Supplements can be helpful – don’t get me wrong. I routinely use them in clinic, and I’ve seen so many cases where they have been.

But I’ve also seen cases where they’ve been a hindrance.

Supplements are powerful and they’re extremely safe when used properly. But that doesn’t mean they can’t mess things up with your egg quality, lining, and other subtle factors that influence fertility.

Amy and I first met when she was 33 years old. She was a stressed-out project manager at an engineering firm who’d been trying to conceive for 3 years.

Amy was brilliant. Being trained as an engineer, she was all about the numbers, the spreadsheets, the research. And, she’d done her research.

She was taking quite a large number of supplements by the time she got to me. And, trust me, she had it all figured out as to why she was taking each one, almost down to the molecule.

Right off the bat, after she and I finished our initial conversation about her symptoms and history, I realized there were about 3 out of the 7 or so supplements she was taking that were probably unnecessary for her.

It took a little work on my part to convince her to stop taking them for a few months – after all she’d researched them extensively… But she agreed after I explained my rationale.

Along the way she noticed unexpected improvements in her sleep and her bowel function. This indicated, in my opinion, that the supplement regimen she was taking was causing subtle sleep and bowel issues – resulting in an ever so slight shift in her liver-adrenal axis – that was blocking conception.

Two months later, Amy was pregnant naturally.

So, in Amy’s case, less was more.