Amanda Smith is a freelance journalist and writer. She reports on culture, society, human interest and technology. Her stories hold a mirror to society, reflecting both its malaise and its beauty. Amanda's work has been published in National Geographic, The Guardian, Business Insider, Vice, News Corp, Singapore Airlines, Travel + Leisure, and Food & Wine. Amanda is an Australian living in the cultural center of gravity that is New York City.
It started when I walked past puppies in my neighborhood. I was that person, asking to pet them. My uterus would do flips when I saw a baby, my body signaling to my brain that it's time to think about starting a family.
After spending my 20s hopscotching around the world and putting my circadian rhythm through the ringer, I knew I had some pregnancy prep to do -- especially given I'm now in my mid-30s. No woman wants to hear "geriatric" from their OB-GYN.
With my biological clock ticking, and artificial intelligence promising faster answers, I turned to AI instead of Dr. Google to see if it could help me get my body baby-ready.
I chose OpenAI's ChatGPT, because it's the best-known AI tool and had a major upgrade to the free version in May. I also wanted more conversational capabilities, rather than a listicle of advice (which ChatGPT does well).
ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and is available for free or $20 per month for ChatGPT Plus. I went with the paid version, because there isn't time to mess around.
First, I wanted to know the pregnancy stats for healthy 35-year-old women with no fertility issues.
Instead of a 20% to 25% chance of conceiving per cycle, I was in the 15% chance-per-cycle range. ChatGPT highlighted a higher risk of miscarriage, so I noted that as a follow-up question. A girlfriend also told me it's not our biological age that matters, but our egg quality that matters.
So I asked: "What is the best prenatal nutrition for a 35-year-old woman to help improve egg quality and reduce the risk of miscarriage?"
ChatGPT replied, offering a two-pronged approach rooted in nutrition and lifestyle. Some of the things it included were folic acid, Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, iron, calcium and vitamin D, protein and coenzyme Q10, as well as a balanced diet, hydration, eliminating harmful substances like alcohol and tobacco, prenatal vitamins and regular check-ups.
I liked that ChatGPT provided sourcing from the Mayo Clinic and a comprehensive study by Oxford Academic. It seemed to include legitimate links, which was encouraging -- however, it's still worth manually fact-checking yourself. (And remember that your independent research is always a supplement to getting advice directly from medical professionals.)
But while ChatGPT outlined key nutrients, it didn't say how much of each I needed, or whether I required anything specific as a "geriatric" woman. It didn't come back with anything relating to age. I asked the AI chatbot to break the info down that way, and it told me how much of each nutrient I needed, where I could find it -- like leafy green vegetables for folic acid and fatty fish for omega-3 -- and what each nutrient does.
I asked if I could get all of the nutrients through my diet or not. It suggested supplementation for half the list: Out of the list of eight, ChatGPT suggested protein and antioxidants through diet, and the rest through diet and a prenatal vitamin. Omega-3 fatty acids and CoQ10 weren't listed in the prenatal I ordered, so I asked ChatGPT about it.
ChatGPT replied, saying that omega-3 fatty acids and CoQ10 are often supplemented separately, as they're not always included in standard prenatal vitamins. Good to know. I'm glad I pushed it, because I learned that I need EPA, not just DHA (EPA and DHA are both omega-3s) -- a combined total intake of 500-1,000mg, not just the 200-300mg from DHA that ChatGPT initially suggested.
Real Food for Pregnancy by Lily Nichols is a nutrition bible for baby-making, so I asked ChatGPT what the author suggests in terms of levels. The list was comparable, but also included choline, vitamin A, magnesium, zinc and iodine -- all of which are included in my prenatal besides choline.
I asked ChatGPT what Nichols suggests for women over 35, and it highlighted the importance of folate, choline, DHA, iron, vitamin D, magnesium, calcium and CoQ10.
Next, I wanted to see if ChatGPT had any old wives' tales for fertility. Although it came with a caveat, the advice was interesting all the same. Some of its suggestions? Eating yams and sweet potatoes, because their phytoestrogens "might help balance hormones"; eating pineapple core for five days after ovulation, which can apparently "improve implantation due to the enzyme bromelain"; wearing "fertility jewelry" like jade and moonstone, and lucky charms to bring good luck; and drinking raspberry leaf tea and taking a maca root supplement.
Let's see if these dietary suggestions are legitimate, or if ChatGPT hallucinated.
I fact-checked the pineapple core suggestion on Google, and while I did see some commentary about it, there wasn't a lot of scientific evidence to prove its legitimacy as a fertility aid.
As for raspberry leaf tea, ChatGPT missed a pretty important warning -- not to take it until around 37 weeks pregnant in case you are in the early stages of pregnancy already, because it could cause the uterus to contract.
Back in ChatGPT, I questioned if there are other surprising or lesser-known strategies that we've missed. It provided a few extra dietary suggestions that I wanted to test, like seed cycling -- eating flaxseeds and pumpkin seeds during the first half of the menstrual cycle and sesame and sunflower seeds in the second half -- eating bone broth, taking inositol supplements and wearing castor oil packs on the abdomen.
The more I pushed and prodded ChatGPT, the more the advice had an Eastern medicine flair. While I doubt I'd find castor oil packs in traditional fertility nutrition advice, acupuncture clinics and holistic specialists stand by it.
On that note, I asked ChatGPT if it had other Eastern medicine or holistic nutrition advice for fertility. I added some common fertility herbs to my list: dong quai, Goji berries and Chinese yam.
For my last question, I was curious about what Ayurvedic specialists suggest, because ChatGPT had noted it a couple of times. You can see all of those Ayurvedic suggestions at the bottom of this article, but there was a greater focus on hormonal balance, detoxification and mind-body harmony.
While it's important to seek professional advice, especially when it comes to health matters, I liked how ChatGPT offered a broad range of advice, from non-negotiable nutrition to the add-ons that might lead to baby dust.
My final nutrition list:
After an hour of chatting with ChatGPT, I feel more informed and empowered about how to approach fertility nutrition. It's a helpful tool to aggregate key information online and talk through what it suggests. Just be sure to tell it of any vitamin deficiencies you have, and always consult a medical professional.
I kept my prenatal but I did order CoQ10 and omega-3 with DHA and EPA supplements, and plan to experiment with recipes that include these fertility ingredients and add Chinese herbs to the mix.
