Trimester Zero: Knowledge Is Power, Until It Isn't

Someone asked me recently what I thought about the "trimester zero" trend: the growing movement of women spending months, sometimes years, optimizing their bodies before they even try to conceive. Swapping out nonstick pans, replacing workout clothes, unplugging the Wi-Fi at night, taking beef organ capsules. All of it in pursuit of the perfect fertility foundation.

They asked: what's your hot take?

I said: do you want my answer as a founder, or as a person?

As a founder in the women's health space, I wholeheartedly believe knowledge is power — Rescripted is quite literally built on that premise, the idea that women deserve access to real, evidence-based information about their bodies, and that being informed leads to better outcomes. I stand by that completely.

But as a type-B human with ADHD who has lived through infertility, two high-risk pregnancies, and a miscarriage, I also know that more information is not always more peace. And peace, it turns out, matters more than most wellness influencers will ever admit. 

The thing that worries me about trimester zero isn't the prenatal vitamins or the earlier bedtimes. It's the subtext. The quiet implication that if you just prepare enough, optimize enough, eliminate enough toxins, you'll be rewarded with an easy road to pregnancy. And when it doesn't work out that way, as it doesn't for one in six people globally, the information that was supposed to empower you can start to feel like a (very long) checklist of things you did wrong.

Fertility issues are not your fault, regardless of what you did or didn't do to prepare, and no amount of optimization changes that. My "hot take"? Know what helps you, ignore what doesn't, and whatever helps you sleep at night — that's the right answer.