Sperm DNA fragmentation — the most consistently overlooked test
Standard semen analysis checks sperm count, motility, and morphology. It does not assess sperm DNA fragmentation — the integrity of the genetic material inside each sperm. High sperm DNA fragmentation is directly linked to failed fertilisation, poor embryo quality, and early pregnancy loss. It is not routinely tested on NHS cycles. It is frequently not tested in private cycles either. And yet it is one of the most clinically significant factors in IVF outcomes — for both partners.

I assess sperm DNA fragmentation as a standard part of every Post-IVF Failure Consultation where a male partner is involved. It is, in my experience, one of the most commonly missed reasons for repeated IVF failure.

Women’s health preparation — rarely done holistically
Before most IVF cycles, women are medically prepared — suppressed, stimulated, monitored. What almost never happens is holistic preparation — addressing the foundations that determine whether stimulation works well, whether eggs are of good quality, whether the uterine environment is receptive.

Gut health and nutrient absorption. Sleep quality and melatonin production. Stress response and cortisol patterns. Thyroid function in detail. Inflammatory load. Constitutional factors from an Ayurvedic perspective. These are the foundations IVF sits on — and they are almost never assessed before a cycle begins.

The body treated as a protocol, not a person
IVF is a remarkable medical achievement. But it is also, by necessity, a standardised process applied to individual bodies that are anything but standard. The same stimulation protocol, the same preparation, the same post-transfer support — regardless of the woman’s constitution, her gut health, her stress response, her nutritional status.

This is not a criticism of IVF. It is an acknowledgement of what it cannot do — and what a Post-IVF Failure Consultation is specifically designed to address.

What a Post-IVF Failure Consultation With Ashish Covers

This consultation begins where your IVF clinic’s investigation ended — and goes significantly further.
We look at your complete picture — your cycles, your partner’s assessment, your preparation, your health foundations — through both modern clinical evidence and classical Ayurvedic medicine. The goal is not to repeat what’s already been done. It’s to find what hasn’t been looked at yet.

This is something I want to say clearly — because it is clinically true and almost never said in a fertility clinic setting.

Women conceive naturally after failed IVF cycles. I have seen it in my own practice, repeatedly. Women who were told IVF was their only option. Women who had been through multiple cycles. Women over 40.

When the foundations are addressed — when gut health, sleep, stress, sperm DNA fragmentation, nutritional status, and Ayurvedic constitutional factors are all properly supported — the body’s own capacity for conception is often greater than a failed IVF cycle suggests.

IVF failure is not proof that natural conception is impossible. In many cases, it is evidence that the body needed more support than it received before the cycle began.

This is not a promise. Every case is individual and I am always honest about what’s realistic. But “IVF failed therefore natural conception is impossible” is a conclusion that is reached far too quickly — and far too often — in conventional fertility care.

Until you are still menstruating and his sperm numbers are good — the conversation is not over.

Failed IVF cycles deplete the body — physically, hormonally, and at the level of what Ayurvedic medicine calls Ojas — your body’s deepest vital essence, directly linked to reproductive health and resilience.

The stimulation drugs, the physical procedures, the emotional weight, the hormonal disruption — all of these consume Ojas. And a body depleted of Ojas is not a body that is ready for another cycle, or for natural conception.

Rasayana — the Ayurvedic science of cellular rejuvenation — is specifically designed for this moment. Not to push the body through another cycle depleted, but to restore it. To rebuild the foundations. To replenish what multiple cycles have consumed.

Classical Rasayana herbs — Shatavari, Ashwagandha, Amalaki, Guduchi, Brahmi — support the restoration of Ojas, the repair of reproductive tissue, the regulation of stress response, and the rebuilding of the digestive and nutritional foundations that egg quality and uterine receptivity depend on.

For male factor — herbs including Ashwagandha, Shilajit, Kapikacchu, and Gokshura have specific evidence bases for sperm quality, sperm DNA integrity, and testosterone support.

Ayurvedic medicine does not treat IVF failure as a dead end. It treats it as a signal that the body needs rebuilding — and it has a three-thousand-year tradition of doing exactly that.