Here's What You Need To Know About Egg Quality and PCOS Fertility
Egg quality is vitally important for fertility. Are you getting the information and care that you need to keep the quality of your eggs at their highest?
When you have PCOS and you’re struggling to get pregnant, you don’t want anything that might affect your fertility to be overlooked.
Don’t let egg quality be that something!
Today I’m going to share with you what you need to know about egg quality and why it’s so important for fertility that you help your eggs be healthy and happy.
What is PCOS?
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the number one top causes of female infertility. If you have infertility and no one has checked you for PCOS, talk to someone right away. PCOS typically shows up as ovulation issues, often irregular cycles or long cycles (ie: you don’t have a period in a few months or a year or two). This is typically caused by too much testosterone or elevated insulin.
Because there are different types of PCOS, it doesn’t respond well to a one-size-fits-all approach. The most effective fertility plan for PCOS is one that is individualized to your PCOS fertility needs.
What is Infertility?
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines infertility as not being able to get pregnant within one year of having unprotected sex. And for those who are over the age of 35, not getting pregnant after six months of trying.
What is egg quality?
Alright, let’s get in to egg quality. So what exactly is egg quality referring to? Well the answer is actually pretty black-and-white.
Egg quality refers to whether or not an egg has the correct number of chromosomes. That correct number is twenty-three.
What are chromosomes? They are tiny structures within your cells that contain DNA. These chromosomes are important for fertility for two reasons.
First, they help keep the egg healthy so that it can be released to help make a baby.
And second, they form half of the DNA needed for your baby’s development (the other half come from the sperm)!
So if the egg has twenty-three chromosomes it’s “normal” (scientific term alert! It’s referred to as euploid). If it has less or more than twenty-three then it is abnormal (another science term coming at you! It’s referred to as aneuploid).
But what does this have to do with fertility?
In short, eggs that are abnormal, result in more miscarriages or aren’t even able to make a pregnancy at all.
The Journey of the Egg
Did you know that all the eggs you will ever have are in your body from the time you are born? Then, about a year before an egg is going to be released it starts waking up and getting ready for it’s big appearance out of the ovary.
Even though the egg starts activating (dividing chromosomes) a full year before ovulation, the three months leading up to ovulation is when the egg is most active. This is when most of the dividing of chromosomes is happening.
So the egg continues dividing chromosomes until it has twenty-three. At this point the egg is happy and ready to be released to make a baby.
Sometimes the egg has more or less chromosomes. It might still release from the ovary even without it's ideal number of chromosomes. But even though the egg ovulates it has a lower chance of making a baby.
There are times when the egg has a different number of chromosomes and does make a baby. This is when conditions such as Down Syndrome, or Trisomy 21 occur.
But remember - when there are issues with the chromosomes, that can come from either the egg or the sperm.
So now you know what we are talking about when we say "egg quality" and why it’s so important for fertility purposes, but you may also be curious about how this looks for you and what to do about it. Let’s start talking about that!
How do you know your egg quality?
This can be difficult because there is no routine test that specifically looks at egg quality.
The most common testing for egg quality is through Anti-müllerian hormone (or AMH). Another test you may have performed is your Antral Follicle Count. This test is done through an ultrasound.
But both of these tests are more helpful for understanding your ovarian reserve.
Why? Because both show a rough estimate of how many follicles are in your ovaries (there is one egg per follicle). The higher the number of follicles, the better chance you have of making a baby. But they don’t look specifically at the quality of the eggs.
What Causes Poor Egg Quality?
A variety of factors cause poor egg quality. Read my article here that covers the top 4 causes of poor egg quality.
Does PCOS Affect Egg Quality?
We’ve been talking about egg quality in general, but you may be wondering if PCOS specifically affects egg quality.
The answer is yes.
The biggest player when it comes to egg quality and PCOS is insulin-resistance.
Does this surprise you?
Insulin-resistance is talked about a lot when it comes to PCOS.
Now here’s the thing, not everyone with PCOS has insulin-resistance but it’s the most common type so it’s important to talk about.
Also, even if you don’t have diagnosable insulin-resistance, you may still be having imbalanced blood sugar swings that are leading to poor egg quality.
Egg Quality and PCOS Research
One study looked at women with elevated blood sugar levels and how that affects ovulation and egg quality. They found that women with more elevated blood sugar levels had poor egg quality.
In the study (which was done on women going through IVF by the way), not only were there differences in quality of the eggs, but there was also a big difference in the pregnancy rate.
The pregnancy rate in those who had regular blood sugar levels was 23%. For those women with high blood sugar levels, the pregnancy rate was just 3.4%. Big difference!
So I mentioned that even if your doctor hasn’t diagnosed you with insulin resistance, you still want to pay attention to blood sugar swings to help your egg quality.
Signs that you are having too many peaks and lows of blood sugar:
Headaches if you go too long without eating
Feeling shakey or lightheaded before meals (and that feeling gets better once you eat)
Getting hangry
If any of these plague you, consider working with someone to help get blood sugar levels regulated to help with fertility.
Signs that you may have poor egg quality
If you have poor egg quality, you want to know, right? While there is no simple test that tells you about the quality of your eggs, there are a few signs that point in the direction that egg quality is affecting fertility.
Signs that poor egg quality is contributing to fertility struggles:
History of multiple miscarriages
Infertility
Irregular cycles
No ovulation happening
Another way to determine if you have poor egg quality is to look at different nutrient levels in your body.
Nutrients like iron, for instance, can affect egg quality.
If you don't have enough iron then your eggs aren’t able to develop as they need to. So if low iron or anemia are part of your picture, getting that straightened out will help improve egg quality.
What about egg quality and age?
Remember above when we were talking about how your eggs develop in your body? Let’s add to what you know already about that.
So when you’re born, typically you are born with about 1 million eggs (wowza!).
Then, by the time you hit puberty, that number has dropped to about 300,000.
By the time you get to 30? You have around 100,000 eggs left.
Once you get to age 40, you may have around 5,000-10,000 eggs left.
You get the picture, right? The more years you have under your belt, the fewer eggs you have to develop.
There are a few causes to this. First, is that at each monthly cycle, you lose about 1,000 eggs.
Yes, you read that right.
About 1,000 eggs try to get ready for ovulation, but only one becomes the dominant follicle/egg and is released. So naturally, as you have more periods, you will have fewer eggs to develop.
Second, there are environmental causes. For one, we know that smoking decreases eggs in the body and lowers overall fertility chances.
But don’t be discouraged because this concern with aging and fertility doesn’t take egg quality into account.
Here's the thing, a younger woman with a higher amount of eggs, could have poor egg quality whereas a woman who is older could have a lower amount of eggs but could have good egg quality.
Because it has less to do with the number of eggs you have and more to do with how many nutrients the eggs get in order to develop as they should.
You see?
Egg Quality and Mitochondria
Another important consideration for egg quality (regardless of your age), is looking at something called mitochondria. Mitochondria are within every cell in your body. In fact, eggs hold anywhere between 50,000-1,500,000 mitochondria!
Eggs have such a huge amount of mitochondria because they are actively developing and growing. Those mitochondria are essential for growth and energy.
The issue is, over time and because of diets with lower nutrients, our bodies become deficient in some of the key nutrients the mitochondria need to function.
The more you can enhance your mitochondria, the more energy your eggs will have to divide their chromosomes and be happy and healthy.
Nutrients that mitochondria rely on include:
B vitamins
Selenium
CoQ10
Melatonin
Vitamin E
Can I do anything to improve my egg quality?
Oh gosh, I’m so glad you asked. Yes!
Your eggs are swimming in follicular fluid (lovely term, isn’t it?) which is full of nutrients, protein, and antioxidants that your eggs rely on for their growth.
So in order to improve egg quality, you will want to optimize your levels of particular nutrients in your body that help those eggs grow and to support your mitochondria.
To get more detailed info about how to support your egg quality with PCOS, check out these two other articles that I’ve written:
You’ve learned a lot today! Isn’t it exciting how powerful egg quality is for fertility?
Don’t let poor egg quality get in the way between you and your next baby.
Book a complimentary PCOS Fertility Breakthrough Session here to discover what unique needs you have to improve egg quality.
To learn even more about egg quality and PCOS, here are the next articles you need to read:
Can I Still Get Pregnant With Poor Egg Quality?
Here are the Important Details About NAC for PCOS
Struggling With Poor Egg Quality? Try This.
Is Improving Egg Quality Worth it For PCOS? Here Are The Important Details You Need to Know
