effects on oocyte maturation and melatonin protects oocytes from oxidative stress. Melatonin is likely to improve oocyte quality and fertilization rates."
There are a couple of important consideration here.
1. When you deprive yourself of sleep, you deprive yourself of naturally produced melatonin. It damages eggs and reduces fertility.
2. You can choose to supplement to offset the damage and increase your chances of fertility, but keep in mind that if your melatonin levels are low, your body is telling you that you are out of balance. You may be able to correct part of the balance with a supplement, but it's a health risk to assume that a pill has taken care of the problem. Best to work on prioritizing sleep. After all, if you're soon going to have a baby in the house, you're going to need it!
Tamura H, Takasaki A, Miwa I, Taniguchi K, Maekawa R, Asada H, Taketani T, Matsuoka A, Yamagata Y, Shimamura K, Morioka H, Ishikawa H, Reiter RJ, Sugino N. Oxidative stress impairs oocyte quality and melatonin protects oocytes from free radical damage and improves fertilization rate. J Pineal Res. 2008 Apr;44(3):280-7.