About Dr. Leila Fazlicic, D.Ac, L.Ac

Half of every embryo is his. Almost no one prepares that half.

I'm Dr. Leila Fazlicic — a Doctor of Acupuncture and licensed acupuncturist (Illinois) with 15+ years in pre-IVF optimization, including close collaboration with fertility clinics across the Chicago area. At Cycle Decoded, I work with both partners at once to prepare their biology in the months before a cycle — and I lead with the side that gets overlooked the most: the male side.

Licensed Acupuncturist, State of Illinois — IDFPR License #198000990, active since 2011, no disciplinary actions (verify on the IDFPR license lookup) · LinkedIn

Not instead of her. Alongside her. You're one team preparing for one cycle, both timelines start on day one, and both of you matter here.

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. She carries the heavy emotional and physical burden of a failed cycle — the testing, the medications, the retrieval, the waiting. He is usually examined with little more than a standard semen analysis, then left out of the plan entirely.

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 shows up in a meaningful share of samples after a failed IVF cycle, and it's rarely tested unless someone specifically asks for it. So couples come home with numbers that "look fine" and an unsatisfying answer: we don't really know why.

I built my pre-IVF couples work around exactly that gap.

A 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 — 2010 to 2021 — in pre-IVF optimization with both partners. 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.

In 2019, I completed my Doctor of Acupuncture (D.Ac.) at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine — part of a broader commitment to understanding how the full range of lifestyle and environmental inputs shapes 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 optimization for both partners. Since then, I've worked independently through Cycle Decoded, supporting couples nationwide through telehealth.

What that path amounts to is 15+ years inside the real, day-to-day fertility experience — not theory, but the actual journey couples walk. Cycle Decoded is the distillation of that experience into a structured plan for both partners — with real attention finally paid to the side of fertility that has gone unaddressed for too long.

Credentials

• Doctor of Acupuncture (D.Ac.), Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, 2019
• Licensed Acupuncturist, State of Illinois — IDFPR #198000990, active since 2011, no disciplinary actions
• Midwest College of Oriental Medicine, 2010
• 15+ years in pre-IVF fertility optimization — Bridge to Health (2010–2021), Pulling Down the Moon (2022–2024)

Why the male side is where the hope is

Here's the part most couples are never told, and it's genuinely hopeful.

We optimize both partners — including her final egg-maturation window. But the conditions sperm develops in are, to a remarkable degree, within your control. Sperm takes about 74 days to develop and another two weeks to mature — which means the sperm used in your next cycle is being built right now.

That makes sperm DNA fragmentation one of the most modifiable factors in the fertility picture — and one of the least examined. Especially after a cycle that didn't go the way you hoped, it's often the one place where a meaningful, changeable variable still exists.

So when I say "lead with him," I don't mean blame him. I mean: this is the half of the equation with the most room to move — and moving it is something you do together.

My approach: biology, not trends

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

There is no magic supplement, no single perfect diet, no one exercise that fixes fertility. What there is — and this is the hopeful part — is biology that responds to the right inputs over time.

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.

Consistency, not perfection

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 70–80% 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 in ways that support fertility. An occasional 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: 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 window, and why when you start matters as much as what you do.

My work is educational lifestyle guidance, 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 quality throughout the developmental window.

For both of you

Cycle Decoded leads with the male side because that's the half that's been ignored. But you are one team, and this was never meant to leave her out.

When we work together, the 14-week programme looks at both partners' lifestyle inputs and coordinates one shared 90-day strategy — so the male timeline seamlessly supports the female partner's upcoming clinical cycle. His preparation and her cycle, on the same clock.

Stop guessing. Start preparing.

If you and your partner are preparing for IVF, IUI, or natural conception — especially after a cycle that didn't go the way you hoped — both halves deserve a real plan. Not hers with his supplements attached.

Fifteen minutes, no cost, no pitch. Is this the right window for you, and is there anything here worth preventing?

Prefer to work with me directly? We can work together across the fourteen weeks before your cycle — a paid educational coaching engagement where I look at both partners' lifestyle inputs together and coordinate one shared 90-day strategy, so the male timeline supports the female partner's cycle.

Dr. Leila Fazlicic, D.Ac., L.Ac. — Doctor of Acupuncture and licensed acupuncturist (Illinois). Based in the Chicago area, telehealth nationwide.