When you’re preparing for IVF, your checklist can grow quickly.
Appointments. Blood tests. Supplements. Medications. And, somewhere in the middle of it all, the BIG question: “What else can I do to support my eggs before retrieval?”
One useful place to focus is the environment in which your eggs develop - including the systems that help them produce energy and manage oxidative stress.
That brings us to glutathione, an antioxidant your cells make themselves, and photobiomodulation, or LLLT - a light-based approach being studied for its effects on cellular energy and antioxidant protection. Together, these areas of research offer an encouraging perspective on fertility preparation.
IVF preparation is about more than the number of eggs.
During an IVF cycle, follicle counts and egg numbers receive a lot of attention. Those numbers matter. So does an egg’s ability to mature, fertilize, and support early embryo development.
These processes depend on coordinated cellular activity: energy production, communication between an egg and its surrounding support cells, and protection from excessive oxidative stress. Glutathione is involved in maintaining the conditions these processes need.
This is why the preparation conversation can go beyond “How many eggs might we retrieve?” to include “How can we support the biological environment those eggs develop in?”
What is oxidative stress - and why does it matter during IVF?
As your cells produce energy and carry out their daily work, they also produce reactive oxygen species, often shortened to ROS.
In controlled amounts, these molecules help cells communicate. When their production exceeds the body’s ability to manage them, oxidative stress develops. This can damage DNA, proteins, and cell membranes - all structures that eggs, sperm, and embryos rely on.
IVF introduces additional potential sources of oxidative stress, particularly when eggs and embryos are handled outside the body. Researchers have identified oxygen exposure, laboratory light, culture conditions, and reproductive-cell handling as factors that can contribute.
For example:
Oxygen exposure: Oxygen levels in the reproductive tract are lower than those in room air. Higher oxygen exposure during laboratory procedures can encourage ROS production.
Laboratory light: The light in your clinic can trigger chemical reactions in cells and culture fluids that generate ROS. This is different from carefully dosed therapeutic red or near-infrared light (more to come on this important aspect of IVF and how to find out if your clinic is following ‘light’ recommendations).
Handling and changing conditions: Moving reproductive cells between environments, fluctuations in temperature or pH, sperm preparation, and freezing and thawing can contribute to oxidative stress.
Meet glutathione: your cells’ built-in protection system
Glutathione is a small molecule made from three amino acids. Your cells produce it as part of their natural antioxidant defenses.
Think of it as one member of a cellular protection team.
Glutathione works with enzymes to help neutralize potentially harmful molecules. Once used, it can be recycled so it is ready to work again. Two important enzymes in this process are:
Glutathione peroxidase, which uses glutathione to help neutralize peroxides.
Glutathione reductase, which helps recycle glutathione into its usable form.
The result is an ongoing protective cycle - not simply a supply of antioxidants that gets used once and disappears.
For reproductive health, that protection has particular importance. Research links glutathione with egg maturation, events following fertilization, and development before an embryo implants.
Your egg’s support team matters, too
An egg does not mature in isolation.
Inside its follicle, it is surrounded by granulosa cells. These cells help support the egg’s development, and their ability to produce glutathione appears to influence the egg’s own antioxidant protection.
In a 2024 mouse study, researchers reduced glutathione production specifically in granulosa cells. Glutathione levels inside the eggs fell, and the mice’s fertility declined.
This finding highlights an important relationship: supporting an egg also means paying attention to the environment around it.
For women preparing for IVF, it provides a useful way to understand reproductive health beyond a single hormone result or follicle count.
Where does red light therapy fit into IVF preparation?
Photobiomodulation uses selected doses of red or near-infrared light to influence cellular activity. Low-level laser therapy, or LLLT, is PBM delivered with a laser; PBM can also be delivered with LEDs.
One major focus of PBM research is the mitochondria - the structures that help cells produce usable energy.
Light can influence mitochondrial activity and the signals cells use to respond to stress. Those signals may activate protective pathways, including antioxidant defenses.
This is what makes PBM different from simply adding another antioxidant supplement.
PBM does not deliver glutathione into your body. Researchers are investigating how it influences the systems your cells use to manage energy, stress, and protection.
What does the research show?
The glutathione and PBM story draws on several connected areas of research.
PBM can influence glutathione-related defenses
In a 2024 study involving rabbit eye tissues, researchers found that PBM increased glutathione in the cornea and vitreous - the clear gel inside the eye. They also observed increased activity of glutathione-related enzymes in some tissues.
This demonstrates that PBM can affect both glutathione and parts of the system that help it function.
Human research has measured a glutathione response
A 2026 study involving 50 women with autoimmune thyroiditis found that blood glutathione increased following thyroid-directed laser therapy and remained higher at the three-month follow-up.
Although this study concerned thyroid health, its relevance to the wider discussion is straightforward: a PBM-associated glutathione change was measurable in participants.
Ovarian research connects PBM with energy and antioxidant protection
In a 2024 study of naturally aging female mice, PBM reduced ovarian oxidative stress and inflammation, improved mitochondrial function, and improved several measures of ovarian function.
The researchers also studied a human granulosa cell line in the laboratory. Following exposure to oxidative stress, PBM improved measures of cell survival, mitochondrial function, and ATP—the energy cells use to carry out their work.
These findings bring together three themes that matter in IVF preparation:
The energy available to reproductive cells.
The defenses that help manage oxidative stress.
The support-cell environment surrounding a developing egg.
That combination provides a scientific rationale for exploring PBM as a supportive part of an individualized preparation plan.
Why “more light” is not the goal
Red light therapy is about delivering an appropriate level of light to trigger a beneficial cascade of celluar changes - not simply spending more time in front of a red light.
A thoughtful approach to your IVF preparation
You do not need a longer fertility checklist for the sake of having one.
You deserve to understand why an option is being suggested, what the research supports, and how it fits your circumstances.
Glutathione research highlights the importance of the body’s built-in protective systems. PBM research offers an encouraging way to explore support for those systems alongside cellular energy and the environment in which eggs develop.
That is the conversation I want women to have before IVF: informed, practical, and focused on the bigger picture.
Explore PBM as part of your IVF preparation
My fertility consultations help you make sense of the research and consider where PBM may fit alongside your existing care.
We can discuss your goals, treatment timeline, current fertility plan, and questions about clinic-based treatment or a home laser.
Book a fertility consultation for personalized guidance, or explore my devices and the support available to help you make an informed choice. Let your fertility team know about any PBM you plan to use so your care stays coordinated.
Tracy
Resources:
Adeoye O, Olawumi J, Opeyemi A, Christiania O. Review on the role of glutathione on oxidative stress and infertility. JBRA Assisted Reproduction. 2018;22(1):61–66. doi: 10.5935/1518-0557.20180003.
Cinco R, et al. Decreased glutathione synthesis in granulosa cells, but not oocytes, of growing follicles decreases fertility in mice. Biology of Reproduction. 2024;111(5):1097–1113.
Oxidative stress during IVF
Mauchart P, Vass RA, Nagy B, Sulyok E, Bódis J, Kovács K. Oxidative Stress in Assisted Reproductive Techniques, with a Focus on an Underestimated Risk Factor. Current Issues in Molecular Biology. 2023;45(2):1272–1286. doi: 10.3390/cimb45020083.
Agarwal A, Durairajanayagam D, du Plessis SS. Utility of antioxidants during assisted reproductive techniques: an evidence based review. Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology. 2014;12:112. doi: 10.1186/1477-7827-12-112.
Supports the explanation of potential ROS sources during IVF, including visible light, oxygen concentration, culture media, temperature, pH, and sperm preparation.
PBM mechanisms and antioxidant defenses
Hamblin MR. Mechanisms and Mitochondrial Redox Signaling in Photobiomodulation. Photochemistry and Photobiology. 2018;94(2):199–212. doi: 10.1111/php.12864.
Effects of Photobiomodulation Application on Glutathione-Related Antioxidant Defense Systems. Journal of Biophotonics. Published online 2024. doi: 10.1002/jbio.202400261.
PBM and ovarian function
He Y, Ye R, Peng Y, et al. Photobiomodulation ameliorates ovarian aging by alleviating oxidative stress and inflammation damage and improving mitochondrial function. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology. 2024;260:113024. doi: 10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2024.113024.
Human evidence connecting PBM and glutathione
Berisha-Muharremi V, Tahirbegolli B, Humolli A, Hanna R. Comparative Effects of Photobiomodulation Therapy Versus Conventional Antioxidant Supplementation on Serum Glutathione Levels in Euthyroid Chronic Autoimmune Thyroiditis: A Prospective Open-Label Interventional Clinical Trial. Antioxidants. 2026;15(9):1105. doi: 10.3390/antiox15091105.
Research note: The evidence discussed includes animal studies, laboratory research, and emerging human findings outside IVF. It supports a biological rationale for investigating PBM in fertility care; it does not establish that PBM raises glutathione inside human eggs, prevents IVF-related oxidative damage, or improves live-birth rates. This article is educational and does not provide a treatment protocol.
