Improving Your Egg Quality Can Increase Your Chances of Conceiving - CFMC

by Coastal Fertility Medical Center Coastal Fertility Medical Center

Although egg quality is one of the factors that determine whether a woman will be able to conceive, it is not a topic many people think about until they’re already struggling to have a baby. Poor egg quality results from depleted ovarian reserve and is among the common causes of female infertility, especially in women older than 35 years of age.

Egg quality matters because it is what determines embryo quality. Poor egg quality has been linked to chromosomal disorders in embryos, also referred to as aneuploidy. Aneuploidy may cause birth defects in some cases, but it often leads to miscarriage, usually at a very early stage when a woman is not even aware she has conceived.

In IVF, egg quality issues may mean that the eggs will not fertilize at all or that the embryos formed will fail to implant in the mother’s womb. Whether you are planning to use IVF as a fertility treatment or trying to get pregnant naturally, you need to ensure that your eggs are as healthy and viable as possible.

Examine your lifestyle choices.

Although there are presently no clinically proven ways to enhance egg quality once it’s started going down, scientists are exploring how an individual’s lifestyle choices can significantly impact reproductive health. Eventhough there are no conclusive findings yet regarding the type of exercise or diet that’s ideal for egg quality, good self-care and common sense can help ensure that your body functions at its optimum potential for your health. There is more to you than your eggs. You need to be healthy for yourself so that your pregnancy will go as smoothly as possible.

When trying to get pregnant, it is good to start making decisions “as though” you have already conceived. Eat a balanced diet with a lot of protein and stay away from foods known to contain a high level of toxins. Also, cut out alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, and give yourself some time for regular, mild exercise.

It is very infuriating when you are told “to chill” when you have been struggling with for a long time butcutting down stress does come with some health benefits. Stress may trigger some physiological reactions in your body that can help create a less-than-optimal environment for your eggs. Do not worry about staying completely stress-free – it is not possible. Stressing out about stress would only create a vicious cycle. However, you can arm yourself with toolsto deal with it when it surfaces. Relaxation techniques, medication, and the support of family, friends, and experts can go a long way in helping you ease through the hard times.

Consider alternative therapies.

While nothing can replace a private consultation with a trained reproductive specialist,a lot of women discover that alternative treatments and therapies raise their sense of well-being as they are trying to get pregnant. Herbal medicine, massage, acupuncture, as well as supplements can help create an ideal environment for your eggs. Check with your fertility doctor to make sure that there is no chance of harmful interactions between the prescribed drugs you are taking and the supplements and herbs.

Try and go for an “egg checkup.”

At birth, a woman’s ovaries already contain all the eggs she will ever have in her lifetime. As the years go by, these eggs will start reducing in numbers, and egg quality will also begin to decline, mostly in her early 30s. This decline speeds up through her late 30s and early 40s and goes on until she gets to the end of her reproductive years.

It is important to monitor your egg quality and quantity early and regularly. Waiting till you are already experiencing problems can mean losing valuable time. Visiting a fertility clinic for check-ups and tests is a relatively low-commitment and low-cost way to be certain about your fertility at any point in time. Plus, it can help you to make choices as you proceed. Are you going to require assisted reproductive technologies to conceive? Is it the right time to go for Egg Freezing?

Your fertility expert can help you answer these questions with a few simple tests:

· Antral Follicle Count.Antral follicles are small follicles around the ovaries that can only be seen and counted using an ultrasound. A doctor can predict the number of primordial follicles (microscopic sacs containing oocytes) a woman has by counting the visible antra follicles. The higher the number of follicles, the higher the ovarian reserve.

· Day 3 FSH (blood test). FHS, short for follicle-stimulating hormone, is one of the key hormones in ovulation. It is synthesized in the anterior pituitary gland and helps stimulatetheovarian follicles to mature and set free eggs during ovulation.

Fertility doctors will be able to determine how hard your body is working to ensure that ovulation takes place when FSH levels are measured early in the menstrual cycle. The body won’t stop producing FSH until you ovulate. Your pituitary gland will not receive the message to cease production if you don’t ovulate at all, raising the levels of FSH in the body. That is, high FSH levels often indicate that your ovarian reserve is diminished.

· AMH (blood test). Anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) isproduced by verysmall ovarian follicles that are changing from the tiny primordial state to the stage where they can produce eggs. While AMH level tests do not indicate much about egg quality, it can indicate whether a woman still possesses a big pool of active follicles, which can mean that she has a higher chance of producing more healthy and viable eggs.

Conclusion

Women are not the same, and there’s no way to say for sure when an individual might start experiencing diminished ovarian reserve. However, it is rare for a woman to have premature ovarian failure in her early twenties. A fertile woman might not experience a significant reduction in her egg pool until her early forties.

Visiting a reproductive endocrinologist for ovarian reserve tests is the only way to know where you fall on the spectrum. The good news is that since all these are diagnostic tests, there is a high chance that they are going to be covered by insurance. Check your egg health to have peace of mind and know where you stand with egg quality and ovarian reserve when it is time to conceive.

If you want to learn more about your fertility options, Coastal Fertility, a fertility clinic in Orange County, is here to help! Visit us at www.coastalfertility.com or call us at 949-726-0600 to learn more.