About

Dr. Leila Fazlicic — Pre-IVF Male Fertility Optimization

The half of the equation that almost no one optimizes

I'm Dr. Leila Fazlicic — a doctor of acupuncture and licensed fertility acupuncturist with 15+ years of clinical experience, including close collaboration with fertility clinics across the Chicago area. For most of that time, my work has centered on one thing: pre-IVF optimization. And within that, the part of the equation that most often gets overlooked — the male side.

Half of every embryo's genetic material comes from sperm. That isn't a detail. It's 50% of the blueprint. And yet, when a cycle fails, the conversation almost always turns first to egg quality, to uterine lining, to the woman's body. The female partner carries the heavy emotional and physical burden of a failed cycle — the testing, the medications, the retrieval, the waiting — while the male side is often examined with little more than a standard semen analysis.

That standard analysis measures count, motility, and morphology. What it does not measure is sperm DNA fragmentation — the breakage of genetic material inside the sperm cell. Fragmentation is found in a meaningful share of samples after a failed IVF cycle, and it is rarely tested unless someone specifically requests it or orders a deeper workup. So couples come home with numbers that "look fine" and an unsatisfying answer: we don't really know why.

I built the Sperm DNA Window™ around exactly that gap.

A clinical path, built across Chicago's fertility community

My training and my career have both pointed steadily toward this work.

I graduated from the Midwest College of Oriental Medicine in 2010 and began practicing that same year at Bridge to Health, where I spent more than a decade — from 2010 to 2021 — working in pre-IVF optimization with both partners, male and female. Those years shaped everything about how I practice now. I watched the same pattern repeat again and again: thoughtful, committed couples doing everything asked of them, with the male side reduced to a single basic test and otherwise left out of the plan entirely.

In 2019, I completed my Doctor of Acupuncture at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, earning the D.Ac. credential — part of a broader commitment to understanding how the full range of lifestyle and environmental inputs affects the body's systems.

From 2022 through 2024, I practiced at Pulling Down the Moon in Chicago, one of the most respected integrative fertility centers in the region, deepening my focus on fertility optimization for both partners. In 2024, I received recognition from Findatopdoc. Since 2024, I've worked independently on the Sperm DNA Window™, supporting couples nationwide through telehealth.

What that path amounts to is 15+ years in the real, day-to-day fertility experience — not theory, but the actual journey couples walk through. The Sperm DNA Window™ is the distillation of that experience into a structured plan for the side of fertility that has gone unaddressed for too long.

My approach: biology, not trends

Here is the principle on which everything I do rests: your body works on biological principles, not trends.

There is no magic supplement, no single perfect diet, and no one exercise that fixes sperm health. What there is — and this is genuinely hopeful — is biology that responds to the right inputs over time. Sperm takes about 74 days to develop and another two weeks to mature. That means the sperm used in your next cycle is being built right now.

Think of it like planting a seed. Are you going to give it the right soil, the right nutrients, the right temperature — or just plant it and hope? Sperm develops the same way. Every single day, new sperm is forming. The only question is what environment it's forming in. And that environment is shaped almost entirely by lifestyle — which makes sperm DNA fragmentation the most modifiable factor in the entire fertility picture. You can't redesign egg quality on a timeline. But the conditions sperm develops in are, to a remarkable degree, within your control.

Why I don't believe in sudden, restrictive overhauls

This is where my approach differs sharply from the usual fertility advice — and it comes down to what people can actually sustain. Sudden, rigid restriction tends to backfire — not because one slip ruins anything, but because all-or-nothing plans are the ones people abandon.

So I don't ask for radical overhauls or performative sacrifice. I ask for consistency. The protocol is designed to run at 70 to 80 percent consistency — not perfection. Most of the time, you're eating anti-inflammatory, lower-glycemic foods that support a healthy hormonal response. Most of the time, you're sleeping well, managing stress, taking supplements that fit your specific situation, and moving your body in ways that support fertility. An occasional, dose-dependent glass of wine or a slice of cake at a celebration doesn't undo the work — because the work is what you do most of the time, sustained across the window that matters. That balance is the point. It's livable, and livable is what's repeatable.

Success is hidden in the 90 days before your cycle

The single most important idea I can leave you with is this: the window that determines your next outcome is the 90 days leading up to it.

By the time you're in your cycle, the sperm being used has already been built. The variable that was changeable — the environment that sperm developed in — has already passed. That's why I anchor everything to the 74-to-90-day spermatogenesis window, and why the timing of when you start matters as much as what you do.

For couples who have already faced a failed cycle, an arrested embryo, or an unexplained "everything looks normal," this window is often the one place left where a meaningful, modifiable variable still exists. It deserves attention, structure, and a plan — not guesswork and random supplements.

My work is a clinical lifestyle intervention, coordinated alongside your medical care. It does not replace your reproductive endocrinologist, your urologist, or any part of your medical treatment. It addresses the lifestyle, nutritional, and environmental factors that the medical side typically lacks the time or framework to manage — the daily inputs that shape sperm DNA quality throughout the developmental window.

The next cycle can't use sperm that doesn't exist yet. The sperm that matters is being built now. Let's give it the right environment.

Dr. Leila Fazlicic, D.Ac., L.Ac. — Doctor of Acupuncture and licensed fertility acupuncturist. Based in the Chicago area, telehealth nationwide. All content is provided for clinical lifestyle intervention and educational purposes and is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified reproductive specialist or licensed healthcare provider regarding your individual care.