The Dr. Hyman Show
Office Hours: Preparing Your Body for Pregnancy — Fertility, Nutrition & Hormones
26 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Office Hours. This is our dedicated one-on-one space to go deeper, get clearer, and explore what truly moves the needle for your health. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman, and each week we're going to pull back the curtain and share the insights, the research, the lessons that don't always make it into our conversations with guests. Because at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your own health.
And for many of you, your family's health too. And you might not feel it all the time, but you have far more power and agency than you realize.
I'm glad you're here. This episode is brought to you by Function Health, empowering you to live 100 healthy years with over 160 lab tests at just $365 a year. Sign up today at functionhealth.com slash mark and use code mark 2026 to get $50 towards your membership.
Today we're diving into one of the most personal and the most emotionally charged topics I get asked about, fertility. Now, so many of you have written in with questions about unexplained infertility, irregular or missing menstrual cycles, hormone imbalances, PCOS, endometriosis, miscarriages, and what you can actually do to prepare your body for conception.
Now, these questions are deeply real, and they often come with frustration, confusion, and heartbreak, especially when the answers feel limited or incomplete. And yet, what I want you to know is this. You have far more influence over your fertility than you've likely been led to believe.
So today we're walking through your listener submitted questions and breaking down what's really driving infertility and what the challenges are today. From metabolic health issues, to inflammation, to nutrient status, to stress, to environmental toxins. My hope is that this conversation is going to give you clarity and hope and also practical steps you can start using right now.
whether you're actively trying to conceive or whether you're simply planning to have a baby in the future. Let's start at the beginning here. Having babies, really important. This is where I see the most confusion, the most fear, and sadly, the most misinformation. The question is, what's actually driving infertility? Why is infertility on the rise? Is it age? Is it the environment?
Is it our diet? Is it something deeper? Infertility rates are rising due to a lot of things. The primary reason, and there was a book written about this by a Harvard researcher named Walter Willett called The Fertility Diet. about metabolic dysfunction. And I know you think, Dr. Hyman, you must be obsessed with this metabolic nonsense. I hear about it all the time from you. I'm sorry.
It's just the thing that causes everything. It causes heart disease, causes cancer, causes diabetes, causes dementia, causes infertility, even causes acne, causes depression, causes mental health issues. I mean, it is a massive problem.
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Chapter 2: What are the main factors driving infertility today?
Gut health, again, another important thing. A lot of women and people in general have gut health issues. Number one reason people go to the doctor. So there's a lot of things you can identify and treat that you can really focus on. Subclinical thyroid issues, autoimmune issues, chronic stress, mitochondrial issues. gut issues, toxin load, all these things we can measure in functional medicine.
And when you look at simple things that can actually help besides doing all this, there's simple lifestyle things that make your eggs better. Getting quality sleep, balancing your blood sugar, optimize your nutrient status, lowering your toxin exposure. All these really help to improve the quality of eggs. And by the way, folks, sperm too, because it's not just women here that are the problem.
It's guys too. Guys' sperm is a problem. Men's quality of sperm is going down and down and down. And stay tuned. I'm doing a podcast with Stanford urologist Michael Eisenberg coming up soon. That's going to go deep into the problems with sperm and sperm quality in society today and how that's contributing to infertility. And we're going to get into that.
But right now, we're going to talk about how to help improve your metabolic health, because that's a really important factor. The fertility diet is an example, but I would go even further. People can go on the blood sugar solution, 10-day detox diet. You go to 10daydetox.com. It's the best way to reset your metabolic health.
And of course, I created it, but it's out of my own practice and experience. And, you know, what I've learned with patients, I simply write about, I talk about and I teach about because I want not just my patients to have the benefit, I want everybody to have the benefit.
So balancing your blood sugar is key, getting rid of the starch and sugar, having more protein, having more good fats, having more fiber, lots of phytochemicals, getting your insulin stable, exercising, building muscle, all those things make a profound difference. And even small changes can make great improvement in ovulation hormone balance.
And PCOS is the most important example of this where women have a lot of infertility when they have polycystic ovarian syndrome, but it's not an ovarian problem. It's a nutritional problem. They call it ovarian syndrome, but it's actually nutritional syndrome because it's related to the starch and sugar in our diet.
Okay, so again, not everybody, some small subset of people with PCOS are thin and healthy, but still have this problem. But for the majority, it's because of our starch and sugar diet. So what else can you do to improve your quality of eggs, to improve your likelihood of having pregnancy that comes to term? It's eating real food. It's getting rid of ultra-processed food.
It's having enough omega-3 fats. It's getting rid of inflammation triggers like gluten and dairy. Dairy is a big problem for a lot of people, by the way, and can cause a lot of inflammation in the body, a lot of gut issues, a lot of autoimmune dysregulation. I like goat and sheep better, but you just want to be careful. Next, you want to do the best you can.
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Chapter 3: How do blood sugar and inflammation affect hormone balance?
What household cleaning products you should have? What facial and skincare products you should have to go to Skin Deep. It's really a great app. It's part of their work. I filter my water at home. I have a reverse hospice filter. I have air filters in the house. And actually, I think I need more because I just did my indoor air quality and I had a device that I used to measure it.
And I actually have a fair bit of indoor air pollution. And it's actually often a very toxic environment for people. And then just be smart. Like, you know, there's a lot of plastic. So plastic bottles and plastic cookware. And I mean, people microwave in plastic. Just don't be stupid. The other thing people don't know is BPA is a huge endocrine disruptor.
BPA also causes insulin resistance or bisphenol A. You should line cans, bottles. They've taken some of that out, but they replace it with something just as bad. till they, you know, ban that again. But BPA is also on credit card receipts. It's on the gas station receipts. It's on all that stuff. So you don't want to touch that stuff. People say, you want to receive? I'm like, no, thanks.
You know, so be careful of those. Those drop your hormones. Next thing you can do to improve fertility is help your gut. So lots more foods that support your gut microbiome. Lots of fiber. nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables, some whole grains, some beans can be very helpful. Fermented foods, sauerkraut, miso, kimchi, natto, tempeh, all these fermented foods can be very, very helpful.
Prebiotic foods can be helpful. Asparagus and there's some artichokes and onions and you can just kind of go on ChatGPT and look up what are prebiotic foods and you'll see what they are. And then you can also use probiotics as a way to support your gut health. And I think most people in society today should be on a basic probiotic. It's almost like a foundational supplement.
Multi, fish oil, vitamin D, and a probiotic. And I'd probably add magnesium to there. It's a basic foundation for everybody, given the massive nutritional deficiencies we have. And those can help estrogen metabolism. They can help your immune system, reduce inflammation. They can improve your ability to absorb nutrients. So they're all very helpful. Okay, what else can you do?
Well, you can learn how to regulate stress in your nervous system. And when you're chronically stressed, it disrupts ovulation, lowers sperm count. I mean, if you take a bunch of soldiers who are healthy 20-year-old guys and you march them overnight, their sperm count drops dramatically. Their testosterone drops dramatically. Their thyroid drops dramatically.
So stress affects every system in your body, including fertility, ovulation, sperm production. So learn some simple practices because, you know, stress happens to you automatically. But learning how to activate your relaxation system is an active process. So meditation, breath work, Andrew Huberman calls it non-sleep deep rest, which otherwise is known as yoga nidra.
It's been around for thousands of years. You can go to Spotify, just do yoga nidra or go on YouTube and do a 10 minute or 20 minute or 30 minute one. Very important. Getting your sleep optimized, also critical. Because if you don't sleep, your stress response is much higher. Exercise also really helps. Helps reduce the stress, but also improves your reproductive hormones.
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Chapter 4: What should you do if your fertility labs are normal but you're struggling?
How do you help? Because the amount of energy required to stimulate ovaries, to make eggs is a lot. And what drives the energy production, your mitochondria? So mitochondria are the energy factors in your cell. They help power hormone production, egg development, detoxification. They help your overall recovery. And there's lots of ways to support mitochondrial health.
So you can eat rich foods and antioxidants and lots of berries, leafy greens, colorful fruits and veggies, lots of omega-3s, salmon, sardines, walnuts, chia seeds, all great. CoQ10, also very important, really important. Organ meats, okay? People don't like them, but I love liver. They really help. They're the most nutrient-dense food on the planet.
If you don't believe me, just go to Google and ask for a chart comparing the most nutrient-dense vegetable on the planet with liver. And you will see it's not even a contest. It's like this on the graph. Can't see my hands, but if you're listening, but it's a big delta. Oily fish really help. Broccoli helps. All that's great.
Also, strength training, exercise, walking, cardio, all improve mitochondrial function. Deep restorative sleep, also critical for healthy mitochondria. If you're working with a doctor or you want to try stuff on your own, you can try things like coenzyme Q10, N-acetylcysteine or NAC, alpha-lipoic acid.
These are generally safe, but you want to choose the right products and really work with someone who helps you understand what they are because they're kind of not your general multivitamins. And they also help liver detox, actually, by the way. These can be very helpful. So your liver helps also clear hormones. They clear the medications used in IVF.
You don't want to go cleanse, but you want just a general support of your detox pathway. So how do you do that? You eat foods that help detoxification. All the broccoli family, broccoli, collards, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, onions, garlic, these all have sulfur in them that increases glutathione. That is the main detox fire in your body. Lots of water. Herbal teas can be helpful.
Dandelion is a great detox fire. Ginger, peppermint, many other things can be helpful too. Lots of fiber that helps get rid of the excess hormones from your gut. They get excreted from your liver and you need to recirculate them, get them out of your body. Black seeds are amazing for this. Beans, veggies, also great. Alcohol, definitely bad for you. I'm sorry, guys.
I loved a good drink down then, but there's no world in which alcohol is good and the dose makes the poison. So higher amounts, more frequent amounts are dangerous. It really raises estrogen levels. It really screws up hormones. It really affects sperm. So if you're trying to have babies, don't drink. Also, sweating is really helpful. So detoxification through saunas, exercise, cycling, all break.
Also, you want to reduce inflammation. So when you have hormonal stimulation, it can make your inflammation levels go up. That can show up as lots of symptoms like fatigue or mood changes, bloating, skin flares. The key is to lower inflammation by eating whole food, unprocessed food, lots of omega-3 fats, same diet for everything pretty much, right?
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Chapter 5: How can lifestyle changes improve egg and sperm quality?
And the lack of good quality whole foods, the lack of fiber, the lack of adequate fats, good fats, protein, all really important. So when you want to improve When you want to improve your epigenome, you have to eat in a way that doesn't cause too much insulin production, which means low starch and sugar diets, higher fat, higher fiber, good quality protein, and so forth.
Also, nutrients play a big role in this and regulating your epigenome. So vitamins, minerals, you want to have optimal levels. And again, at functional health, the company I co-founded, we allow you to test all your nutrient levels. Because your doctor usually isn't checking them. Checking homocysteine, methyl monoxide, vitamin D, zinc, omega-3 fats.
These are the things you should be checking to see where you're at. And I can tell you in our population, 70%, and this is, mind you, the level that the government RDA says you need to not get a deficiency disease. So how much vitamin D do you need to not get rickets or how much vitamin C do you need to not get scurvy? Not very much. It's a very different number than you need for optimal health.
So at the level that is the minimum to prevent a deficiency disease, we see 70% of members of function. Now we have over 300,000 members. Now 70% have a deficiency in one or more levels of their nutrients at the lab reference range, which is bare minimum, not optimal. So think about that. That's a big deal. So you want to know your numbers.
Managing your sleep, managing stress, all that leads to better egg and sperm quality. It really improves your epigenetic quality.
Fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum aren't separate chapters. They're part of one continuous story of hormonal shifts, metabolic changes, and deep transformation. And no matter where you are in that journey, I want you to know this. You're not broken and you're not powerless.
So much of what affects fertility is influenced by the foundations, nutrition, blood sugar balance, stress, sleep, nutrient status, and environmental exposures. Small, consistent changes in these areas can have a profound impact over time, not just on your ability to conceive, but on your long-term health and the health of future generations.
Remember, you are the CEO of your own health, and the choices you make today can shape your future.
If you or someone you love is thinking about fertility, whether you're just starting to ask questions or navigating challenges or preparing your body for pregnancy, I want you to know you're not alone. And this year, we're launching something new for our community called the Ultra Learning Series where
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