Infertility is a major issue that prevents millions of couples from having their own child and becoming parents. Many factors cause infertility, and one of the most important of them is egg quality.
Poor egg quality often happens to women who are over 35 years of age. This is because all their good-quality eggs would have already been released during each menstrual cycle, and the remaining eggs will start losing their quality as they age.
Most times, you won’t recognize you have poor egg quality until you visit a doctor for infertility issues. Improving your egg quality is very important if you wish to have a successful pregnancy.
In this article, we have discussed some tips that you can follow to increase your egg quality and ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy.
How to Improve Egg Quality?
Before undergoing any treatments, you would first want to try some natural remedies to improve your egg quality. Below are a few ways to do that.
Boost blood flow
A healthy blood flow to the ovaries is essential to provide the oxygen it needs to function. Here are a few tips to improve blood flow in your body.
Stay hydrated. Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water every day.
Regular exercises like running, yoga, jogging, etc., can improve blood flow to the heart and promote healthy blood circulation to the ovaries.
You can also try yoga, massages, or other relaxing therapies to improve blood flow.
Consume a healthy diet
Whether you are a man or woman, your diet is crucial in determining your reproductive health. Unhealthy food habits, like eating junk or processed foods and drinking artificial & flavored beverages, can impact your ovary health and reduce the quality of your eggs.
Instead, take healthy, nutrient-rich foods, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc. Ensure you take foods rich in nutrients like protein, vitamins, calcium, iron, etc. All these nutrients can help you improve your egg quality and, thus, your fertility.
Do not smoke
Smoking has a drastic effect on both male and female fertility. If a man smokes too much, the quality of his sperm decreases. Likewise, if a woman smokes, the quality of her egg decreases.
Smoking can alter the DNA structure of the egg cells, making them unsuitable for fertilization. This is why IVF doctors suggest women quit smoking at least 3 months before beginning their fertility treatments. So, if you are a smoker and have poor egg quality, ensure you quit this habit.
Manage stress
It is normal for you to feel stressed and worried if you can’t get pregnant. But did you know that stress is one of the major factors that can further decrease your health and egg quality?
Stress increases cortisol and prolactin production in the body and affects hormone levels. This can hinder egg production and affect the ovulation cycle. This is why women who have stress and depression have problems with their menstrual cycles.
So, reduce your stress and do relaxing activities like yoga, meditation, etc. You can also do activities that give you joy, like reading a good book, playing with your pet, etc.
Maintain a healthy weight
You must maintain a normal BMI to ensure a healthy and successful pregnancy. Being underweight, overweight, or obese can affect your hormone levels and decrease the quality of your eggs.
So, ensure you reach the optimum BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 before trying to get pregnant. A healthy weight also boosts metabolism and improves your overall health.
Take Prenatal Multivitamins Or Antioxidants
If you have visited a IVF Specialist to address your inability to get pregnant, they would have prescribed you some medications to improve your fertility. These medicines are mostly multivitamins and antioxidants that are essential for healthy egg production.
Vitamins, especially vitamins B9 and B12, are crucial to fertility. They facilitate energy metabolism and promote cellular functions. Doctors also recommend these medications during pregnancy as they help with a healthy baby’s development.
Antioxidants actively protect the egg cells from damage by free radicals. This ensures your eggs are healthy, can be fertilized, and result in a healthy baby.
The importance of egg quality
If you have decided to undergo IVF or any other fertility treatment, the quality of your egg is very important. It determines whether the egg can be successfully fertilized and implanted in the uterus. Your egg quality also affects embryo quality and whether it can grow till childbirth.
A poor-quality egg can also have genetic and chromosomal abnormalities. If this egg gets fertilized, there are chances that the embryo will also have these abnormalities.
This can lead to aneuploidy, a condition where the embryo has either fewer or more number of chromosomes than the normal 23 pairs of chromosomes. It will either die during pregnancy, causing miscarriage, or the baby might have genetic abnormalities like Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, etc.
Conclusion
A good egg quality is essential if you want to have a successful pregnancy. Your partner’s sperm quality is equally important. So, if you have decided to undergo fertility treatment, ensure you check the quality of your sperm and eggs.
If the quality is low, follow the abovementioned tips, improve your egg quality, and start the treatment. This can increase your chances of success and also save you from spending too much time and money on multiple cycles.
Vitamins, especially vitamins B9 and B12, are crucial to fertility. They facilitate energy metabolism and promote cellular functions. Doctors also recommend these medications during pregnancy as they help with a healthy baby’s development.
Folic acid (folate) is an important B vitamin that has multiple benefits for you and your baby. It prevents the chances of congenital heart defects and neural tube defects in the developing baby.
It also helps with embryo implantation and helps the embryo cells develop. So, if you are trying to get pregnant and haven’t yet started your folic acid, start now.
Some foods you should avoid to improve your egg quality and get pregnant are,
- Fried foods
- Processed foods
- Soda
- Trans fat
- Sugary foods
- Alcohol
- caffeine
These foods can severely affect your egg quality and overall health. So, stay away from them as much as possible.
