Infertility can bring a lot of questions into the same conversation: hormones, menstrual cycles, food, a partner’s health and what to do next. In Gut and Physiology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride places gut flora and hormonal balance within that picture. She also discusses environmental exposures, dietary fat and cholesterol, and age at conception.[1]
This guide explains her account and the fertility-specific food recommendations in her official FAQs. It keeps those recommendations separate from a diagnosis, a guaranteed response time or our own family’s history. Food preparation and fertility assessment can happen alongside each other.
How Dr. Natasha Connects Gut Flora and Fertility
The 2020 infertility entry says unhealthy gut flora can play a serious role in hormonal abnormalities and reports that the GAPS Nutritional Protocol has helped couples conceive and have a healthy baby. The same passage names low-fat and low-cholesterol diets, hormone-disrupting environmental chemicals, electromagnetic exposure and having children later in life among the contributors she discusses.[1]
Her wording about mobile phones matters. She identifies phones carried near the reproductive organs as a concern and calls them a likely contributor to declining sperm count. That is the book’s proposed contribution, not a finding that a particular person’s phone caused their infertility.
In the hormone chapters, she connects abnormal gut flora with menstrual problems, PMS, endometriosis, polycystic ovaries and infertility. For men, she discusses reduced libido, gynecomastia and other sexual-function problems alongside infertility. Our sex-hormone guide explains that wider account.[2]
Cholesterol and Steroid Hormones
Cholesterol is the starting material for steroid hormones, including estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. Campbell-McBride discusses both dietary cholesterol and the body’s ability to manufacture it. She connects inadequate cholesterol availability with difficulty producing steroid hormones and includes infertility and what she calls adrenal exhaustion in that account.[2]
The distinction is useful: eating cholesterol-containing foods and finding out why a test result is abnormal are different questions. Her FAQ also discusses low cholesterol despite animal-fat intake and possible interference with liver production.[8] A blood result by itself does not identify that mechanism in an individual.
The cholesterol and food-sources guide covers the food discussion. Keep prescribed medicine, including a statin, on the medication list for a prescriber to review rather than stopping it because a fertility article mentions cholesterol.
Reproductive Flora and the Menstrual Cycle
The book describes microbial communities in the female reproductive tract and connects abnormal flora with fertility and pregnancy problems. It discusses antibiotics, contraceptive pills and agricultural chemicals as influences on that flora. This is part of why its fertility account extends beyond the reproductive organs considered alone.[3]
It also discusses cycle-related changes in microbial activity, including Candida, and connects them with recurring thrush and hormonal symptoms. That does not mean every discharge, irregular period or recurrent infection establishes the same cause. Describe the symptom and its timing, and have persistent or new symptoms assessed.
The book recommends fermented-dairy applications in its vaginal-flora discussion, including practices directed at pregnancy preparation and thrush. Those are separate non-food procedures, not instructions to insert a food or probiotic product to treat infertility at home.[3] The contraceptive-pill guide explains that source branch; the father’s flora guide covers the paternal pathway.
Symptoms to Bring Into the History
In Dr. Natasha’s account, menstrual irregularity or pain, PMS, endometriosis or PCOS/PMOS, recurring thrush and male sexual-function problems can belong in the gut-and-hormone discussion. Hot flushes outside the usual menopausal context are another part of her broader hormone account.[2][4]
A useful record distinguishes what you noticed from what was diagnosed. “My cycle changed after this date” and “I was diagnosed with endometriosis” give different information. Include digestive symptoms, medications, previous fertility treatment and changes affecting either partner.
This is not a score that diagnoses gut-related infertility. The source’s associated symptom pattern helps you prepare a fuller history; it does not replace an examination or tell you to wait for food changes before arranging fertility care.
The Fertility-Specific Food Recommendation
In the official “Female problems” FAQ, Campbell-McBride recommends two cups of homemade sour cream daily, four fresh eggs and plenty of fatty meats and fish for women trying to conceive. She places these within a high-fat, cholesterol-containing food pattern.[4]
| Food in the FAQ | The Source Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Homemade sour cream | Two cups per day in the fertility-specific answer. |
| Fresh eggs | Four per day in the same answer. |
| Fatty meats and fish | Plentiful amounts, with animal foods providing much of the fat. |
| Organ meats and duck or goose fat | Specifically named in the separate carbohydrate-and-fertility FAQ. |
Those are the amounts she gives, rather than quantities I have invented. They are not a reason to ignore an allergy, prior tolerance or the food-introduction structure. The table does not put these foods into every Intro stage or turn the recommendation for women into an identical prescription for every partner.
For the fuller daily plan, including liver, natural fats, fresh meat stock, fermented foods and dairy sourcing, use the both-parent preconception nutrition guide. The liver and folate guide holds the more specific organ-meat discussion.
Carbohydrates, Cravings and Stevia
The official FAQ says GAPS does not have to be low carbohydrate: the proportions of meat and vegetables vary. In its fertility answers, Dr. Natasha emphasizes more animal foods and fats and less carbohydrate. A separate answer names organ meats and duck and goose fat and describes butter or coconut oil with honey for carbohydrate cravings.[5]
Keep the food pattern distinct from a promise that a mixture will control any person’s blood glucose. There is no need to turn “less carbohydrate” into a new universal carbohydrate limit, omit all plant foods or keep cutting intake when you are not eating enough.
Her current FAQ excludes stevia, including the fresh plant, and gives reproductive-health concerns as part of its explanation. That replaces an older answer that had allowed a little fresh herb.[5] Within GAPS, use its permitted sweeteners and food guidance rather than assuming a product belongs because it is sold as a natural sugar substitute.
Hormones in Food and Environmental Exposures
Another official FAQ distinguishes hormones naturally present in animal foods from the synthetic hormone-disrupting chemicals she calls xenoestrogens. Her advice is not to remove meat and dairy simply because they contain natural hormones. It instead draws attention to personal-care products, processed foods, environmental chemicals and relevant medicines.[4]
Use the toxic-exposure preparation guide for practical home changes. Reviewing an exposure history is different from deciding on your own to stop contraception, HRT or another prescription.
Both Partners and the Starting Timeline
The preconception chapter begins with both parents. It gives four to five months of Full GAPS before conception to couples without digestive problems, allergies, chronic fatigue or another typical GAPS condition. If either parent, especially the mother, has a pronounced condition, it recommends the full protocol until that parent is considerably healthier and feels ready for pregnancy.[6]
That second path does not have a fixed completion date. The starting-path comparison explains the distinction, including the separate Full GAPS route once pregnancy has begun.
The source also does not provide one guaranteed time for fertility to return. Its FAQ reports PMS improving earlier in some patients and more chronic conditions such as endometriosis and PCOS taking longer. Those observations do not set an individual’s conception date.[4]
The same FAQ describes a temporary increase in irregular menstruation or PMS during die-off and advises gradual introduction of probiotics, fermented foods and foods that provoke reactions. That is the source’s explanation of a possible transition, rather than a reason to label every new or worsening symptom die-off.[4]
Our Family’s Timeline
We had six to seven years of secondary infertility before our third child was born in 2021. We began GAPS in July 2024, after our fourth and fifth children had also arrived. Our sixth child was carried on Full GAPS and born in 2026. I do not credit GAPS with ending the earlier gap.
Since starting GAPS, my PMOS and weight are managed and my periods are steadier. The secondary infertility has not returned. Read our preconception story and preparation advice for the full chronology and why I suggest allowing 18 to 24 months to prepare when possible.
PMOS means polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, the new name introduced in May 2026 for the condition previously called PCOS. Older sources and records may use the earlier name.[7]
Bring the Questions Together
Start with the question you need answered now: a symptom, a diagnosis, a food change or the starting route for either partner. The preconception nutrition guide gives you the food plan to discuss alongside those questions.
The course Preparing for Baby: A GAPS Preconception Plan for Both Parents in the WFLI Shop brings the reading and household preparation together. A notebook can hold your dates, symptoms, treatment history and questions while you work through the guides.
References
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Infertility,” proposed contributors and clinical account.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Hormones,” “Sex glands” and cholesterol/steroid-hormone discussions.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Female problems,” reproductive flora and source recommendations.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Official GAPS FAQs, “Female problems,” questions1–2.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Official GAPS FAQs, Diet/Food questions65,69,91 and93.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Psychology Syndrome, expanded edition, “The Pre-Conception Period and Pregnancy,” preserved in the expanded second German edition (2015), pp. 402–407.
- Monash University. Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome: New Name, May 13, 2026.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Official GAPS FAQs, Fats, Heart Disease and Cholesterol, question5.
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