SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome back to the Fertility Suite Podcast Series 3, where we're bringing the fertility experts to you so you can make the most informed educated choices about your fertility. Welcome back to another episode of the Fertility Suite Podcast. And joining us today, we have Jen Walpole, and Jen is a B A N T registered nutritionist specialising in fertility and pregnancy nutrition. So welcome, Jen.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Thank you so much, Rachel, for having me on. I'm really excited about this chat today. Yeah, I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

We're going to be talking about how to nourish your body around IVF cycles and the importance of nutrition around an IVF cycle. But before we get stuck in, would you like to just tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself and your history and how you came to become a nutritionist?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Yeah, so I've shared a little bit about this on my Instagram, but basically I graduated from my nutrition studies in 2020, and it coincided with my husband and I struggling to conceive, which resulted in finding out the only way we could conceive due to medical reasons was IVF. And so I quickly, very quickly, sort of pivoted my business and found myself supporting others as well going through this journey because obviously I was doing a lot of my own research, and I already was at that place where I knew nutrition was really, really important in terms of like optimal health and of course fertility, and really wanted to be able to support other people. And I understand like how challenging it is for people as well. So that resulted in our son, who was born in 2020 with our second transfer that was successful, and then we waited a little bit. I was 40, but we had some frozen embryos, and we started transferring in 2024. And unfortunately, that resulted in quite a difficult year where five embryos didn't implant. And that led me down looking into sort of immunology and kind of changing clinics and approaches, etc. And again, I mean, I just feel like everything happens for a reason in a way, because what it's how it's benefited my business in and my my own knowledge and understanding of like an area that affects a lot of people, implantation failure or recurrent loss, chemical pregnancies and things, the things that I experienced during that time has meant I've really had to kind of do a lot more of my own research and I've got a better understanding because it felt like a bit of a grey area to me before. And yeah, I'm pleased to share that that resulted in finally a pregnancy in at sort of the end of last year. And then, yeah, in terms of my practice, so I've been working in the fertility space for I'm going into my sixth year now, which I absolutely love. It's my real passion. And I've also worked, I also work in the pregnancy space as well. So I'm really lucky to work alongside a brilliant team of consultant obstetricians at a private women and women's clinic in Chelsea, and I consult with their patients for nutrition support throughout pregnancy as well, which again is another area just naturally I sort of fell into because my fertility clients would then come back to me for that pregnancy support once they got pregnant. So, yeah, that's a little bit more about me.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Thanks for sharing that, Jane. I know it's not always easy, but yeah, I think it's really, really important that people understand from a practitioner perspective that you actually do really get it. I think there's a lot of practitioners that work in the fertility space that sadly, you know, have had their own fertility issues. But I do think as a practitioner, it really helps you to fully understand and fully empathize what people are going through and actually what they want from someone in in that support journey.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

So yeah, I think it's you know, it's it's a real sort of using your using your story to benefit others, you know, it can only be and and I think as well, like my stance is and it is going to be different to other people's approaches, but I really think balance is so important because you know, we're talking about a time in your life when nothing else matters, it's like your soul focus, you would do absolutely everything, you're desperate for that baby. And if someone said, you know, do this, you know, this therapy or eat this food, you would do that like 20 times a day, even if you didn't like it. So I think it's really important that we're not kind of stressing people out on an already stressful journey. And I have personal experience of this because I felt like I was doing absolutely everything. I'm of really good health. I check my bloods every three to six months. I am testing various different things, just kind of to try things out, you know, to learn more about them for my clients. So, really on top of my health and my nutrition, yet I still had issues. So I really do get how difficult it becomes when you feel like you're doing absolutely everything. So I like to cut through the noise for my clients, and this is the message that I like to share on Instagram as well, where like, let's hone in on the things that you need. You know, what are the signs that your body's showing you, and where can we make the biggest difference? And it's not about doing everything perfectly by any measure. Um, but I think that personalized support is really, really important, and that's what gets my clients the results.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

I completely resonate with that, and that's so nice to hear you say because I've been there and done that. You know, my I had a three rounds of IVF, and the first two rounds I was so restrictive. And like you said, trying to be that perfect patient and thinking that would be the the one thing that really made the difference was you know, getting everything absolutely perfect. And it was actually the cycle where I let a lot of that go. And it was imperfect that I actually had success with, and I think it's such a difficult time anyway, and it's so easy to put that pressure on yourself, and you're in a very, very vulnerable place, like you said, you would spend money and time on anything that anyone said would help your outcome. So, yeah, I feel like as practitioners, we do have a responsibility to help people manage that balance as well. So like similar to how we practice as well. So, thank you. So, let's talk a little bit then about nutrition and IVF. So, I appreciate this is a massive question, however, I think it's also really important that people understand the importance of nourishing your body in the lead up, and by that we mean you know, the three to six month window before you start an IVF cycle. Like, why is it so important? What difference can nourishing your body in the right way make?

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah, that's a really good question. So, firstly, we have to acknowledge like the science behind the process. So, first of all, we've got egg maturation. Now, you're born as women with all of the follicles in your ovary. So you've got, you know, those hundreds of thousands of eggs waiting there. And over a three-month period, follicles are recruited, and then the dominant follicle is the one that in the third month gets ovulated and you know, hopefully will become your future baby. In that sort of three-month period, it's prone to damage, you know, oxidative stress. The egg also holds all of the nutrition for the embryo and the fetus in the first few weeks, in that, you know, those early stages of pregnancy. So, again, really important to nourish your body and nourish those egg cells, those follicles with really, really good nutrition. And then on your partner's side, if you are partnered, then we're thinking about this spermatogenesis, which is this sperm production, which is just slightly less than three months, about two and a half months all in all. But again, you know, the sperm cell, when you look at them together, the egg and the sperm, it's actually a lot smaller, the sperm cell. And it's even more prone to oxidative stress. And the DNA of your future baby is tightly packed in the head of the sperm. And again, just yeah, really prone to oxid oxidative stress and damage, which can happen from you know, just everyday activities, exercise, a few ultra-processed foods here and there, pollution and toxins, and just everyday activities. There's always going to be a little bit of natural oxidative stress. But it's really important during this at least three to month three-month period to make sure that you're eating well, you're nourishing your body, but also thinking about some of that other toxin exposure or some of those things that can impact the quality of the egg, the quality of the sperm, and to optimise your chances essentially. And and the thing is, as much as the focus is obviously to get pregnant, it's not just about getting pregnant, it's about having a healthy baby. And we've got some really interesting research coming out around this in terms of the health of your future baby is determined not just by the health of that egg and the mum's health, but actually even the father as well. So there's some really interesting stuff coming out about it. So your overall health is absolutely crucial on both sides, and we have to remember that because it is very much 50-50. The other things think about so beyond just like the science of like the egg and the sperm themselves, like I mentioned, like your overall health and how your body is interacting and your hormonal health and everything that's going on, your nervous system regulation, also, you know, your iron levels and all sorts of different things that we I'm sure we're going to get on to, are also really, really important to optimize ahead of pregnancy because we want to be starting that pregnancy really in the best sort of optimal state possible. And that's where I think this kind of three to six months comes in because sometimes these things can take longer, and it really depends what's going on for you. Sometimes you can feel like on the surface everything's optimal and healthy. And how I like to start with clients is we do a full blood workup to start off with, and often that's highlighting a few things that need a little bit of work, and we don't tend to retest for about six to eight weeks if we're working on that through diet and supplementation, and so you know, we need to retest, we need time to do that. There's some other tests as well, if we want to talk about testing today, that we might want to think about as well. And it just really depends what if everything comes back clear, then yeah, three months, but often it's not the case, and we just need a little bit longer, I would say, as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

Yeah, I think the important thing with fertility is that it's not one size fits all, is it? And as you do in your work, the same as we do in ours, you know, you're you're looking at the couple as individual and not the same as the previous couples that you've worked with because every case is so different and you need to assess independently. So I've yeah, probably what we would say, and I'm sure you would agree, is give yourself a minimum of three months, it might be a bit longer. Um, and I love the fact you touch on the evidence as well, because that's one of the good things about working in fertility, and one of the things that I love actually is that we've constantly got new evidence coming out that supports the work that we're doing, and it makes it exciting, and it also makes it really helpful for patients in that it shows that there are things we can do and that the changes we're making can actually really help. There's definitely been a lot of evidence, hasn't there, around nutrition in the last few years?

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah, there's so much research, and I know sometimes it can feel a little bit disheartening because you might go to a clinic or you might be having IVF and they're not necessarily having those conversations around diet, or it feels a little bit of a blanket approach, you know, take this, these couple of things, and that's about it. But actually, there's so much evidence to back up this work and you know, diet, lifestyle. And sometimes we don't always have all the evidence and all the answers, but we have to use a little bit of common sense with it as well. And yeah, I think feel how your, you know, how's your body feeling and what issues, how's your gut health? Just, you know, checking in, because we're all so busy and stressed most of the time. We often kind of overlook some of those little niggles that perhaps might be something to explore and optimise in this sort of three to six month period.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Yeah, absolutely. Again, it's like working out what's going on for you, isn't it? So you talked a little bit about like testing. So, what would be some of the key nutrients that are linked to IVF outcomes, i.e., if someone is deficient in a nutrient or you know, a vitamin, a mineral, what sorts of things are you gonna be looking for on your tests that you want to see in optimal range?

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Yeah, I mean, we've got all sorts of tests available to us now. But how I like to start working is via your GP, get a full blood workup. Obviously, we're gonna look at hormones, thyroid, full blood count, iron panel. We can look at a few nutrients on those blood. So obviously, iron, the vitamin D, B12, folate, and they're the sort of main ones that we can look at on like a standard blood workup. And that gives us quite a bit of information. There are other nutrients linked to IVF outcomes that aren't as easy to test, but we do have tests available to us, but we can also just make sure that we're ramping some of these things up via foods. So, yeah, I'll kind of jump in and start talking about some of the nutrients. So I think the first one to think about, which we can't necessarily check on GP bloods, we can check a couple of things, but we can't do like a full panel. That would be more sort of functional testing, and it can get a little bit expensive. But the first thing would be antioxidants. So these are basically vitamins, like particular vitamins and minerals that have antioxidant capacity. So with things like vitamin C, vitamin E, we've got vitamin A. So these are readily available in our diet, in fruits and vegetables, predominantly some whole grains as well. And really ramping these up, essentially eating, you know, a whole food diet with a good amount of colour in it. We like to say eat the rainbow. If you're doing that, you're going to be getting a good amount of antioxidants in. And it sounds quite a basic one, you know, a nutritionist told you to eat more fruit and veg, but you would be surprised actually that sometimes people are kind of thinking, oh, protein, protein, and then they're missing out on the fibre side of things, which is the fruit and veg. Men as well, I'll often see this in clinic where they're snacking on, like, you know, a banana or an apple, just things that are easy to take into work, but they're not having things like kiwi or citrus or berries, and actually, they've got lots of antioxidants and rich in vitamin C, so brilliant for fertility, like male fertility and sperm quality. So we've got loads of research to back up the use of antioxidants for both male and female fertility. And the way that these work is they help kind of scavenge up and get rid of any of this oxidative stress. So when we're primarily talking about egg and sperm quality, these are absolutely key. And it should be like the foundation of what you're doing, what you're eating. When we look at the Mediterranean diet, there's lots of like fruit and vegetables and like whole grains at the bottom of that pyramid. And that should be quite a big chunk of what you're eating, basically. And then another nutrient that's linked to better IVF outcomes are things like iron. So, you know, and we know iron status is absolutely something that we have to prioritize for ahead of pregnancy. Men have less risk of having low iron. There's probably, I probably see it more where they have high iron or hemochromatosis, where it's just high iron or ferritin, and that can be detrimental actually to sperm. So again, it's just like this balance. Whereas women that are obviously having a monthly bleed are more prone to losing, you know, you're losing that blood on a monthly cycle, and depending on diet, could potentially be low in iron. And having better iron stores have been linked with better outcomes. So optimising that might look like at least a couple, you know, a couple of portions of red meat a week. And this is a little bit of a myth. I think some people think the Mediterranean diet's all about fish and we want to limit red meat, but actually, red meat is there a couple of times a week. And again, if we're taking a personalised approach, some people might need a little bit more, some people might be okay with one a week. It all depends on what else is going on, what your gut helps like, your digestion, are you taking any in a supplement, etc.? Vitamin D as well, it's kind of like a hero nutrient, not just for like immune health, but there's so many roles that it plays in fertility and ovulation. So again, and also with better outcomes in IVF. And actually, I have to say, most people I see that are UK-based have kind of adequate levels, like it's okay, it might be deemed okay, like if you check it with your GP, but it's probably about half where I want it to be if we're looking at optimals. So that's often an area where we're going in with a much higher dose than what you know the average amount is that's recommended in kind of the NHS guidelines. But really important to test that because you can't just kind of you don't want to go too high with that one. So do you do want to check that with your GP. We've got evidence around probiotics as well, and this is a whole area that's been emerging over the last 10 or more years, in fact, the vaginal microbiome, and having this kind of community of beneficial bacteria, predominantly lactobacillus, and there's particular strains as well of lactobacillus that are more preferential or just a little bit more stable, supporting the microbiome and keeping it the pH level nice and low, acidic, and again, that can reduce the risk of sort of adverse pregnancy outcomes and miscarriage. So there's some really good research around supplementing with probiotics. Again, I'm not one for sort of throwing in random stuff. I think it's probably best to test there. And there's quite a few tests on the market now around the vaginal microbiome. And I would say anyone on their fertility journey, and definitely anyone going ahead or thinking about IVF should think about testing. And then, yeah, finally, omega-3. We've got some really good research around it reducing avarian aging in particular. So quite a nice one to add. We just don't get enough of this essential fatty acid through the diet. We'd have to be eating a lot of oily fish, and we need to be mindful of how much fish we're eating because of mercury. So supplementing with a third-party tested, like a good quality omega-3, at least a gram a day would be really beneficial as well. But of course, yeah, you definitely want to be eating those oily fish as well a couple of times a week. And you can have things like walnuts and flaxseeds and chia, they're quite good sources as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

So, with the supplements, then obviously we've talked about how you can take these in addition to your diet, but just to really help people listening understand because I want to come at this from the perspective of someone who perhaps doesn't have a lot of nutritional knowledge, like what sorts of foods on a daily basis in the kind of three-month lead up to an IVF cycle, would you want people to increase or decrease? Like, what would a typical day, if you can even call it that, like a typical day's meal prep for IVF look like? Like, what would be your idea from a nutritionist perspective as a great meal plan for the day?

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Yeah, so if we look at the Mediterranean diet, which is the one that gets talked about a lot in relation to fertility and optimal health, it is predominantly a plant-based diet. Like I said, at the bottom of the pair. Pyramid, lots of colour, fruit, vegetables, as whole grains. We've got nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, olive oil with every main meal. So really limiting ultra-processed foods is a good place to start. Increasing your intake of whole foods, more sort of cooking from scratch. Also, we talked about eating the rainbow. So this is the reason, the first reason why it's so good for fertility is it contains all of those different antioxidants coming from all of those different colourful foods, fruits and vegetables. We've got a nice amount of protein in the Mediterranean diet as well. And protein's really, really important. It's literally the building blocks of life. So we really do need to make sure we're getting good amounts of protein in, even in an IVF cycle, with sometimes at stimulation in particular, wanting to really ramp up protein intake during that couple of weeks as well. So making sure that you're getting a palm-sized portion of protein with every meal, about 20, 25, even up to 30 grams during IVF per meal is what I would suggest. And that's obviously going to provide you with obviously the amino acids, which are those building blocks, as well as, you know, certain types of lean protein or protein will contain the iron as well, which we've spoken about. That's important to optimize. And then, you know, we've got things like other benefits coming from some of these protein sources, like, you know, dairy, we've got calcium, we've got iodine, really, really important. Calcium is obviously really important during pregnancy, and iodine supports thyroid health. And then in eggs, we've got choline, again, really, really important for sort of methylation and DNA synthesis, and also during pregnancy as well. So protein has many different functions, and there's micronutrients within some of these food sources as well, which are quite, you know, really, really important. And then other things that we should think about increasing are healthy fats, and we shouldn't be afraid of fats. Like if I don't know if you were anything like me, but we've grown up in an like a low-fat era. And I remember even in my 20s being like, you know, low-fat cottage cheese and just an avoiding too much fats, but it they're so crucial. Every cell in the body has this fatty membrane, and we really need good fats to support the function of that membrane and the integrity of it. And if we think about the egg cell, like I said, it's the biggest cell in the body. So we need to have a nice amount of these healthy fats and also healthy fats. We make our hormones from cholesterol as well. So, you know, we don't want to be like eating that restrictive low-fat diet. So this can come from obviously things like nuts and seeds, the oily fish, the olive oil that we talk about every day. So, yeah, with the Mediterranean Dart, I mean, I tend to say to people, it's not about eating as if you're on a Greek island, as lovely as that would be, but just looking at the foods that you like to eat and how can you optimise your plate a little bit better? So if it's, you know, you're having a couple of eggs with some sourdough at breakfast, like let's add a bit more colour in there, let's add some spinach, some tomatoes, or mushrooms. Like you want to have two or three veg with each meal, ideally, maybe a handful of leaves, and you're drizzling that olive oil on top. So like look at your plate and see what you're what's missing from that list, really. I'm quite a big fan of like a savoury breakfast. I think we've got we go down this, like, or we've maybe again grown up with like a sweeter breakfast, but sort of stabilizing blood sugars is quite important around fertility and obviously IVF as well. So going a bit more grain-free or a bit more savoury encourages that a little bit more. So it might be eggs or a chia pudding. You know, if you have things like overnight oats, just make sure you do sort of add a few protein things, you know, nuts and seeds or nut butter. You can add collagen and things like that just to kind of make it a bit more balanced and well-rounded. I'm a really big fan of things like omelets as well, like fritata's omelets. I do like these egg muffin recipes that I've posted on my Instagram. And, you know, you can pack like two or three veg in there and also just make it easy for yourself. Like a fritata or an egg muffin is a great one to batch cook, and then you've got like breakfast or lunch for two or three days. I'm also a big fan of like doubling up your dinners. So if, you know, say like if you really enjoy a beef chili, like do like a three bean beef chili. You can like hide a few extra veggies in there or serve it with a bit of steamed broccoli. You could have it with quinoa. Again, like a different, I get this like tri-colour quinoa, so it's kind of just got a bit more going on. And these make really good leftovers as well for lunches. So lunch doesn't always, I think that's one thing people struggle with. I don't know if you hear that.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Yeah, definitely. I think breakfast and lunch generally, I feel like quite often have their dinners sorted, but yeah, it's either like not prepping enough, i.e., not thinking ahead, so for lunch, or they're rushing, not taking a lunch break, grabbing food on the go, so therefore going for more convenience-based foods. And with breakfast, almost feeling like they can't have protein for breakfast and naturally going for that more sweet thing rather than thinking you could have chicken for breakfast. Doing neural programming almost, isn't it? Like how we're brought up to eat.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Yeah, I started doing like chicken in an omelette. Like, if there was like a roast chicken from a Sunday, use those leftovers and like it's really, really nice, and you feel so much better because you're fuller for longer, protein's really satiating. So there's nothing worse than eating something. And then two hours later, you're like, oh my god, my energy's crashed, I'm starving, I'm like thinking about my next meal already. So if we can stabilize those blood sugars early on, then that's gonna really, really help. And like I said, it is important from like a fertility perspective as well. But what I wanted to get across here is it doesn't have to be bland at all. And I think, and that's where it really depends, like how you, you know, is it Asian cuisine you love? Like, okay, it's a stir fry. Like, I mean, I sometimes get MS do the stir fry meal deal, it's eight pounds. I sometimes add a couple of extra veggies in. I'll put like some cashews or some seeds or something on top, like sesame seeds. You know, you can use the things that you buy and just like pimp them up a bit. It doesn't have to be like fish, some like steamed fish and grains and then some steamed broccoli, like bland. It can be how you like to eat, but just a little bit optimized, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

I love that you're talking constantly about adding things in. This is about putting more on your plate, not taking things off your plate. And I approached, because actually a lot of women aren't eating enough a lot of the time. I know restricted, and that's really not great for fertility to be on a restricted sort of calorie intake, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, sometimes I get clients where they've had some rounds of IVF and they've gained weight because they don't they think they can't exercise, and they, you know, maybe even they, you know, even if IVF hasn't been involved, they've been on a bit of a restrictive diet, and actually it really works against you with weight loss. So, you know, yes, you need to move more, but also sometimes you need to eat a little bit more, and particularly that protein, that fibre, increasing that isn't going to make you gain weight if you're eating the right amount, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

So I think that's important. If you're eating the right things, right, then it's going to be beneficial. Yeah, something that comes up quite a bit. Thank you. That just talking through that is super helpful for listeners, I think, to really understand the sorts of foods and the makeup of your play is really, really helpful. Something else I want to talk about was the two-week wait because I don't know about you, I'm sure this is the case for you, probably. But we get one of the most popular questions we get asked is I've just had an embryo transfer. What do I need to do to help make implantation happen? Like, what do I need to do? What do I need to eat? Like anything to do with things you can do in the two-week wait that can help. And I think this has a lot to do with the fact that the control is almost taken out of your hands to some degree. You've had your embryo transfer, so you now feel like it's left a little bit and you want to do as much as you can to help that embryo to work. But I just want to talk a little bit more because I feel like this is such an anxious time as well for people.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Yeah, and I'm really passionate about talking about this actually, because I think getting people to eat particular or like giving meal plans specifically for the two-week wait can be really detrimental because if that doesn't work, of course, the first thing you're going to think about is what did I what did I do or didn't do that has caused this. And you have to know the prep is obviously really, really important. So we've already talked about like the three to six months, we've talked about testing before you get to the two-week wait. Please, please check your full blood count, your iron, what's your vitamin D looking like? What is going on beneath like the surface? So, again, GP should not refuse that. Like, you don't have to pay for these tests. Thyroid, what's going on? I would say you might need to do a full private thyroid panel because I like to look at things like the antibodies. I like to look at the T3 as well and like how you're converting the T4, which is your thyroid hormone, to the active form of T3. So, you know, you might have to pay a little bit for certain tests, and it depends what you know, how what how much time you have and things like that. But do make sure you get those done. And honestly, if you've done that, you've followed some of these principles around diet, you're with, you know, you feel confident about the protocol that your clinic's given you, you know, you're thinking about things like the acupuncture. I think that can be really beneficial as well, even just from a stress and anxiety perspective in that two-week weight, then honestly, know that you've absolutely done enough. There are some studies, there's one study in particular, actually, that I've seen being talked about quite a bit on Instagram in the last few months, and it's this beetroot juice study. And basically, there was just less than 500 participants in the study, and they they had watermelon that was it was predominantly watermelon, I think it was like 200 grams, and then about 80 grams of beetroot, 80 grams of ginger juiced up, and they had this during this two-week wait, and they saw a rise in implantation occurring. Now, the conclusion of that study was they didn't actually know whether they could attribute it to that juice. I do share this with people, and I also share there's some, you know, there's some the reason why the beet treat, for example, is good for supporting implantation, is it's a nitric oxide food. And this, we know that this had has benefits in relation to blood flow. So, you know, it's not gonna do any harm to maybe eat some of these foods, but in all honesty, it's in my opinion, it might be controversial, but I really don't think it's gonna make or break this two-week wait. But if you want to feel like, you know what, I'm gonna give it a go, it's not gonna do any harm, then go for it. I would just say with juices, that juice is gonna be quite sweet. So I wouldn't have it on its own. I would have it after your protein and fat-rich meal, just as kind of like a side to it. Other things think about, I mean, vitamin E, that can help build the lining of like the uterine lining, but you kind of need to be doing that at least sort of two to three months in advance. If and and even then, I don't just put that in. We need to be careful with antioxidants because if we take too much, it can have the opposite effect actually and cause some oxidative stress and damage. But if someone's historically got a thin lining and even with hormonal support was still struggling, it might be something to think about adding in in advance. You can find vitamin E in things like almond butter. That's an easy swap, even for male fertility. You know, get some almond butter in your cupboard, not just peanut butter, sunflower seeds, um, a really good source. And then the only other thing to think about in the two-week wait is just to be mindful that you could be pregnant during this period, and you want to avoid foods that you would avoid in pregnancy. So I give my clients a list of these foods, and these are the things, you know, the smoked salmon, for example, unless it's hot smoked, certain cheeses, make sure you wash all your fruit and veg. And like those bags of salad, even if they say washed and ready to eat, I get my clients to make sure they thoroughly wash them, watch the best before dates. Things like listeria can increase the risk of miscarriage. And it's so important to be mindful of this, particularly in the first trimester, just because things are so it's like a real fine balance, isn't it? But the main thing that I personally get my clients to work on during the two-week wait is stress and anxiety management, like no googling of symptoms. Like, honestly, I've seen people on Instagram talk about, oh, I got this symptom and this symptom, and then I, you know, I got pregnant. And, you know, honestly, it you're not going to feel anything until about six weeks. So don't go down that Google rabbit hole. It's nice to have like some nice outdoor plans, even in the winter. You know, have like if it's over, if you've got a weekend, you should have a weekend in that two-week wait. Get out, go and do a lovely long walk in the countryside or go to the beach, like just something to take your mind off it. Big fan of acupuncture, reflexology, anything that's just gonna calm the nervous system and just help with any of that anxiety. I think's probably where I'd spend more of my time like focusing on.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Yeah, I completely agree. And I think it's really important to remind people that at this point, yes, there are things you can do, like you talked about the beetroot juice. And I think, yeah, it's not gonna cost a large amount of money, and it's not going to be something that is going to cause you a lot of stress to do. So if you want to try these things, try them. However, we really need to remember that a lot of the work has been done, and the embryo genetics are one of the key factors, TF outcomes. So if you've put the work in in the three to six months beforehand, you're more likely to have a genetically normal embryo. Um, and therefore that the hard work was kind of the bit that came before. But yeah, I completely agree that you know the stress and anxiety and the two-week way is just such a difficult time for so many couples. And I think anything you can do to calm, and like you said, just simple things like getting out for a walk that's completely free. Yeah. That can just really help your mindset.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Yeah, and be mindful of exercise. So, again, I posted quite a bit about this with my journey on Instagram, and I got the help of someone actually who did a brilliant programme for me because I spent a lot of I I worked a lot on like strength training and getting back into the gym last year, which made me really feel so much better and gave me a focus outside of fertility. But we really want to taper that down and the lead up to the transfer. So, with exercise, walking, and a bit of fertility yoga, you can Google fertility yoga, and there's some things people that come up on YouTube. So there's really good resources there, but just don't overdo it, basically. But also, you don't want to not do anything that's important because I think so many people are scared. You don't need bed rest, it doesn't rest doesn't increase the chances of success, but getting out, getting fresh air, a nice half an hour walk a day would be lovely.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Yeah, anything that moves oxygenated blood around the body is gonna help, right? So you exactly brisk walk or is good. Yes. That has been so helpful to our listeners, and yeah, thank you. Do you want to tell our listeners how they can get in touch with you and where they can find you?

SPEAKER_00 39:55

Yeah, of course. So I've got my website, so that's genwallpole.com, my Instagram as well, it's genwallpole nutrition. I do offer a free 30-minute call. And anyone that's thinking about exploring fertility nutrition, or you know, you know, maybe you've had implantation failure and you want to optimize your chances, you just want to have a chat, do book in that call. You can do that via my website, via my Instagram, and we can go from there. And yeah, I think that's it. I'll send you those details and you can pop them in the notes, I think, as well, just so people can find those.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

Yeah, I will do. I'll link your website so people can go and find you directly. But yeah, thank you for joining us, Jen. It was great. Thank you so much for having me.