Preparing for IVF: what you need to know

Start three months ahead

An egg takes roughly three months to go from resting to ready, and sperm take about the same time to mature. What the two of you eat, breathe and do in those months reaches the cells that will become your embryo. That is why Dr. Shami likes to meet you well before the first injection, not the week before.

Preparation is planned around your treatment date, never instead of it. If your age or your reserve means a step should not wait, it does not wait; the preparation runs alongside. The functional fertility checkup is where most of this work is decided.

The tests before treatment

The fertility checkup answers why. Before an IVF cycle, a second, simpler set of tests answers whether your body is ready to carry it. Depending on your history, Dr. Shami asks for some or all of these:

• Complete blood count (CBC), to catch anaemia before stimulation adds to the load
• Ferritin and iron, because low iron stores are common in women of childbearing age and easy to miss while the blood count still looks normal
• Vitamin D, commonly low in the UAE despite the sun
• Vitamin B12 and folate, both needed for the earliest divisions of an embryo
• Thyroid function (TSH), which needs to be well controlled before and during pregnancy
• Glucose and insulin, particularly with PMOS or a family history of diabetes
• The infection screening required by UAE regulation before any IVF cycle, for both partners
• A recent semen analysis, so that the laboratory knows what to expect on the day

Results are read before the cycle is scheduled, so that anything that needs correcting is corrected first.

Correcting deficiencies: tablets, or an infusion

Most deficiencies are corrected with tablets, started early enough to work. Iron tablets take two to three months to rebuild stores, and they do not suit everyone. When ferritin is very low, when tablets cause too much stomach upset, or when the cycle cannot wait that long, Dr. Shami may recommend an iron infusion: a single intravenous dose, given at the clinic, that fills the stores in weeks rather than months.

Vitamin D and B12 are replaced according to the level found, not by a standard dose for everyone. Folic acid is the one supplement every woman planning a pregnancy should take, ideally from at least one to three months before conception; Dr. Shami tells you the dose that is right for you, which is higher for some women. Anything else you take is reviewed: supplements are chosen on your results, not on what is fashionable this year.

Smoking, shisha and vaping

Nicotine, in any form, lowers egg quality and sperm quality and reduces the chance that an embryo implants. Cigarettes, shisha, vaping and heated tobacco all count, and so does living with someone who smokes. Dr. Shami asks both partners to stop completely, at least three months before the cycle, so that the eggs collected and the sperm used on the day have grown without it. Stopping earlier is better; stopping for good is best, because the pregnancy and the child will need the same air.

Alcohol is stopped during preparation and treatment. Caffeine is limited to one or two cups a day. If stopping smoking is hard, say so: help exists, and she would rather plan around a real quit date than a hopeful one.

Food that works for you

Vitamins and minerals are micronutrients. Each is needed in a specific, optimal amount for the biochemical pathways that regulate metabolism and protect cells. When one is missing, those pathways slow down: energy production in every cell drops, and so does the body's ability to deal with what it meets every day, from bacteria and viruses to pesticides, microplastics and mould.

The right nutrients in daily food steady the microbiome and the immune system and lower chronic inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation is one of the common reasons for disrupted hormone signalling, lower egg and sperm quality, and embryos that fail to implant. None of this needs an exotic diet. A plate built around vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, fish, olive oil, nuts and enough protein, with far less ultra-processed food and sugar, does most of the work. A healthy weight improves both the response to stimulation and the safety of the pregnancy, and Dr. Shami discusses it as medicine, not as blame.

Move, and build muscle

Regular exercise helps fertility in a specific way: muscle that is used takes up sugar from the blood, which improves insulin metabolism. Insulin resistance lowers fertility in women and in men by disturbing hormone metabolism and lowering egg quality, and it is at the centre of PMOS. Strength training two or three times a week, alongside walking or any activity you enjoy, is one of the few lifestyle changes with a direct effect on the hormones that matter.

Sleep and stress belong here too. Seven to eight hours of sleep and some protected time each day are not luxuries during preparation; the hormones that govern ovulation are sensitive to both. Once stimulation starts, the ovaries enlarge and Dr. Shami will tell you when to ease off intense training; until then, move.

Treating the root cause

Chronic inflammation, hormonal imbalance and poorly working mitochondria, the energy centres of the cell, often trace back to the same two causes: food that does not contain what the body needs, or a gut that does not absorb it. Treating the symptom without the cause leaves the ground unchanged for the next cycle.

So the functional part of Dr. Shami's preparation looks for the cause: absorption problems, a thyroid that is only just in range, a metabolism that needs support. Correcting these is not a treatment for infertility on its own, but it improves the ground on which any treatment is built, and it stays with you after the cycle.

One team around you at Fakih IVF

Preparing for IVF touches several specialities at once, and at Fakih IVF they work as one team rather than as separate doors. Fertility doctors, nurses, a family and functional medicine doctor and a genetic counsellor work together with you, sharing one plan, so that a deficiency is treated while the protocol is being written and a genetic question is answered before it becomes a delay. The clinic's own genetics laboratory, First Genomix, keeps that part in-house.

For you it means fewer repeated conversations, decisions taken together, and a journey that runs more smoothly from the first test to the transfer. Dr. Shami stays the doctor you message.

Questions patients ask

How long before IVF should I stop smoking?

At least three months before the cycle, for both partners, and completely rather than cutting down. Eggs and sperm take about that long to mature, so what is collected on the day reflects those months. Shisha, vaping and heated tobacco count as smoking.

Do I need an iron infusion before IVF?

Only if your ferritin is low and tablets are too slow, not tolerated, or the cycle cannot wait. Dr. Shami decides on your results, not as a routine. Most women correct their iron with tablets started early enough.

Which supplements should I take before IVF?

Folic acid, for every woman planning a pregnancy, at the dose Dr. Shami prescribes. Beyond that, only what a test shows you need, such as vitamin D, B12 or iron. Bring everything you already take to the consultation, including herbal products; some help, some do nothing, and a few get in the way.

Can lifestyle changes replace IVF?

No. They are a complement. Better food, movement and no smoking improve egg and sperm quality and the chance that an embryo implants, and for some couples that is enough to conceive naturally. Where IVF is needed, preparation makes it more likely to work; it does not make it unnecessary.

Medically reviewed by Dr. Ghina Shami, Consultant Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility · September 2026