8 Natural Tips to Improve Egg Quality if You’re TTC

When TTC, there’s a lot to consider. Such as if we want to use natural or assisted methods, how we are tracking ovulation, and so much more. One important factor is egg quality, but what does that really mean, and is it something we can naturally improve? Let’s dive into a guide on how to improve egg quality naturally.

What Is Egg Quality?

The quality of the female egg does not mean the physical quality of the egg, but the genetic quality. Our eggs need to carry 23 chromosomes, which, when combined with the other 23 from a sperm, make up the 46 that are needed to create our gene set. If the egg is aneuploid (that means having the wrong number of chromosomes), this can affect the quality of an embryo.

How Egg Quality Affects Fertility

If eggs have too many or too few chromosomes, it can lead to problems. Our fertilized eggs may not implant correctly, there are higher chances of miscarriages, and (if you’re using IVF) it can lead to failed rounds. It is also possible that it could cause birth defects.

Tracking and Supporting Hormonal Health Naturally

Your egg quantity and quality can be affected by your hormonal health. If your hormonal health is balanced, that’s a good indicator for egg quantity. There are many ways to improve hormonal health at home or with a medical practitioner’s help, but how do you know if it’s actually worked out without constantly having blood tests? There are various methods of tracking at home. The more traditional way is using a thermometer like the Mira Basal Body Thermometer or wearable tech, but there are more in-depth tools available now. The most insightful and accurate way of testing your hormonal health can be monitoring hormones through devices like the Mira Hormone Monitor and Mira Max Wands. Combining these with the Mira App lets you see your whole cycle through digital charts and see exactly when, and how effectively you are ovulating.

The Role of a Healthy Lifestyle in Egg Quality

We know! We know! You’re bored to death of health and lifestyle advice when it comes to your fertility and everyone from your doctor to your great aunt twice removed will have been telling you things to help. As annoying as it can be to constantly get this (sometimes unsolicited) advice, it is the easiest and most natural way to balance your hormones and learn how to improve egg quality.

Balanced Nutrition for Egg Health

We all need a different diet, but finding a diet with the right balance of nutrients for our individual needs will help us protect our ovary eggs.

Key nutrients (e.g., antioxidants, folate, vitamins D and E)

If you can focus on nothing else when it comes to your diet for fertility and egg quality, focus on antioxidants, folate, vitamin D, and vitamin E. Antioxidants help combat free radicals in our body (unstable atoms that are made as a byproduct of our metabolism and external stimuli). Free radicals can damage DNA- which is pretty important to us and our eggs! Folate (also known as B9) is necessary for cell creation and growth. Vitamin D is most known for helping our bone health, but it also helps regulate hormones that prepare our womb lining, and helps our immune system during pregnancy. There have been some studies showing that people TTC who had higher levels of vitamin D had more success in IVF, even those with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Vitamin E helps men’s sperm quality, but also helps a woman’s reproductive health and can sometimes help those with PCOS.

Foods to boost egg quality naturally

You might find that some of the foods in the egg quality diet are your favorites, or you might find really easy ways to add them to your diet. Foods high in antioxidants include garlic, lemon, apples, black tea, walnuts, and turmeric. For increasing folate, dark leafy greens, beans, and pulses are your friend. Increasing vitamin D can be done through eating mushrooms or fatty fish like tuna and salmon. Kiwis, avocado, mango, almonds, and spinach are great sources of vitamin E. There are also some foods that cross over, like eggs are a great source of folate and vitamin D, and broccoli is great for antioxidants and folate! If you prefer to drink your vitamins though then the Mira Fertility Tea is a great way to do so, containing ingredients selected by fertility experts to help you balance your hormones and increase fertility.

Regular Exercise and Its Benefits

We’re not talking about exercising to lose weight, although being a healthy weight has great benefits for your body in general, we mean finding the right level of exercise to help you feel good, improve egg quality, and also improve your hormonal health, while also not over-doing it.

Impact of moderate exercise on hormone balance

Exercise not only helps us make endorphins (making us feel good) but it helps us regulate our hormones. Brisk walking, biking, water aerobics, pushing a lawn mower, dancing, hiking, and even rollerblading are all great ways of getting moderate amounts of exercise. If you’ve been doing little or no exercise for a while (no shame, we live in a busy world!), then it’s best to start slow and ramp up from there.

How over-exercising can affect egg health

There is too much of a good thing, though, and going too hard on the exercise is not only a recipe for us to injure ourselves but also a good way to undo our hard work. Doing too much exercise can actually stop us from ovulating, and it can lead to IVF failure. Finding balance is the key.

Stress Management and Mind-Body Techniques

Stress has a negative effect on our body in all kinds of ways, from our sleep quality, to our cognitive abilities, to our fertility and hormonal health. Keeping stress down, even in our busy modern life, is imperative!

Effects of Chronic Stress on Fertility

Chronic stress is not only deeply unpleasant, but it also affects our egg quality and our fertility. Aside from disrupting our hormones, it can reduce the blood flow going to our reproductive organs, and even make us miss ovulating!

Mindfulness Practices for Stress Reduction

Mindfulness is a bit of an art. We are so used to being constantly busy that taking time out to do nothing can feel strange, even uncomfortable. Being assisted by guided meditations like the ones on the Mira Meditation Playlist can be a big help when we’re starting our mindfulness journey. Our playlist is designed to make meditation easy, no matter your skill level, and help you take time to de-stress.

Improving Sleep Quality to Support Egg Health

Sleep is a tricky beast for some of us. It’s also affected by our environment, our mental health, and our physical health.

Natural Supplements to Boost Egg Quality

There are plenty of natural ways to improve the quality of eggs, and small changes can make all the difference.

CoQ10 and Mitochondrial Support

It has been drilled into all of us that the Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but what does that have to do with fertility? People taking CoQ10 are more likely to have higher chances of pregnancy when going through IVF, and better quality embryos.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Inflammation Reduction

Inflammation isn’t something we think of, but reducing inflammation in the reproductive system can help positively impact fertility. Omega-3s help increase follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) which is a central hormone for the growth of our eggs which can increase their quality.

Other Key Supplements: Vitamin D, B12, and Folate

Along with vitamin D and Folate that we mentioned before as being imperative for your egg quality, you may also need added B12 (aka cobalamin). This is a vitamin that helps with fertility as well as creating and synthesizing DNA and red blood cells. Without enough of it we may not be able to conceive. If you want to take something that can help you get all your needed vitamins, the Mira Prenatal Supplements can give you the vitamins and minerals you need in one go. Easy to take and designed by our fertility experts to balance your hormones and increase fertility.

Herbal Supplements 

Supplements like maca root, ashwagandha, and chaste berry have all been found to give additional support during fertility. It is important you check with a healthcare professional before taking them though as there can be interactions with medications or other conditions.

Consulting with a Specialist on Supplement Use

Not all supplements are created equal and sometimes you need to ask someone for your own peace of mind. The Mira Hormone Health Clinic for Fertility is the place to go to get that peace of mind and have a friendly specialist point you in the right direction for what might be helpful for your needs.

Toxin Reduction and Environmental Factors

We all know toxins are bad for us, but they can be especially bad when TTC and the effect they have on women’s eggs, our reproductive system, and our ovaries (including the egg follicle). These aren’t just toxins that you find in factories or dangerous areas, but things we can encounter in our everyday lives. While we shouldn’t be anxious about these, we should be aware of them and attempt to avoid them where possible.

Reducing Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors

Endocrine disruptors (or EDC’s) are chemicals that interfere with our hormones. As our egg quality is mainly a hormonal process having anything interfere with that can limit us when trying to improve egg quality.

Household products, personal care items, and plastics

EDC’s can be found in a lot of surprising places such as sunscreen, textiles, non-stick food wrappers, antibacterial soap, microwave popcorn bags, some plastics, and some cosmetics. If you are looking to limit your exposure to these chemicals research alternatives that do not contain EDC’s.

Importance of Clean Eating and Organic Foods

A lot of our food nowadays can be sprayed with chemicals that, while good at keeping pests away, may not be so good for us and our health, especially when TTC. Excessive ingestion of pesticides can reduce our egg count and can in fact cause some defects in embryos.

Avoiding Smoking, Alcohol, and Other Toxins

Smoking isn’t good for our fertility or the fertility of our partner. In regards to egg quality, smoking can reduce a woman’s egg count, which is backed up by research, and may also push us into an earlier menopause. Alcohol may make eggs less viable and also can reduce the number of eggs in our ovaries, on top of altering our hormone levels, which can throw everything out of balance.

Tracking and Supporting Hormonal Health Naturally

When looking into how to improve egg quality, the easiest way to know if your egg quality and quantity are good without other interventions is the regularity of your periods and tracking your hormones. Along with diet and lifestyle adjustments, you can work with your medical provider to support your body naturally.

Frequently Asked Questions