Purabi Gunjal: Is Being Ready for IVF the Same as Being Healthy for IVF?
Purabi Gunjal, Founder and Fertility Nutrition Specialist, shared on LinkedIn:
“Being ready for IVF is not the same as being healthy for IVF.
And I think we confuse these two far too often.
- A woman starts preparing for IVF.
- She gets a supplement list.
- Changes her diet.
- Cuts caffeine & alcohol.
- Starts taking every antioxidant someone recommended.
And suddenly, she feels like she is ‘doing everything.’
But IVF preparation is not supposed to become a checklist of things to swallow and things to stop eating.
There is a bigger question: What is the health of the woman entering treatment?
- Before an IVF cycle, I would want to think beyond the embryo.
- Is her diet nutritionally adequate?
- Is she getting enough protein, fibre and essential micronutrients?
- How is her glucose metabolism?
- Is she physically active?
- Is she sleeping well?
- Is she carrying nutritional deficiencies that have gone unnoticed?
- Is her relationship with food becoming increasingly restrictive because of fertility advice?
Because here’s the uncomfortable part: You can be extremely ‘fertility-focused’ and still neglect your health.
And more supplements don’t automatically fix that.
Neither does an extremely restrictive diet.
Neither does obsessively trying to optimise every single variable.
The goal of preconception care shouldn’t be to make a woman perfect before IVF.
It should be to identify what is modifiable, address what actually needs attention, and help her enter treatment in a healthier, more sustainable state.
IVF is already emotionally and physically demanding.
Women don’t need another 27-item wellness checklist.
They need individualised preparation.
And sometimes the most useful intervention isn’t adding another supplement.
It’s figuring out what actually needs fixing first.
That is what I mean by preparing for IVF.
Not preparing for a procedure.
Preparing the person.”
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