About
Qualifications: MSc Nutritional Medicine, BSc (Hons) Health Sciences: Nutritional Therapy
After a long career in the health and beauty industry, I went to university to study nutrition, and I have been practicing since 2002. For eight years, I was the senior nutritional therapist at London’s prestigious fertility and pregnancy Zita West Clinic, designing the nutrition programme for the clinic, and seeing thousands of clients.
I also worked at a private GP practice for five years, which was a huge learning experience, and for a complete change I taught cooking skills to teenagers with learning difficulties for a small charity called Foundations. In 2009 I joined the team at In:Spa, hosting and consulting clients on retreats in Morocco, Spain and France, and a year later I decided to go out on my own specialising in pre-conception, IVF and pregnancy nutrition, in Central London.
In 2017 I completed my MSc at the University of Surrey. My final project was a systematic review and meta-analysis entitled: Does male obesity affect IVF outcome? For which I gained a distinction (and yes, it does as far as we know!)
I wrote the male fertility nutrition chapter for Guide to Getting Pregnant by Zita West published in 2005. For five years, I wrote regularly for the Sunday Telegraph Stella Magazine Q&A health page and I wrote the nutrition chapter for the book Female Infertility: Basic Science and Clinical Practice edited by Bryan Woodward and Jayant Mehta published in 2018. I am currently working on a book about sperm and how to improve male fertility with the urologist and male fertility expert, Professor Jonathan Ramsay and the male health expert Dr Ananad Patel.
I am very proud of my most recent project – a collaboration with Start with Ovum and our excellent new fertility supplement for men which I helped to design.
I am also on the board of The IVF Network, a fantastic organisation bringing fertility awareness, help and support into the workplace as well as to individuals.
My next project for 2027 is a series of one-off masterclasses specialising in different areas of health and infertility. And maybe even a weekend retreat pre-IVF (if I can just get organised!)
"As a family (now) we owe Melanie so much – she pin pointed things that went far beyond my infertility and IVF treatment. I keep telling anyone I know with not only fertilty problems but general ‘not feeling right’ to go and see a nutritionist! She was on hand right through me finally getting pregnant to ensure I did my very best for myself and my son. I can’t thank you enough Melanie, you made so much of my pain disappear by small guidelines and helped bring the biggest joy to our lives!”
- Client, London, 2017
As seen in...
I must confess I am not good with holidays, usually leaving it to the last minute, and then slightly dreading them as the time to ‘get away from it all’ draws closer. Oh the expectations are so very high; the weather, the food, the mattress, the view, the other people if we’re in a hotel, the lack of other people if we’re half way up a mountain.