Signs of Poor Egg Quality and How to Improve It

Egg quality plays a dynamic role in human fertility, as it largely determines—from fertilization onward—whether a pregnancy will be viable. Much like your ovarian reserve (your egg quantity) the quality of your eggs declines as you get older.

How do you improve egg quality? Unfortunately, apart from your age, there aren’t observable symptoms or signs of poor egg quality, nor are there tests that can directly evaluate the quality of your eggs. There is also no way to improve the quantity of your eggs. However, there are factors that can affect your overall fertility.

If you’re concerned about your egg quality, one of the best things you can do is understand how to support your overall fertility and when to seek out a specialist for support.

What is low egg quality?

There are several factors implicated in female fertility. The two main variables are:

1. Egg quantity, or your ovarian reserve – The number of eggs available in your ovaries.
2. Egg quality – The viability of those eggs in your ovarian reserve.

Every biological female is born with a supply of eggs that diminishes as she ages. In addition to having enough eggs, those available eggs must also have the right number of chromosomes to be viable for fertilization and growth.

At the microscopic level, low-quality eggs (especially those with chromosomal abnormalities) can halt the normal fertilization and development process piloted by your reproductive system. These eggs might:

• Fail to be fertilized
• Fail to implant in your uterine wall
• Lead to pregnancy loss (miscarriage)

For this reason, the only plausible “sign” of low-quality eggs is the inability to achieve or maintain pregnancy after repeated attempts to do so—if under the age of 35, after 1 year of trying; if over 35, after 6 months of trying.

What causes poor egg quality?

Other factors could be contributing to your poor egg quality and overall fertility challenges. The main ones include:

• Your age – Age is considered the most critical factor in determining female fertility, including female egg quality. For most women, egg quality and quantity both abruptly decline in the mid-30s. Learn more about how age affects fertility.
• Medical conditions – Certain reproductive health conditions, like endometriosis, can impair egg quality and overall fertility. Other conditions, both reproductive and nonreproductive, also interact significantly with fertility, including PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), PID (pelvic inflammatory disease), and thyroid illness.
• Your lifestyle –Research indicates certain habits like tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and eating patterns are linked to lower egg quality and quantity.
• Your environment – A growing body of research indicates that certain environmental toxins can adversely impact female and male fertility. Toxins to avoid or limit your exposure to include pesticides (found in many foods and produce items) and household cleaning supplies.

How to Boost Egg Quality and Support Fertility Overall

Because egg quality is mainly tied to the passage of time, it’s generally not considered possible to retroactively improve the quality of your ovarian reserve if you’ve reached a certain age.

That said, certain strategies may help defer ovarian aging and possibly optimize your fertility overall.

• Eating a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids –Several papers have observed a correlation between a higher-quality ovarian reserve and the lifelong consumption of omega-3 fatty acids, either as food or in supplement form. Eating salmon during pregnancy and before can be one way to pack your diet with this nutrient. One set of researchers even recommended omega-3s as a “short-term dietary treatment” for those with compromised oocyte quality.

While more remains to be researched, packing more of this fertility-forward nutrient into your diet could be a way to boost your chances of conceiving. You can also start taking a prenatal vitamin to improve fertility, giving your body the vitamins and nutrients it needs to support a pregnancy. Check out some vitamins to help get pregnant fast.

• Maintaining a healthy weight – Being either overweight or underweight can throw your hormones and reproductive health out of whack, which can ultimately compromise your fertility. Having excess adipose tissue can drive up your estrogen levels, while not enough of it can have the opposite impact. For this reason, hovering at a healthy weight can help stabilize your hormones.
• Quitting smoking – A vast body of research shows that smoking accelerates ovarian aging. Smoking causes oxidative stress, one of the primary forces that diminishes egg quantity and quality. It can also lead to major health issues and defects in infants if you’re able to conceive successfully.
• Limiting alcohol consumption – Excessive alcohol consumption has been shown to stress healthy hormone patterns that enable you to have a baby, leading to subfertility. In more recent studies, evidence suggests even moderate drinking could interfere with fertility at certain times in the menstrual cycle (specifically, the second half).

As a general rule, it’s best to put alcohol use on pause while you’re trying to conceive either naturally or during fertility treatment.

• Limiting caffeine consumption – Scientists haven’t quite reached a consensus on how caffeine impacts fertility. However, there’s some evidence to suggest caffeine in excessive amounts may impair your ability to conceive. It’s best to stick to 200 mg of caffeine per day while you’re trying to get pregnant.
• Avoid stress – While this can sometimes be easier said than done, it’s been found that stress affects conception. If there are external stressors around you and your partner, working through them and avoiding them can help with improving your fertility.
• Avoiding environmental toxins – Environmental agents are routinely implicated in damage to both female and male fertility. The two toxins raising the most concern are:
• EDCs, or endocrine disrupting chemicals – These interfere with normal hormonal function and can impair ovarian, thyroid, and overall reproductive health.
• Heavy metals –Lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium are some of the main metals that can affect female fertility. Exposure can come from your physical environment, like the paint in your home, or through diet (for instance, many fish have a high heavy metal content).

While certain environmental toxins are unavoidable, you do have the power to make other choices to limit your exposure. For instance, eating mostly organic produce, if you can afford it, can lower your exposure to endocrine-disrupting pesticides.

Remember, these interventions can’t reverse the age or quality of your eggs. However, they can be beneficial for the biological environment in which your eggs develop, which may indirectly help improve fertility outcomes.

How Fertility Specialists Determine Low Egg Quality

At present, there are no scientific lab tests to screen people for low-quality eggs. The only reliable determinant of egg quality is age—physicians’ and scientists’ leading benchmark for female fertility. In general, the higher the ovarian reserve, the easier it is for a woman to become pregnant.

Even though no tests directly evaluate egg quality, two key fertility tests can help estimate a person’s overall egg count:

• AMH (anti-mullerian hormone) test – The AMH test is considered the most sound screening for estimating the ovarian reserve. It measures levels of AMH, a hormone produced by the ovaries. Higher levels of AMH generally indicate a higher egg count, while low AMH can point to a deficiency.
• FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) test – FSH tests may also be used to evaluate fertility. However, these are considered less reliable because FSH levels fluctuate daily and between menstrual cycles (AMH levels tend to be more stable). That said, it can still be a useful test when taking a comprehensive picture of your fertility.

In addition to hormone-measuring tests, doctors can also use imaging techniques like ultrasounds to gauge female fertility. In combination, all of these evaluation tools can give you a clearer picture of where you stand on your prospects for conceiving naturally or through assisted reproductive technologies.

When to See a Fertility Specialist

If you’ve been trying to conceive without success, the next best step you can take is to reach out to a fertility specialist. Experts recommend seeking counsel if you are:

• Under 35 years years old and have been trying to conceive for 1 year
• Over 35 years old and have been trying to conceive for 6 months
• Prone to abnormal menstrual cycles (this can make it difficult to predict ovulation)
• Someone with a reproductive health condition, like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
• Someone who’s experienced repeated pregnancy loss

Poor egg quality can certainly contribute to female infertility, but it’s just one of many possible causes. Importantly, the CDC draws a distinction between infertility and impaired fecundity:

• Impaired fecundity is having difficulty getting pregnant or seeing a pregnancy through to term
• Infertility is the inability to conceive after 1 year or 6 months of attempts, depending on your age

It’s important to mention that sperm quality and male fertility can also contribute to struggling with conception. Around ⅓ of infertility cases are thought to originate with the female, while ⅓ stem from male infertility. In around ⅓ of infertility cases, the cause is unknown.

Fertility specialists can help by reviewing your and your partner’s medical histories, conducting fertility testing to identify any possible causes, and recommending treatment options for your specific family planning goals. There are many treatment options available, from less invasive procedures (like ovulation triggering) to more exhaustive ones, like IVF.

Success rates for fertility treatments largely depend on your age and the identified cause (if applicable) of your fertility challenges. That said, plenty of couples are able to overcome issues like ovarian quality, take advantage of assisted reproductive technologies, and successfully grow their families.

Start Your Pregnancy Journey with SneakPeek®

As you grow your family, rely on the SneakPeek Early Gender DNA Test® to keep you informed and confident. With this easy-to-use at-home test, future parents can learn their baby’s sex as early as 6 weeks into gestation with over 99% clinically proven accuracy.

Once you see that positive test, you can turn to SneakPeek to answer all your pregnancy questions, like foods for morning sickness. With SneakPeek, you can create a bond with your baby sooner.

More than 1 million parents have used SneakPeek to discover their future baby’s sex sooner than ever. Learn why SneakPeek is the #1 OBGYN-recommended at-home early gender test and pick up yours today.

Editorial Policy

At SneakPeek, our commitment is to provide accurate, up-to-date, and reliable information to empower our readers. Our content is thoroughly researched, reviewed by medical experts, and fact-checked to ensure its credibility. We prioritize the well-being and education of our readers, and our editorial policy adheres to the highest standards of integrity and accuracy in all our articles.

Sources:

1. National Library of Medicine. The Role of Oocyte Quality in Explaining “Unexplained” Infertility. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33232987/
2. Cleveland Clinic. Female Infertility. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17774-female-infertility#overview
3. Healthline. How Many Eggs Are Women Born With? And Other Questions About Egg Supply. https://www.healthline.com/health/womens-health/how-many-eggs-does-a-woman-have
4. National Library of Medicine. Stages of endometriosis: Does it affect oocyte quality, embryo development and fertilization rate? https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9635609/
5. National Health Service UK. Infertility Causes. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/infertility/causes/
6. Mayo Clinic. Female Fertility. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/getting-pregnant/in-depth/female-fertility/art-20045887
7. National Library of Medicine. Oocyte quality and aging. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8769179/
8. National Library of Medicine. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and fecundability. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35147198/
9. Office on Women’s Health. Weight, fertility, and pregnancy. https://womenshealth.gov/healthy-weight/weight-fertility-and-pregnancy
10. The CDC. Health Effects of Cigarettes: Reproductive Health. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/about/cigarettes-and-reproductive-health.html
11. National Library of Medicine. The effect of physical activity on fertility: a mini-review. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10310950/
12. University of Louisville. Drinking alcohol could reduce chances of pregnancy. https://louisville.edu/sphis/news/drinking-alcohol-could-reduce-chances-of-pregnancy
13. Mayo Clinic. Female fertility: Why lifestyle choices count. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/getting-pregnant/in-depth/female-fertility/art-20045887
14. Fertility and Sterility. Alcohol and caffeine consumption and decreased fertility. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001502829800257X
15. National Library of Medicine. Environmental Toxins and Infertility. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK576379/
16. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Endocrine Disruptors. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine
17. Yale Medicine. Women, How Good Are Your Eggs? https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/fertility-test
18. Cleveland Clinic. Anti-Mullerian Hormone Test. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/22681-anti-mullerian-hormone-test
19. National Library of Medicine. Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) Levels Test. https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/follicle-stimulating-hormone-fsh-levels-test/
20. University of Utah Health. When Should You See a Fertility Specialist? https://healthcare.utah.edu/fertility/when-should-you-see-a-fertility-specialist
21. The CDC. Infertility and Impaired Fecundity in Women and Men in the United States, 2015–2019. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr202.pdf
22. US Department of Health and Human Services. How common is infertility? https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/infertility/conditioninfo/common
23. Healthline. Ask the Expert: When to See a Fertility Specialist. https://www.healthline.com/health/infertility/ask-the-expert-fertility-specialist
24. Mayo Clinic. Stress relief from infertility. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-indicates-stress-may-delay-women-getting-pregnant