Long-Term Veganism, Fertility and Libido: The GAPS View

The GAPS book argues against a long-term strict vegan regimen because it removes animal foods that Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride considers important for nourishment and reproductive function. Her discussion connects fertility and libido with protein, fats, cholesterol and other nutrients. It is a particular dietary argument, not a statement that all plant-containing diets are the same.^[1]

What Diet the Passage Is Discussing

In Gut and Physiology Syndrome, veganism means eating no animal foods. The passage contrasts this with diets that include eggs or dairy and with different proportions of plant and animal foods. It treats a plant-only regimen as a period of cleansing rather than a permanent GAPS way of eating.^[1]

That distinction matters. A family eating vegetables alongside meat, fish or eggs is not following the strict vegan regimen described here. More-Plant GAPS also includes animal foods; it is not a vegan version of GAPS.

The Book’s Reproductive-Nutrition Argument

Campbell-McBride links long-term exclusion of animal foods with a shortage of building nutrients used in reproductive function. She names animal protein, fats, zinc, fat-soluble vitamins and B vitamins, and discusses menstrual function, the ability to conceive and libido within that argument.^[1]

The passage is the author’s nutritional interpretation and clinical position. It does not supply an individual cause-of-infertility test, a fixed number of vegan months after which a problem must occur or a recovery timetable after adding a food.

The Body Makes Cholesterol Too

The same paragraph explicitly acknowledges that the body can manufacture cholesterol. Steroid sex hormones use cholesterol as a starting material, but no dietary cholesterol does not mean no cholesterol exists in the body or no sex hormones can be produced.^[1]

That is why the nutrient argument needs to be read as a whole rather than shortened to “vegans have no cholesterol.” Cholesterol for hormones and repair explains the biological roles without turning them into a target to raise a blood-test number.

Vitamin B12 Is a Concrete Nutrition Question

B12 occurs naturally in animal foods; people avoiding those foods need a reliable source through fortified foods or supplementation. Absorption and a known deficiency also need attention. A discussion of microbial vitamin production is not assurance that every vegan diet supplies enough usable B12.^[2]

Those are nutrition questions that can be assessed. They do not justify claims about a person’s relationships, character, sexual orientation or ability to have a happy family. The useful focus is the actual food pattern, nutrient supply and clinical concern.

Libido, Menstrual Changes and Fertility

These are related but different concerns. The book connects them through sex-hormone production and nourishment; a change in one does not establish a diagnosis in the others. The sex-hormone guide keeps that broader physiology together.^[1]

If you are keeping a record, describe the concern in ordinary terms and include the relevant food and health history. Do not assume that a diet label alone explains every symptom or that one food guarantees conception.

What This Means for GAPS Food Choices

For someone choosing GAPS, the starting point is the actual permitted food pattern and phase. Full GAPS meals include both building foods and appropriate plant foods; the food list shows the boundaries.

The book’s discussion of vegetarian cultures does not create a separate strict vegetarian GAPS diet. It also does not permit excluded grains or soy simply because a traditional preparation method is mentioned elsewhere.

Our Family Timeline Is Separate

Our own secondary-infertility gap ended with our third child in 2021. We started GAPS in July 2024. I do not use the earlier change as proof that GAPS resolved infertility, and I have not described that experience as the result of leaving a vegan diet. The cycle-care story preserves the chronology.

If your question is how to include more plants while following the actual GAPS framework, my More-Plant course is the relevant catalog offer. The More-Plant GAPS course is listed in my course catalog.

For the wider picture, return to the GAPS hormones and endocrine-health guide.

References

1. Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Vegetarianism,” strict vegan regimen, reproductive-nutrition argument, endogenous cholesterol and vegetarian/plant-food distinctions.
2. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin B12: Health Professional Fact Sheet, food sources, people avoiding animal foods and deficiency/absorption context.