If you’re like many of the women we work with inside the Food Freedom Fertility Society, you probably avoid processed carbs as much as possible. After all, that’s what you need to do to be healthy, right?

Beyond maintaining the perfect clean diet, you’re also working out regularly, tracking your hormones, taking the supplements, and doing everything “right”… so why are you having such a hard time getting pregnant? 

If you’re struggling with missing periods or irregular ovulation, your low-carb or “clean” eating habits might be working against you. In this post, we’ll explore the connection between carbs and fertility, and why avoiding them could be the very thing holding you back from achieving your fertility goals.

Diet Culture in Disguise: Why So Many Women Are Under eating for Fertility

Let’s start with a reality check: diet culture has rebranded.

Minus the recent “Skinnytok” trend on TikTok, gone are the days of overtly restrictive low-calorie diets. We know better (thank God).

More often, what we’re seeing in today’s “wellness culture” is glamorizing low-carb, high-protein, intermittent fasting, and clean eating—especially among influencers in the health, nutrition, and fitness spaces.

The problem? These habits often lead to low energy availability, even when calorie intake appears normal on paper. For active women trying to conceive, this puts a lot of stress on the communication pathway from the brain to the ovaries and can eventually shut down the body’s reproductive system. Research shows that this stress response suppresses both the thyroid (HPT) and reproductive (HPG) axes — lowering metabolic rate, thyroid output, and reproductive hormone signaling (Pauli & Berga, 2010; Feldt-Rasmussen et al., 2021)

How Low Energy Availability Disrupts Ovulation

Your body prioritizes survival before reproduction. If you don’t have enough leftover energy (after movement, digestion, and basic metabolic function), your body downregulates non-essential systems—including hormone production necessary for fertility.

This is exactly what happens in Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (HA), a common cause of secondary amenorrhea (when your period starts normally but later goes missing). And for many women, low-carb eating plays a key role in period loss. 

So let’s unpack why carbs and fertility are more connected than you might think.

Why Carbs Are Crucial for Fertility

Carbs are often one of the first things women cut back on when trying to “eat clean” or control their body, but when it comes to hormone health and fertility, carbohydrates are essential—not optional. 

They do far more than provide energy for workouts or help maintain weight. In fact, they play a direct role in signaling safety to the brain, supporting ovulation, and keeping your reproductive system online. Let’s break down exactly how carbs impact your hormones and why they’re so critical if you’re trying to get pregnant.

1. Carbohydrates Send a “Safety Signal” to the Brain

When you’re not eating enough carbs, your brain senses that energy is scarce—even if you’re eating plenty of calories, protein, and fat.  Your brain has a specific group of cells called GnRH neurons that are in charge of initiating the hormonal cascade necessary for ovulation. These neurons are glucose-sensitive — they rely on available carbohydrate to fire properly and communicate with your ovaries (Zhang et al., 2007).

GnRH neurons send signals to your pituitary gland, which then tells your ovaries to make FSH and LH—the hormones responsible for growing and releasing an egg each month.

But here’s the important part:
👉 Those GnRH neurons need glucose (carbs broken down) to work properly.

If your body senses that glucose is too low—because you’re restricting carbs, skipping meals, or over-exercising without proper nutrient repletion—these neurons don’t fire the way that they’re supposed to. That can mean weak, insufficient, or no signal to the pituitary gland→ no FSH or LH → and no ovulation. So if you’re experiencing period loss with HA, it’s important to understand that even if you’re eating “enough,” low-carb intake can still leave your hormones under-fueled.

2. Glycogen Stores Help Maintain Hormonal Rhythm

Glycogen is your body’s stored form of carbohydrates. When your glycogen stores are low, LH pulses may weaken, dragging out the time to ovulation. This is one reason some women may experience long, irregular cycles even after recovering your period with HA. They might be eating enough to have some hormonal signaling, but the body still senses that fuel is scarce. 

Even if you’ve never totally lost your period, low-carb intake could be impacting the quality of your ovulation—which matters a lot when we start thinking about what’s optimal for getting pregnant.

3. Your Thyroid Needs Carbs, Too

Your thyroid isn’t just about metabolism—it’s a key player in your reproductive health. When thyroid function is off, it can directly impact hormone production, ovulation, and your fertility.

While many doctors only test TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone), this marker alone doesn’t give the full picture. We often see clients with normal TSH levels but low T3, the active thyroid hormone that actually does the work of regulating energy, mood, and reproduction.

Low T3 slows your metabolism and disrupts communication between your brain, thyroid, and ovaries—essentially putting your body in a low-power state. This can mean weak or inconsistent ovulation, short luteal phases, or no period at all. And yes—your thyroid needs carbs to function properly. Without enough carbohydrates, your body downregulates T3 production as a way to conserve energy. It’s a protective mechanism that can have real consequences for your cycle and fertility.

4. Carbs Support a Healthy Gut (and Estrogen Metabolism)

Carbohydrates—especially high fiber carbs (think fruits, beans, and whole grains) are essential fuel for your gut microbiome. These complex carbs act as prebiotics, feeding the beneficial bacteria in your gut that help regulate everything from digestion to immune function to hormone metabolism.

But when carb intake is too low—or when you’re under fueling in general—your microbiome diversity declines. Over time, this can weaken your gut lining, reduce enzyme production, and impair your ability to break down food and properly absorb nutrients. Oh and if you’re also overtraining or chronically stressed? The effects can be compounded.

The result? Symptoms like bloating, constipation, irregular bowel movements, and feeling full or gassy even when you’re not eating very much. These are actually common complaints we hear from the clients we work with who are experiencing low hormones and missing periods. 

But the good news? Once women begin fueling properly—especially with enough carbs—and supporting their nervous system, digestion often improves pretty dramatically. Most of our clients experience a total 180 on their digestive systems within 2-4 weeks of working with our team.

But Can’t Your Body Make Its Own Glucose? 🤔

Now, let me address the big elephant in the room that the keto fanatics on instagram continually point out in the comments section of my posts about carbs: your body doesn’t need carbs because it can make its own glucose. 

And yes…true. Through a process called gluconeogenesis, your body can convert protein and fat into glucose. But this process is slower, more stressful, and signals scarcity, not safety.

Your body might survive doing this, but it won’t thrive. There is a difference between what the body can do, versus what’s optimal for hormone production and fertility. To drive my point home a little further, a 2023 study on RED-S (relative energy deficit in sport) in female athletes showed that carbohydrate intake (not just calorie intake) has a bigger impact on LH pulse frequency, which is key for triggering ovulation. In other words, your body needs carbs to ovulate, plain and simple.

Carbs are your Fertility’s B.F.F

If you’ve been avoiding carbs in the name of health—but struggling with missing periods, low hormones, or trouble conceiving—it’s time to rethink what “healthy” really means.

Carbs fuel more than just your workouts. They support your thyroid, your gut, and your brain’s ability to communicate with your ovaries. And most importantly? They help your body feel safe enough to ovulate.

If you’re ready to stop guessing and figure out exactly what’s keeping you stuck, I have a free quiz you can take right now:
👉 Are You Too Healthy to Get Pregnant?

This quick quiz will help you identify the root cause of your missing period and guide you toward the next step for recovery and conception.

Your body was designed to ovulate and get pregnant—and with the right support, it absolutely can.