Are Blood Sugar Imbalances Affecting Your Hormones and Fertility?
The afternoon energy crash. The sugar cravings that hit like clockwork at 3pm. The hanger that comes out of nowhere if you skip a meal. Irregular periods and stubborn weight that won't budge no matter what you do.
If any of that sounds familiar, and you're also TTC, I want to talk to you about blood sugar. Because the connection between blood sugar regulation and fertility is one of the most underestimated, most commonly missed pieces of the puzzle. And I see it go undetected all the time, even in women who've already been through a full fertility workup.
What's Actually Happening in Your Body
When blood sugar swings high and low, your body releases insulin to bring it back under control. Completely normal. But when blood sugar is spiking frequently and consistently, insulin has to keep rising to keep up, and chronically elevated insulin is bad news for your hormones, your egg quality, and your fertility.
This is insulin resistance: where your cells stop responding to insulin efficiently, so your body produces more and more of it. Blood sugar can look completely normal on a standard test. Insulin, meanwhile, is through the roof.
Why This Gets Missed
Fasting blood sugar is a standard fertility blood test. If it comes back normal, most practitioners don't look further. But here's the problem: you can have perfectly normal blood sugar and significantly elevated insulin at the same time. Fasting insulin is a separate test, and it's rarely ordered unless someone already looks like a metabolic concern.
Which means insulin resistance is going undetected in a lot of people who are TTC. A 2021 study in Frontiers in Endocrinology found that 40% of lean women undergoing IVF (without PCOS) had insulin resistance. These are women who had no reason to suspect blood sugar was a factor at all.
That statistic has stayed with me. It's why fasting insulin is something I now test routinely with every fertility client, regardless of weight or PCOS status.
The PMOS (formerly known as PCOS) Connection
If you have PCOS, blood sugar and insulin are almost certainly part of your picture - even if no one has framed it that way. Insulin resistance is present in the majority of people with PCOS, and it's one of the key drivers of the hormonal disruption that characterises the condition: elevated androgens, irregular ovulation, and downstream effects on egg quality.
Supporting insulin sensitivity is one of the most impactful things we can do for PCOS-related fertility challenges, and it responds well to the right approach, often more quickly than people expect.
Even Without PMOS, It Matters
Elevated insulin can disrupt ovulation, compromise the environment eggs are maturing in, and affect uterine receptivity — regardless of a PCOS diagnosis. It can also drive the kind of stubborn weight gain that further compounds hormonal imbalance. A cycle that deserves proper investigation, not a generic "eat less, move more."
Hannah's Story
One of my clients, ‘Hannah’, came to see me after 18 months of TTC. Her Fertility Specialist had told her IVF was her only realistic option. When we ran a full blood panel, her fasting insulin came back significantly elevated. Her GP was genuinely surprised, and to her credit, told Hannah she was glad her naturopath had recommended the test.
So together Hannah and I worked together to reduce her insulin. This looked like switching to a diet rich in protein and veggies, minimising her processed sugars, and started a small amount of targeted supplements that support blood sugar and egg quality.
Three months later, just one month before her planned IVF cycle was due to begin, Hannah fell pregnant naturally. She went on to have a healthy pregnancy.
I share this not to suggest insulin resistance is always the answer. But it's a good reminder that there are sometimes pieces of the puzzle that simply haven't been looked for yet.
Signs This Could Be a Factor for You
The picture I see in clinic often looks like this: strong afternoon sugar cravings, energy dips between meals, getting very hungry very quickly, mood changes when meals are delayed, fatigue that doesn't improve with rest, difficulty losing weight, irregular periods, and a PCOS diagnosis - or symptoms that look a lot like it without the formal label.
None of these confirm insulin resistance on their own. But a cluster of them alongside fertility challenges is worth investigating properly.
What You Can Do Right Now
The foundations make a real difference here.
Including quality protein at every meal helps stabilise blood sugar.
Eating vegetables before carbohydrates slows glucose absorption.
Saving sweets for after meals rather than on an empty stomach matters more than most people realise.
Even a short walk after eating has solid evidence behind it for improving blood sugar regulation.
A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar diluted in water before meals is a simple, evidence-based addition I often recommend.
Beyond diet and lifestyle, targeted supplements and herbs can offer meaningful support, always tailored to the individual, always building on the foundations rather than replacing them.
The right supplement approach is really specific to you. This is something I work through carefully with every client.
If This Resonates
If you've been TTC for a while and blood sugar has never come up as a conversation, or you have PCOS and feel like you're going in circles, this is worth exploring. It's one of the most treatable pieces of the fertility puzzle, and one that makes a difference well beyond conception.
I'd love to support you. Book a free discovery call here
References
Mitrou P, Petsiou E, Papakonstantinou E, Maratou E, Lambadiari V, Dimitriadis P, Spanoudi F, Raptis SA, Dimitriadis G. Vinegar Consumption Increases Insulin-Stimulated Glucose Uptake by the Forearm Muscle in Humans with Type 2 Diabetes. J Diabetes Res. 2015;2015:175204. doi: 10.1155/2015/175204. Epub 2015 May 6. PMID: 26064976; PMCID: PMC4438142.
Wang H, Zhang Y, Fang X, Kwak-Kim J, Wu L. Insulin Resistance Adversely Affects IVF Outcomes in Lean Women Without PCOS. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2021;12:734638.