Diet taboos after test tube transplantation

There are no absolute dietary taboos that need to be followed by everyone after IVF. The only taboos that are clearly not allowed are foods that are known to cause allergies, undercooked ingredients that can easily carry pathogenic bacteria, and foods/recipes that are clearly toxic. Most of the taboos spread online, such as "can't eat watermelon, can't eat crabs, and can't touch ice drinks," have no evidence-based medical basis and do not need to be followed blindly.

To be honest, I have seen too many post-transplant sisters eating with half-page taboo lists written on them. Even the apples had to be steamed and heated before they dared touch them. Last time I met a girl in the waiting area of ​​the fertility center and took a bite of a room-temperature orange. A fellow patient said, "Coldness will cause miscarriage." She was so frightened that she almost shed tears. Finally, a doctor passing by saw her crying and laughing. He said that if you don't have stomach problems after eating oranges, you will be fine if you eat three more.

Most of those "forbidden ingredients" that are rumored to be magical are essentially applying the causal relationships of individual cases to food. For example, crabs, which are the most scolded, will not cause allergies and diarrhea as long as they are fresh and completely steamed. There is no so-called "fetal miscarriage" effect at all. There are at least five or six sisters around me who have successfully implanted and given birth to babies. After the transplant, they all ate crabs without any problems. If it is true that eating a bite of crab will cause the embryo to drop, then what kind of abortion pill was needed in ancient times? Wouldn’t it be enough to just steam two pounds of crab?

Speaking of which, we have to mention the most controversial question of "can we eat raw, cold and spicy food?" Different doctors have different opinions. Even two doctors from the same fertility center may give completely opposite advice. In fact, there is no standard answer to this question. The core depends on your own body tolerance. If you usually have iced milk tea and iced coffee every day, and eat more spicy food than rice, you can still eat it as usual after the transplant. You can't let the girls in Sichuan and Chongqing eat white porridge all the time after the transplant. On the contrary, your appetite will decrease and you can't keep up with your nutrition, which is really bad for your bed. But if you usually have diarrhea every time you eat iced food and cannot touch spicy food once in half a year, then don’t suddenly go crazy and eat spicy hot pot with iced Coke. Severe diarrhea may indeed stimulate intestinal peristalsis and cause contractions. This pot should not be mixed with chili peppers and iced drinks. It is purely because you have not understood your gastrointestinal temperament.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that you can eat everything blindly. There are several types of risks that are clear. It is best to avoid it regardless of whether you have a transplant or whether you are pregnant. The first is undercooked meat, eggs, aquatic products, sashimi, soft-boiled eggs, medium-rare steaks, etc., which can easily carry Listeria and Salmonella. Ordinary people may have diarrhea for two days after being infected, but there is a high probability that pregnant women will suffer miscarriages and premature births after being infected. This is supported by clear clinical data, so don’t bet on luck. There are also those "pregnancy-preserving folk remedies" and "fertility-aiding ointments" with unknown ingredients, especially unknown medicated foods and deer fetus ointments sold by Wechat merchants. Many secretly add estrogen, which will disrupt the hormone levels in your body. I have met a patient before who secretly took the folk prescriptions found by the elderly at home after the transplant. As a result, the progesterone level was messed up. The originally stable implantation was not saved in the end, and it was too late to regret.

Some reproductive doctors with a background in traditional Chinese medicine will recommend avoiding eating too many "cold" and "blood-activating" foods, such as hawthorn, longan, etc. This suggestion is actually more based on personalized adjustments to individual physiques. If you are doing traditional Chinese medicine conditioning, you Your doctor specifically made this request for you, just follow the doctor's advice, and there is no need to argue with others and say that this statement is unscientific. After all, the first principle of medical treatment should be to adapt to your own body, and there is no need to apply a certain standard to everyone.

In fact, I have met so many sisters who have done IVF, and most of those who succeeded in getting pregnant were those who ate whatever they were supposed to eat and had a relaxed mind. On the contrary, those who checked the contraindication list before every meal and were so anxious that they couldn't sleep after every meal was wrong, were more likely to have emotional problems affecting implantation. To put it bluntly, test-tube transplantation is a routine medical operation to help you conceive. It does not mean that you have to stay in bed if you have a serious illness. You can do whatever feels comfortable when it comes to eating. As long as you avoid those clear risk points, there is really no need to live like a prison sentence.