3 Fertility Doctors Finally Say It:
This Predicts IVF Success More Than Your Protocol
There is a question every woman on a fertility journey asks eventually, usually after her third or fourth failed cycle: “am I doing everything I can to secure success”, and what fertility doctors say might surprise you.
The honest answer — the one that three of the most credentialed reproductive endocrinologists in the country gave on a recent episode of the Fearlessly Fertile Podcast — is: probably not. Not because of anything wrong with your protocol. But because the protocol is only part of the picture.
Drs. Carrie Bedient, Susan Hudson, and Abby Eblen are board-certified reproductive endocrinologists, the hosts of the Fertility Docs Uncensored podcast, and the authors of The IVF Blueprint: Everything You Need to Know About In Vitro Fertilization, Egg Freezing, and Embryo Transfer. They have been recording together weekly for six years. They have seen thousands of patients between them. And in their conversation with Rosanne Austin, they said something the fertility world does not say nearly enough.
Mindset is not woo. It is physiology. And it matters.
When Fertility Doctors Become Fertility Patients
Two of the three doctors have been on the other side of the desk — not as observers, but as patients.
Dr. Susan Hudson already had two children when she and her husband tried for a third. Her FSH came back at almost 13. She has autoimmune conditions — celiac disease, Graves disease — and suspects her body may have attacked her own ovaries. She traveled across the country for IVF treatment, specifically because doing it locally felt too uncomfortable. The retrieval produced seven eggs, all from small follicles. She cried. She felt she had been told one thing and experienced another.
“This experience taught me to always stay hopeful, even when science tells me otherwise.”
She now has a fifteen-year-old daughter. And she runs a practice built around the principle that patients deserve appointments that start on time, communication that is honest, and physicians who are fully in — regardless of the statistics.
“I’m gonna be all in. Less than 5% — that may still be one in twenty. And I know those things can happen.”
Dr. Abby Eblen was a newly trained RE when she started trying at 34. She had done IUIs with Clomid. She moved to IVF. Her embryos were, by her own description, the worst she had seen in months. She cried on transfer day. She played backgammon with her husband through the two-week wait to keep her mind off it. The beta came back low. She almost dismissed it.
She took a pregnancy test early, looked at it, saw nothing, and threw it in the trash. Her husband fished it out hours later. Two lines.
Her son is alive today because he did not agree with his mother’s assessment of his own embryo quality.
Both of these women became better physicians because of what they went through. Dr. Hudson redesigned her practice around patient dignity. Dr. Eblen carries a specific kind of hope for the low-quality embryos, the low betas, the long shots — because she has held the living proof in her arms.
She waited intentionally to start trying, wanting to finish her training, to be financially ready, to be fully present. Her mother had her youngest children at 39 and 40. Lauren thought the timing would be fine.
She got pregnant on her first ovulation cycle. She discovered it at her partner Eddie’s birthday party, moments before she was about to have a mimosa. She took a test just in case. The line was there.
Nine weeks later, the heartbeat was gone. First miscarriage. Two weeks before her birthday.
The IVF Blueprint: What Is Actually in It
The book was born from the same impulse as their podcast: the recognition that patients are walking into fertility appointments overwhelmed, underinformed, and terrified. No matter how skilled the physician and how thorough the consultation, there is simply no way to convey everything a patient needs to know in the time available. The result is that women leave appointments remembering a fraction of what they were told — and then spending hours on forums that are not moderated, not medically reviewed, and not written by anyone who has passed the twenty-seventh grade.
The IVF Blueprint covers the full arc of the process: what to expect at the first consultation, what each medication does and why it was chosen, what is happening in the lab, what PGT-A testing is, the difference between fresh and frozen transfers, donor eggs, donor sperm, donor embryos, gestational carriers, and egg freezing. It is designed to be used as a reference — flip to the chapter that applies right now, or read it top to bottom. Both approaches work.
“It is like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hydrant,” said Dr. Bedient. “No matter how smart and brilliant the patients sitting in front of us are, they are not going to remember everything.”
The book does not cover mindset. It does not cover the emotional architecture of the fertility journey. That is Rosanne Austin’s territory — and the doctors were explicit about that division of labor. “They stay in their lane and I stay in mine,” Rosanne noted. The IVF Blueprint is the clinical handbook. The Fearlessly Fertile Method is everything the handbook cannot touch.
Together, they cover the whole picture.
What Actually Predicts IVF Success — According to the Doctors
Each of the three doctors was asked the same question: if you could give one piece of advice to every patient before their first cycle, what would it be?
Dr. Hudson: get your general health in order. Address the imbalances. The stress. The unmanaged conditions. The things you have been meaning to look into. “Fertility is very rarely one slam dunk thing. It is often improving a little of this, improving a little of that, putting all of these pieces together, and that’s how we often get success.”
Dr. Eblen: recognize that your medical team is on your side. The suggestions that feel hard to hear — about weight, about lifestyle, about what is working and what is not — are not criticism. They are strategy. “We’re like a football coach. We want to win. We want to be winners with them.”
Dr. Bedient: resilience. Of everything she named, this was the variable she returned to most directly. “Resilience is one of the biggest predictors of your success. I’ve got all the stamina in the world to stick with you on this. But I cannot do it without you.”
Resilience. Not the right protocol. Not the right clinic. Not the right AMH. Resilience.
This is not a metaphor. It is a clinical observation from a physician who has watched patients succeed and fail across decades of practice.
What Fertility Doctors Actually Think About Mindset
This is where the conversation shifted in a way that will matter to every woman in Rosanne’s audience.
When asked about the mind-body connection — the piece that gets dismissed as woo in high-performing, analytically-driven women — Dr. Hudson did not hedge.
“There is very good evidence that a diagnosis of infertility is as devastating as a diagnosis of cancer. Pregnancy outcomes have very good ties to the woman’s mental health. And the last thing we ever want to hear when we are going in for an embryo transfer is ‘this isn’t going to work.’ It is so much harder to get somebody pregnant who thinks it’s not going to work as compared to somebody who says, ‘we’re gonna do this.'”
This is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist. Not a wellness influencer. Not a mindset coach. A physician who has spent her career in the laboratory and the clinic — saying, on the record, that what a woman believes about her own outcome influences the outcome.
Dr. Bedient identified resilience as a primary predictor of success. Dr. Hudson cited peer-reviewed evidence linking mental health to pregnancy outcomes. Dr. Eblen framed the relationship between physician and patient as a team sport — and noted that the patients who push through, who stay present, who do not disappear between cycles, are the ones the entire team remembers and fights hardest for.
“I can only keep working with you if you are there to work with,” Dr. Bedient said.
The clinical ceiling is real. And above it, the work is yours.
Working the Whole Picture
The IVF Blueprint gives women the clinical foundation they need to walk into their doctor’s office as informed participants, not passive recipients of instructions. It takes the fire hydrant of information and makes it navigable.
But the doctors themselves were clear: the book covers what they know. It does not cover everything that matters.
“There is a lot that we still do not understand about what makes one embryo do a happy dance and another just say, see you next time,” Rosanne noted during the conversation — and no one on the call disagreed.
The X factor is not in the lab. It is not in the protocol. It is in the woman doing the work — both the clinical work and the internal work that no protocol can reach.
Medicine elevates the odds. Mindset determines what you do with them.
If you are ready to work the part your RE cannot touch, the apply page is here: https://frommaybetobaby.com/pc-strategy
Listen to the Full Conversation With the Fertility Docs Here.
This post is a companion to the latest episode of the Fearlessly Fertile Podcast: What 3 Fertility Doctors Say About IVF Success That Most Clinics Won’t Tell You. Ready to hear what happens when top reproductive endocrinologists get brutally honest about mindset and medicine? Press play to get this high-vibe truth in your ears.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does mindset actually affect IVF success rates?
According to Dr. Susan Hudson, board-certified reproductive endocrinologist and co-host of Fertility Docs Uncensored, research shows that pregnancy outcomes are closely tied to a woman’s mental health. She stated directly: “It is so much harder to get somebody pregnant who thinks it’s not going to work.” The psychological burden of infertility has been documented as comparable to a cancer diagnosis (Domar et al., 2011).
What is The IVF Blueprint?
The IVF Blueprint is a comprehensive patient guide to in vitro fertilization, egg freezing, and embryo transfer written by three board-certified reproductive endocrinologists: Drs. Carrie Bedient, Susan Hudson, and Abby Eblen. It covers every stage of the IVF process in accessible, non-textbook language, and is designed to be used as both a cover-to-cover guide and a chapter-by-chapter reference.
Who are the Fertility Docs Uncensored?
Fertility Docs Uncensored is a weekly podcast hosted by Drs. Carrie Bedient (Las Vegas), Susan Hudson (Texas), and Abby Eblen (Nashville). They have been recording together for six years and are part of the Ovation/US Fertility network. Their goal is to deliver accurate, medically grounded fertility information in an accessible format — without the white coats.
What is the most important thing to know before starting IVF?
According to the three doctors featured in this episode: (1) Get your general health in order — address stress, health conditions, and lifestyle factors that create imbalance. (2) Trust and work with your medical team. (3) Build resilience — Dr. Carrie Bedient identified resilience as one of the biggest predictors of IVF success.
Can fertility doctors go through IVF themselves?
Yes. Dr. Susan Hudson underwent IVF after receiving an FSH of almost 13 and now has a 15-year-old daughter. Dr. Abby Eblen went through IVF as a reproductive endocrinologist herself, transferred embryos her colleagues described as extremely poor quality, and went on to have her son. Both doctors credit their personal experiences with making them more compassionate and more committed physicians.
What is the Fearlessly Fertile Method?
The Fearlessly Fertile Method is Rosanne Austin’s coaching methodology for high-achieving women on fertility journeys. It addresses the dimension of fertility that medicine cannot touch — mindset, identity, belief, and the internal state that precedes improbable pregnancies. Apply at https://frommaybetobaby.com/pc-strategy
The doctors cover the clinical side. Rosanne covers the rest.
Ready to work the whole picture? Click the button below to apply.
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We review every application. If you are a fit for the Fearlessly Fertile Method, you will get on Rosanne’s calendar. If not, we will tell you.
About the Author
Rosanne Austin, JD, is the founder of the Fearlessly Fertile Method and host of the Fearlessly Fertile Podcast. A former trial attorney, she conceived naturally at nearly 44 after years of treatment failure and has since coached women around the world to fertility success across 12+ years. She is the author of five books and has a documentary in production. She works with a highly selective global client base including physicians, attorneys, surgeons, and executives.
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, a former prosecutor, five-time author, and host of the top 1% global Fearlessly Fertile Podcast. She has helped thousands of women around the world bring home the babies they were told were impossible. The Fearlessly Fertile Method is grounded in 39+ peer-reviewed studies of the mind-body fertility link and built specifically for high-performing, analytically-wired women.
