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Andrew Huberman
Apr 13, 2026
73 protocols
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How Women Can Improve Their Fertility & Hormone Health | Dr. Natalie Crawford
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Behaviors
AMH Test
“Everybody should get an AMH test. I think it's a very important marker.”
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In this episode
73 protocols
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0:00
AMH Test
Behaviors
“Everybody should get an AMH test. I think it's a very important marker.”
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7:45
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Behaviors
“I think it's really important for women to know that you can start hormone replacement therapy at any time. So even though a long time ago we felt really comfortable starting it right at the time of menopause, we're starting to see benefits starting in the perimenopausal period.”
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16:10
Track Ovulation
Behaviors
“I have a whole chapter in the book about how to learn to track your cycle and your ovulation and really learn to see the red flags your body gives you, not just if you want to get pregnant now, but to know that your hormones are really functioning as they should.”
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18:45
Control Autoimmune Disease
Behaviors
“Paying attention to these factors earlier in your life, whether it's controlling an autoimmune disease, earlier diagnosis of Hashimoto's.”
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18:45
Get Earlier Diagnosis of Hashimoto's
Behaviors
“Paying attention to these factors earlier in your life, whether it's controlling an autoimmune disease, earlier diagnosis of Hashimoto's.”
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18:50
Treat Endometriosis
Behaviors
“Whether it's treating your endometriosis or cultivating a lifestyle that's decreasing inflammation.”
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18:50
Eat Anti-Inflammatory Whole Foods
Diet
“Whether it's treating your endometriosis or cultivating a lifestyle that's decreasing inflammation, right? Avoiding certain toxins, eating anti-inflammatory foods.”
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21:36
Avoid Drinking Water From Plastic Bottles
Behaviors
“Am I drinking water out of this cup or out of a plastic bottle?”
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28:36
Get Evaluation After Six Months of Trying
Behaviors
“If you've been trying those six months after and you're not pregnant, I would say kind of at the longest, go and get an evaluation.”
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29:30
CLIA-Certified Mail-In Sperm Test
Tools
“There are, though, some mail-in tests that go to a true lab that we would even take as valid. So it's called a CLIA certified lab, C-L-I-A, for somebody listening.”
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34:47
Semen Analysis
Behaviors
“After two pregnancy losses, you need an evaluation. The evaluation is for certain blood tests, a semen analysis, a sperm fragmentation, and a uterine and tubal evaluation.”
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34:47
Sperm Fragmentation Test
Behaviors
“After two pregnancy losses, you need an evaluation. The evaluation is for certain blood tests, a semen analysis, a sperm fragmentation, and a uterine and tubal evaluation.”
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34:47
Uterine Evaluation
Behaviors
“After two pregnancy losses, you need an evaluation. The evaluation is for certain blood tests, a semen analysis, a sperm fragmentation, and a uterine and tubal evaluation.”
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34:47
Tubal Evaluation
Behaviors
“After two pregnancy losses, you need an evaluation. The evaluation is for certain blood tests, a semen analysis, a sperm fragmentation, and a uterine and tubal evaluation.”
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50:32
Thyroid Replacement
Behaviors
“Say if it's Hashimoto's, suddenly we can do thyroid replacement. We can work on decreasing inflammation.”
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51:21
Try to Conceive Now if Timeline Is Constrained
Behaviors
“We might choose to try to get pregnant now.”
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51:21
Use Donor Sperm if Not Partnered and Ready for Pregnancy
Behaviors
“If we don't have a partner, we might buy donor sperm and try to get pregnant.”
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51:24
Freeze Eggs
Behaviors
“Maybe we freeze eggs. Maybe we freeze embryos. Maybe we do none of those things, but we made the active choice, right?”
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51:24
Freeze Embryos
Behaviors
“Maybe we freeze eggs. Maybe we freeze embryos. Maybe we do none of those things, but we made the active choice, right?”
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54:04
Investigate Short Luteal Phase
Behaviors
“Less than 11 days is a short luteal phase, but you'll still have regular cycles. So if I sit across from somebody and I just say, are your cycles regular? and they say yes, and we carry on, I've missed the fact that they actually have a shortened luteal phase, and that warrants further investigation.”
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1:25:03
Target Intercourse to the Fertile Window
Behaviors
“If you know when you're ovulating and you target intercourse, you're going to have higher odds and get pregnant faster. Data supports that very much so.”
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1:25:17
Stop Birth Control Pill 3 to 6 Months Before Trying to Conceive
Behaviors
“So I recommend that you stop the pill three to six months before you're really wanting to start your family so you can track your cycle, learn to detect ovulation.”
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1:25:32
Get Evaluated if You Cannot Detect Ovulation After Stopping the Pill
Behaviors
“You can say, oh, I can't detect ovulation or my cycles are irregular. Let me go get that investigated now so we're not kind of behind in our own timeline.”
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1:26:28
Remove Progesterone IUD 6 Months Before Trying to Conceive
Behaviors
“So I always recommend that a progesterone IUD is removed at least six months before you want to get pregnant. Give the endometrium time to rebuild and regrow.”
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1:27:09
Avoid Depo-Provera if Pregnancy Is Possible Within Two Years
Behaviors
“So this is that one exception where if you want to get pregnant potentially in the next two years, please don't get Depo-Provera.”
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1:29:14
Get Evaluated if Periods Become Lighter After an Intrauterine Procedure
Behaviors
“If your cycle is now lighter afterward, I am worried there could be scarring inside the uterus.”
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1:29:14
Saline Sonogram
Tools
“We'd rather I evaluate that in the clinic, we can do a saline sonogram to just check and make sure there's no scar tissue because that will impact your fertility.”
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1:30:51
Avoid NSAIDs Outside Menstrual Period When Trying to Conceive
Behaviors
“So that's why we recommend, and a fun fact, or important to know, if you're trying to get pregnant, you can take those medications only when you're on your period. So period cramping is fine, but we don't want you taking them for the rest of the cycle because you can prevent ovulation from occurring.”
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1:34:03
Prioritize Sleep
Behaviors
“Number one for me is sleep. And I think that this is an important one because it can leverage that inflammatory burden in both ways.”
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1:35:41
Sound Machine
Tools
“You know, all the things you talk about, dark room, sound machine, a sleep mask, a cooler temperature.”
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1:35:41
Sleep Mask
Tools
“You know, all the things you talk about, dark room, sound machine, a sleep mask, a cooler temperature.”
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1:36:07
Melatonin
Supplements
“Low doses of melatonin supplementation can impact fertility. So doses of one to three milligrams, 30 minutes before you go to bed, can improve your odds of getting pregnant as well, can influence egg quality.”
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1:38:23
Avoid Cold Plunges While Trying to Conceive
Behaviors
“So I'm not a fan of cold plunges when trying to get pregnant.”
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1:38:55
Avoid Curcumin Supplements While Trying to Conceive
Behaviors
“Yeah, I don't usually recommend it in a supplement form. I never recommend it.”
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1:39:07
Cook With Curcumin
Diet
“But cooking with it is fine.”
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1:41:08
Stop CoQ10 During Pregnancy
Behaviors
“We usually stop CoQ10 in pregnancy just because of lack of data. We're very cautious in pregnancy of not exposing you to anything additional you may not need.”
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1:41:29
CoQ10
Supplements
“We should take a prenatal vitamin that has folic acid. We should take CoQ10. We should take omega-3 fatty acids. We should take vitamin D.”
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1:41:29
Prenatal Vitamin
Supplements
“We should take a prenatal vitamin that has folic acid.”
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1:41:31
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Supplements
“We should take CoQ10. We should take omega-3 fatty acids. We should take vitamin D.”
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1:41:31
Vitamin D
Supplements
“We should take CoQ10. We should take omega-3 fatty acids. We should take vitamin D.”
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1:41:48
L-Carnitine
Supplements
“And then for sperm health, L-carnitine we like a lot.”
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1:41:53
Zinc
Supplements
“And then zinc and selenium can have benefits as well.”
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1:41:53
Selenium
Supplements
“And then zinc and selenium can have benefits as well.”
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1:46:04
Inositol
Supplements
“And we're starting to see more, I don't want to say fringe, but of the specifics, right? Inositol for PCOS, decreases insulin resistance, huge benefit.”
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1:46:12
N-Acetylcysteine
Supplements
“And acetylcysteine for endometriosis or chronic inflammatory disease.”
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1:50:11
Red Light Panel
Tools
“That's more the systemic, probably. You're sitting in front of your red light panel. That's going to decrease some whole body inflammation.”
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1:50:31
Vaginal Ultrasound Red-Light Wand
Tools
“There is now, I mean, we don't have definitive data, but there's even a vaginal ultrasound wand that's got red light therapy.”
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1:52:58
Morning Sunlight Exposure
Behaviors
“So – and of course there's circadian – good circadian effects of getting sunlight. All circadian benefits of getting sunlight are pro-fertility, pro-hormonal health, yes.”
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1:54:57
Avoid Cannabis
Behaviors
“If you're trying to get pregnant the fastest, if you want to have the best pregnancy outcomes, or even you want to have the best hormones you can, have longevity of your ovaries or have the best sperm counts or the most testosterone, cannabis use should not be a part of that.”
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1:57:32
Avoid Alcohol
Behaviors
“Nicotine use, cannabis use, alcohol use, like the data here, none of that is advantageous for your health, especially if we're looking primarily through a fertility lens, a hormone lens, or even, or specifically a pregnancy lens.”
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1:59:44
Avoid Nicotine
Behaviors
“It should not be something that we're adding to, you know, our day-to-day life in any form if we're trying to get pregnant.”
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2:00:01
Avoid Smoking
Behaviors
“Smoking directly, if we want to look at that, you know, I would say it's one of the few things that gets into the vault and decreases our egg count. You go into menopause early, you'll get fewer eggs. The egg quality is detrimental.”
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2:01:21
Build Skeletal Muscle
Behaviors
“Building skeletal muscle is one of the top ways you can reverse insulin resistance. It's the best mechanism for hormonal health we have is to build more skeletal muscle.”
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2:05:10
GLP-1 Agonists
Behaviors
“I will have patients go on a GLP-1 low dose for three months. We have to stop them and then go through a cycle of different IVF outcomes.”
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2:08:35
Human Growth Hormone
Supplements
“I've used human growth hormone for years and years and years... if somebody has a cycle and they don't get as many mature eggs or their embryos don't do as well... the only change was adding human growth hormone and had improved embryo development and maturity of eggs.”
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2:11:32
Platelet-Rich Plasma
Behaviors
“One is intrauterine PRP, where we are injecting it into the uterine cavity... Where it shows the most promise is intrauterine PRP.”
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2:14:22
Bank Sperm Younger
Behaviors
“When you have an opportunity to bank sperm younger, it would make sense and utilize that preferentially.”
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2:15:19
Reduce Heat Exposure to Sperm
Behaviors
“No cannabis, reduced heat, all the things that mutate DNA.”
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2:16:11
Avoid Biotin Before Hormone Labs
Behaviors
“Biotin levels of taking a biotin supplementation of 300 micrograms or more for seven days can actually influence your lab assays for sex hormones or for any steroid hormone, actually.”
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2:20:17
Avoid Endocrine-Active Essential Oils
Behaviors
“Essential oils, for the most part, tend to be fine, but it is lavender, tea tree, and evening primrose that have more endocrine properties for them.”
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2:20:49
Choose Fragrance-Free Products
Behaviors
“What you really want to look for is fragrance-free because fragrance-free means we added no fragrance to it. To be called unscented, we could have added something to counter the fragrance that was in it.”
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2:21:40
Use Gloves When Handling Thermal Paper Frequently
Behaviors
“So that's a good example where I say you need to use gloves if that's your industry that you're going to be exposed to thermal paper a lot.”
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2:24:16
Replace Teflon Cookware
Behaviors
“I went on this journey to get rid of Teflon in our kitchen because I studied PFCs.”
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2:24:27
Cut Out Gluten If It Worsens Symptoms
Diet
“One of the things that I cut out learning to listen to my body was gluten at the time, even though I would have never said I had like GI symptoms from it.”
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2:27:38
Try a Temporary Clean Elimination Diet
Diet
“I advocate, especially if you are falling off the curve... for a very temporary but restrictive clean eating pattern where you're having lots of fruits and vegetables and fiber and you're cutting down some of the things that cause, more commonly cause certain reactions, cutting out gluten, cutting out dairy, cutting back on red meat, and then you add them back in and start to listen to how your body is functioning.”
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2:27:58
Cut Back on Red Meat
Diet
“Cutting out gluten, cutting out dairy, cutting back on red meat, and then you add them back in and start to listen to how your body is functioning.”
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2:28:23
Increase Fiber Intake
Diet
“Fiber is hugely important for the gut microbiome and hormone health and inflammation and insulin resistance.”
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2:28:25
Choose Whole-Grain Carbohydrates Over Refined Carbohydrates
Diet
“So high fruits and vegetables, high fiber diet, whole grain carbohydrates over your refined carbohydrates.”
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2:28:31
Avoid Ultra-Processed Foods
Diet
“Ultra processed foods don't have a place in the modern diet.”
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2:28:33
Avoid Artificial Sweeteners
Diet
“Added artificial sugars, those non-nutritive sweeteners. They don't have a place in this.”
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2:28:43
Increase Plant Protein
Diet
“Most people could benefit from some increased plant protein due to the increased fiber than they actually get in the standard American diet.”
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2:28:47
Choose High-Quality Animal Protein
Diet
“Meat is not universally bad nor necessarily good. It's the quality of the meat that probably matters a lot.”
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2:30:03
Emphasize Healthy Unsaturated Fats
Diet
“Healthy fats are really, really important, right? Cholesterol is the backbone for steroid hormones. So you need cholesterol in your body.”