Are any major lifestyle changes necessary while undergoing assisted reproductive technology treatments?

Are any major lifestyle changes necessary while undergoing assisted reproductive technology treatments?

Richard Paulson (Chief, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, USC) gives expert video advice on: How often do assisted reproductive technology treatments produce multiple children?; Are assisted reproductive technology treatments expensive? and more...

In assisted reproductive technology, we take such control over the whole reproductive process that major changes in lifestyle are not necessary. We are in control over the ovaries, how quickly the eggs grow and how they are fertilized in the laboratory. It seems quite difficult to understand how any lifestyle change could possibly impact that technique. Having said that, we generally discourage patients from drinking. We say you should consider yourself to be pregnant from the time you start. We discourage them from overly vigorous exercise. I tell them not to start training for a marathon in the middle of a fertility cycle, but light exercise, or reasonable aerobic exercise, is OK. Having sex is OK, at least until the time the embryo is put back into the uterus. There are no special foods and no special restrictions on anything else. Really everything else is pretty much OK, because we're controlling everything in such a tight way that lifestyle really plays a very minor role at that level.