Names have been changed to protect patient privacy. Clinical details and images are shared with the couple’s consent.
Most fertility stories are told as one woman’s journey. This one belongs to two people equally.
When Kalai and Shiva joined our program, both were 31 and had been trying to conceive for nearly four years. They had already walked a long road: tests, a diagnosis, a surgery, and the slow wearing-down that four years of waiting does to a couple. They were considering IUI and IVF, and they came to us with a clear, sensible question: before we start treatment, can we get our bodies into the best possible shape for it?
Six months later, the answer was on a lab report. This is how they got there.
Where They Started
Shiva had been diagnosed with a grade III bilateral varicocele, a condition where enlarged veins around the testes raise the local temperature and affect sperm production. His urologist had done his part: a bilateral microsurgical varicocelectomy, the standard corrective surgery.
Surgery corrects the anatomy. But sperm takes time and the right raw material to rebuild, and months later his semen analysis still made for difficult reading: a concentration of 6.4 million/ml against a reference of 16 or more, total motility of 8% against a reference of 42 or more, and progressive motility of 0%. Ninety-two percent of his sperm were immotile.
Kalai’s intake form told its own story. At 167 cm and 67 kg she was within the healthy range on paper, but the challenges she listed were the modern Indian working woman’s in miniature: trying to conceive, stress, increased screen time and frequent travelling.
Her vitamin D was 17 ng/mL, below the deficiency cutoff of 20. Shiva stood 181 cm and weighed 80 kg. Neither of them was unwell in the way a single report flags. Both of them were running on routines that left very little for their own bodies.
Two Careers and No Time
During the initial consultations, we spent time understanding their daily routine before suggesting a single change. Elakiya, our program manager, worked with them day to day, and the picture that emerged was familiar. Kalai worked from home in a senior position, her calendar packed with meetings, deadlines and work trips. Shiva worked long hours from the office. Both carried significant work stress.
They wanted to improve their health. What they could not see was how healthy habits were supposed to fit inside lives like theirs. The first few weeks were genuinely hard. The intention was there; the hours were not.
So instead of handing them a standard diet chart and asking them to comply, we looked at what was stopping them. The biggest obstacle was time. Cooking three separate meals a day was not going to happen. Neither was a daily gym slot.
One Cooking Session, One Walk
The plan we built had two anchors.
Most of the day’s cooking finished in the morning. One session, with dishes that held up through the day: millet dosas with sambar and a carrot salad, jowar rotis with dal and cabbage poriyal, ragi idlis with peas kurma, phulkas with paneer and mushroom. Familiar Tamil home food, rebalanced for protein and fibre, with specific attention to the nutrients that support sperm production and motility. Larger reviews of dietary patterns consistently link this kind of eating, vegetables, whole grains, pulses and good fats, with better semen parameters (Salas-Huetos et al., 2017, Human Reproduction Update).
Movement that needed no equipment. Walks after dinner, together, tracked and shared with the team. A schedule they could keep through ordinary weeks, busy weeks and travel weeks.
They took to it immediately, and they did it as a team. The very first morning on the new menu, they sent us this:
They bought a kitchen weighing scale on day one. Small thing. It told us everything about how seriously they were taking this.
If you are preparing for IUI or IVF and want your bodies in the best shape before treatment, Dr. Suganya consults online across India. Talk to Dr. Suganya on WhatsApp →
The Trip That Could Have Derailed Everything
Fifteen days into the program, they had to travel. In our experience, an early trip is where most plans quietly die. Restaurant food, hotel breakfasts, no kitchen, no routine.
Kalai and Shiva treated the trip as part of the program rather than a pause from it. They planned ahead, asked us what to pick when eating out, and sent photos from the road: a clear soup and steamed rice with curries at a restaurant dinner, eggs and chole at the hotel breakfast buffet, vegetables wherever they could find them.
They were not trying to be perfect. They were trying to be consistent. That distinction carried them through that trip, through hometown visits, and through every family gathering in the months that followed. They learnt to enjoy their favourite foods without overdoing them, and to treat one imperfect meal as exactly that: one meal.
Their daily check-ins kept arriving, even on ordinary days with nothing to report but the routine itself:
Three Months In: The Numbers Moved
Consistency showed up on the scale first. Within three months, Kalai’s weight came down from 67 kg to around 59 kg, and Shiva’s from 80 kg to around 70 kg. Neither had started in an unhealthy range; what changed was composition, fitness and energy. They felt lighter, slept better, and stopped treating their health as something to get to later.
Kalai’s own words from a weekly update said it better than any chart:
“I have not been this fit in a very long time. I feel so good about the progress made so far through Fertilia. I was always worried that even if I attain a target weight, it would increase and I won’t be following regularly.. but this kind of also makes me feel that body is listening and responding really well to the good habits.”
And in the same conversation, the mindset that made it work:
“We are noticing and paying attention to our plates.. even if we couldn’t get one meal in a day perfectly, we are not taking that as an excuse.. making sure the next meal is balanced to get back on track.”
By their final weigh-in, the numbers read 58.75 kg and 69.7 kg: roughly 8 kg down for her and 10 kg for him.
The Second Three Months: From Health to Fertility
They were happy with the progress, and they chose to continue for another three months. The focus now shifted from weight and habits to conception itself: fertility-focused nutrition, cycle tracking, fertile window guidance month by month, and continued attention to the nutrients his recovering sperm production needed.
Natural conception did not arrive in those months, and the couple, with our full support, decided the time was right to move ahead with fertility treatment. This is exactly what good preparation is for. They walked into their treatment journey with corrected nutrition, restored fitness, a steady routine, and six months of momentum behind them. (We have written before about why the months before IUI or IVF matter so much.)
The Report on Treatment Day
On the day of their first IUI, the andrology lab ran his sample again. Concentration: 15 million/ml, up from 6.4. Progressive motility before washing: 33%, up from 0%. After preparation, the sample used for the procedure carried 74% progressive motility.
We want to be careful about attribution here, because his story involved more than one intervention. His varicocele surgery corrected the underlying anatomy, and sperm production takes months to reflect any change; a full production cycle runs roughly 74 days from start to finish. The six months of focused nutrition, weight optimisation, daily movement and lower stress gave that recovery the best possible conditions. The surgery and the lifestyle work supported each other, which is how we believe fertility care should run: the medical side and the lifestyle side, together.
Whatever the contribution of each, the difference between 0% and 33% progressive motility changed what was possible for this couple, including the odds carried into each IUI cycle they invest in.
In Their Own Words
At the end of six months, they sent the team a long message. A few parts of it stay with us:
“When we started the program our idea was mostly to prepare ourselves for pregnancy. Both Elakiya and Dr. Suganya helped us to come out of the thought that we should not take care of our body for just pregnancy but for the overall well-being.”
“Hundreds of questions when we began the journey. My husband and I would be arguing what’s right and what’s wrong with the misinformation we get from ‘google’. We never bothered to google or ask chatgpt after we connected with the Fertilia team.”
“Even though it’s definitely hard to process initially, now we both are staying positive and not losing hope. We feel so comfortable to share our honest thoughts and doubts with you that’s making us not be worried or scared. Choosing Fertilia was one of the good decisions we made last year.”
And one line we are holding them to:
“We are definitely hopeful that our journey with Fertilia will continue sooner than we expect for the pregnancy program.”
Dr. Suganya’s Note
“Kalai and Shiva were a wonderfully supportive couple, and an example of how partners can carry the trying-to-conceive journey together. They were constantly looking for information and for solutions, and they never let a negative mindset take hold. They followed the program beautifully, and after setting their lifestyle right and improving his semen parameters, their metabolic health and her nutritional deficiencies, they are now ready for the next steps in treatment. I wish them all the best, and I hope to see them soon in Fertilia’s pregnancy support program.” (Kalai and Shiva were guided through the program day to day by Elakiya, our program manager.)
What Their Story Means If You Are Planning Treatment
A fertility treatment works with the eggs, the sperm and the body it is given. That is something a couple can influence in the months before their first cycle, and it is work both partners share. Shiva’s part of this story matters as much as Kalai’s, the way Vikram’s did in another couple’s journey, and the way Lalitha and Vivek prepared together before IVF.
If treatment is on your horizon, the months before your first cycle are a window worth using. Kalai and Shiva show what that window can hold.
You can read more journeys like this one on our stories page, or explore how our fertility program supports couples at every stage, from trying naturally to preparing for IUI or IVF.
Dr. Suganya and the Fertilia team work with couples one-on-one, fully online, wherever you are in India. The first step is a conversation. Start a conversation with Dr. Suganya on WhatsApp →
Frequently Asked Questions
How much weight did Kalai and Shiva lose during the program?
Kalai went from 67 kg to 58.75 kg and Shiva from 80 kg to 69.7 kg over the program, roughly 8 kg and 10 kg respectively. Neither began in an unhealthy weight range, so the goal was never the number alone: it was fitness, energy, better body composition and habits that survive busy work weeks and travel.
Can semen parameters improve after varicocele surgery?
Yes, and the improvement takes time. Sperm production runs in cycles of roughly 74 days, so changes after varicocele repair typically show up over three to six months or longer. Nutrition, weight, sleep and stress all influence how well that recovery proceeds, which is why the months after surgery are a valuable window for lifestyle work alongside your urologist’s follow-up plan.
Does diet affect sperm health?
A substantial body of evidence links dietary patterns with semen quality. A systematic review of observational studies (Salas-Huetos et al., 2017, Human Reproduction Update) found that diets rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish and poultry were associated with better semen parameters, while patterns heavy in processed food were associated with poorer ones. Shiva’s plan applied this with everyday Indian foods: millets, dals, vegetables, eggs and paneer.
Why prepare the body before IUI or IVF instead of starting treatment straight away?
Treatment works with the eggs and sperm your bodies produce in that cycle. Egg maturation and sperm production both run on roughly 90-day and 74-day timelines, so the three months before a cycle directly shape what the lab has to work with. For Kalai and Shiva, six months of preparation meant walking into their first IUI with progressive motility at 33% instead of 0%. Our guide on preparing your body for fertility treatment covers this in detail.
We both have demanding jobs and travel often. Can we manage a program like this?
This couple’s plan was designed for exactly that life. Cooking was compressed into one morning session, meals were built to hold through the day, travel came with specific eat-out guidance, and exercise was an after-dinner walk rather than a gym schedule. The program adapts to your routine; you are not asked to rebuild your life around the program.
Did Kalai and Shiva conceive?
Their conception chapter is being written now. The six months at Fertilia did what they came for: her vitamin D and nutrition were corrected, both became fitter than they had been in years, and his semen parameters improved dramatically. They moved into IUI physically and emotionally prepared, and they have told us they plan to return for our pregnancy support program. We are rooting for them.
Every story we share is real, verified, and published with the patient’s consent. Names and identifying details are changed to protect privacy.
