Poor Egg Quality? 5 Ways To Know It's Time to Boost Your Egg Quality For Fertility
Your egg quality plays a crucial role and has a huge impact on your fertility outcome.
I often get asked, "how do I know I need to improve my egg quality?" from women looking to improve their fertility outcome.
And, my answer is similar as follows...
"There isn’t a simple test to assess your egg quality like there is to access men's sperm quality, but there are several factors that can help you determine whether your egg quality is good or not.
Conception, a healthy pregnancy and then the arrival of a healthy baby is the ultimate sign, but there are some tell-tale signs for knowing before-hand."
In this blog article I'll share a few common signs that you can observe yourself. Those in which I'll uncover in a little.
But, first, let us define what egg quality is.
What exactly is egg quality?
Sometimes "egg quality" and "egg quantity" are used interchangeably, but they each refer to something different.
Egg quality is the genetic component, its structure, its composition and other things that make it normal or abnormal.
The quality of your eggs can decreases over time, but they don't have to.
Egg quantity is the total number of eggs that are still available in your ovaries, and allegedlely (verdict is still out on this), women are born with all the eggs we'll ever have.
Your egg quantity can decrease over time as they get used up or disintegrate.
Now, let's get into different ways you can detect and know whether your egg quality is poor.
1. Your egg quality is poor if you don't ovulate regularly and have irregular periods.
If you're not ovulating normally or having regular periods, you likely have low quality eggs.
Irregular ovulation and periods could include you experiencing menstrual cycles that are long or short, or having periods that are late, or having no periods at all, or also having periods with light or heavy flow.
Each month during ovulation your ovaries release one egg, or two or more occasionaly, that could get fertilized by sperm to form an embryo.
And then, if it gets implanted in the uterus it could lead to a pregnancy.
This cycle doesn't happen efficiently or regulary when you're experiencing irregular ovulation.
Why? Because without healthy ovulation you have no egg.
And this could be due to poor egg quality.
2. Your egg quality is poor if you and your partner have been trying to conceive for 12 months without success.
If you and your partner have been trying to conceive for months and months, you may be dealing with an egg quality issue.
Even trying for 6 months without success can indicate you have poor egg quality.
Especially if you don't have PCOS or any other known reproductive illnesses, and you and you partner are having unprotected sex during your fertile window, yet still not falling pregnant.
Do not dismiss this as some mere "coincidence".
You should dig deeper into WHY you are not getting pregnant after several intentional attempts of trying.
There is a reason, and your egg quality may be it.
3. Your egg quality is poor if you're experiencing repeated miscarriages.
A miscarriage happens when the embryo can’t grow and dies during the early stages of pregnancy.
You having a quality egg is one of the key pieces to developing your egg into an healthy embryo and carrying pregnancy full-term.
If you have poor quality eggs, you will not only find it difficult for you to get pregnant, but it will be difficult for you to remain pregnant.
Because a poor-quality egg will not only have trouble fertilizing, developing into a healthy embryo and implanting in the uterus; but, once implanted, it will have trouble maintaining the energy load of multiplying and developin even more.
Having multiple miscarriages could mean the eggs might not have the correct number of chromosomes or are abnormal, essentially pointing back to poor egg quality.
Normally, in a healthy conception and fetus, the egg and sperm have 23 chromosomes each, totaling 46 chromosomes in the resulting embryo.
4. Your egg quality is poor if your have failed fertility treatments and IVF transfers
If you've had failed fertility treatments and IVF transfers, poor egg quality can be the reason.
As I just mentioned before, low-quality eggs can and will fail to fully develop into a healthy embryo and fetus.
If by the third day in the lab the embryo has not achieved a six to eight-cell stage or doesn’t have a regular shape, those embryos can’t be used for the embryo transfer phase of your IVF treatment.
Limited or zero embryos making to blastocyst state represents egg quality that is poor.
This is why if you and your partner are considering IVF treatments, and you want to capitalize on your investement and not waste your money - you should focus on improving your egg quality prior to starting treatments.
This is an area I support my fertility clients with.
5. Your egg quality is poor if you have elevated FSH levels, and low estradiol levels.
High and even low levels of certain hormones like follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and estradiol could signal there is an issue with your egg quality.
FSH is a hormone that is produced by your pituitary gland.
This hormone is responsible for stimulating your ovaries to produce a mature egg every month.
When your egg quality decreases, they become more resistant to FSH. Which means it will take more and more FSH to keep the cycle progressing.
Therefore, the higher the FSH value, the lower the quality of your eggs
Your estradiol levels increase to mature and release the egg during your mentrual cycle prior to ovulation. It also helps thicken your uterine lining to facilitate the implantation of fertilized eggs.
Low levels of estradiol can contribute to the slow development or nondevelopment of an egg.
Want to work with me to improve you FERTILITY?
The quality of an egg greatly affects your fertility. The poorer your egg quality the lower your fertility and the lesser your chances of conception.
If you suspect you are dealing with poor egg quality schedule a FREE Health Discovery Call to learn how I can support you to improve your egg quality and fertility naturally!
Love and health,
- Shavonne Richardson