5 Powerful Ways to Improve Egg Quality with PCOS
If you are here because you want to know how to improve egg quality with PCOS, you are in the right place.
Egg quality is one important missing link for many women trying to get pregnant with PCOS. Many fertility doctors and clinics are not covering this important topic.
If your doctor is helping you with fertility medication and yet they haven't talked about how you can improve egg quality with PCOS, that's a red flag!
You can try as many arounds of fertility medication as you want, but if your eggs are poor equality? That will continually keep your chances of getting pregnant low.
Improving egg quality is so important that it's step 5 of my PCOS Fertility Protocol.
Not familiar with my protocol? Be sure to check it out here. It’s the protocol that I use with countless women with PCOS just like you to help them improve their fertility.
But I also want you to have some knowledge about how to move forward with improving egg quality which is why I’m sharing these effective and PCOS-specific egg quality boosting tips with you today.
What is PCOS?
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the number one top causes of female infertility.
PCOS is a syndrome that is made up of three symptoms which include ovulation issues, elevated testosterone or cysts on the ovaries. In order to be diagnosed with PCOS, you need at least two out of three of these symptoms.
Because there are different types of PCOS, it doesn’t respond well to a one-size-fits-all approach, make sure you work with someone who provides individualized care.
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?
When we talk about egg quality, we are literally talking about how well the egg can divide chromosomes because the egg needs to get 23 chromosomes in order to be ready to make a baby. Too few or too many of those chromosomes means poor egg quality and lower chances of making a baby.
With PCOS fertility, the first step is to be sure that you are ovulating.
The second step is to be sure that your eggs are of good quality so that when you do ovulate, you are able to make a baby.
Oh and if you want to know even more about how egg quality affects fertility, jump on over to read my Definitive Guide to PCOS Fertility and Egg Quality.
Five effective ways to improve egg quality with PCOS
Improve Egg Quality with PCOS #1: Folate
Folate is such an important vitamin for pregnancy that it's one of the reasons that prenatal vitamins were created in the first place!
Right now, most folate in prenatal vitamins is in the form of folic acid. Folic acid is the synthetic form of the vitamin. But there's another form of folate that is proving to be even more important and that is methyl-folate.
Methyl-folate is the natural form of folate. It's also easier for the body to use this type of the vitamin. More and more research is showing the benefits of methylated folate.
Here is why folate is so important for egg quality
Folate helps keep inflammation low in the body. Specifically, it helps keep homocysteine levels low which helps improve egg quality.
For some people, they have a gene defect that doesn't allow them to switch folic acid (the synthetic version) into the methylated version that the body needs to use.
Taking a methylated version of folate directly in the prenatal skips this step. You're taking the methylated version of folate directly that the body can use easily and quickly to help improve egg quality and set you up for a healthy pregnancy.
Improve Egg Quality with PCOS #2: Myo-inositol
Myo-inositol has been used with PCOS to help with insulin resistance. It helps to balance blood sugar levels and has been researched to help women get similar results as the medication metformin (source).
Myo-inositol has also been found to positively help with egg quality. A number of studies have found a positive effect on egg quality such as:
Helping to restore ovulation
Lowering testosterone levels
Increasing the number of eggs that are collected
Increasing the health of eggs that are collected
Improve Egg Quality with PCOS #3: Lower Exposure to BPA
BPA (bisphenol-A) is commonly found in plastics and causes big issues for fertility and egg quality. BPA from plastics used in bottles, food packaging, or containers can leach into food and water.
Higher levels of BPA in women have been found to interfere with fertility and egg quality so if you're trying to get pregnant, avoid BPA as much as you can.
Lowing exposure to BPA has been found to positively impact egg quality with PCOS. How to do that? Switch away from using plastic water bottles and food containers is a simple and easy beginning step.
Folate (remember that important vitamin we talked about above?) has also been shown to help reverse the negative effects of BPA.
Improve Egg Quality with PCOS #4: Melatonin
Surprised to see melatonin here in a list of things to help improve egg quality with PCOS? Yes, it is best well known to help with sleep but it has another important job that isn't talked about enough. And that job is to help improve egg quality through it's antioxidant powers.
Antioxidants are powerful nutrients that help eggs develop as they need to. If antioxidant levels are low in the body, that impacts the eggs leaving them with not enough nutrients to develop as they need to.
Melatonin has been found to have powerful antioxidant properties. Unfortunately, the amount of melatonin in our bodies reduces with age which is why supplementing may be important for your fertility.
Studies have found that the more melatonin found in follicular fluid, the more mature the eggs became and the better pregnancy outcomes there are.
Melatonin has also been found to help reverse oxidative stress that is so common in people with PCOS.
Melatonin taken along with myo-inositol has also been shown to have powerful effects on egg quality.
Improve Egg Quality with PCOS #5: CoQ10
CoQ10 is another powerful antioxidant that has supports egg quality.
CoQ10 helps improve the energy of the egg. Did you know that eggs require a lot of energy as they are maturing?
It’s actually a lot like you and I! If you only got three hours of sleep one night before giving a big presentation at work, it’s hard to muster up all that extra energy to get it done, am I right?
You may miss an important part of the presentation because of your foggy brain, you may not communicate very well because of how tired you are.
Similar with mitochondria in eggs, they may miss vital steps as the eggs are developing!
So, as a general tip, be sure to get lots of sleep on nights before giving presentations, and also give your mitochondria support via CoQ10 to help your fertility.
Here's a hot tip for you about Co10!
There are two different forms of CoQ10. One form, ubiquinone, is not as easily used in the body. If you take it in a supplement, you need more of it to get the same results. The other form is called ubiquinol. This form is more easily used by the body so you need less of it to get maximum results.
So, to wrap it up, here’s what you need to know to help improve egg quality with PCOS
Egg quality ensures your eggs are ready to make a baby and there are research-backed ways to improve egg quality with PCOS. The top 5 ways you learned about today are:
Folate
Myo-Inositol
Lowering exposure to BPA
Melatonin
CoQ10
If no one has talked to you about how to improve egg quality specific for your body, then you are missing out on a huge piece of your fertility puzzle.
Don’t let poor egg quality get in between you and your next pregnancy. Sign up for a PCOS Fertility Breakthrough Session today and get a plan to improve your egg quality.
Click here to sign up today.
During your free session, you will walk away knowing:
How to turn around your biggest PCOS frustrations so you can be closer to reaching your fertility goals.
Why what you’ve been doing is actually leading you away from optimal fertility and what actually works.
Clear step-by-step guidance for how to move forward so you can have your best chance at becoming pregnant.
Sign up here today
Ready to learn more about improving your egg quality with PCOS? Check out these other popular articles!
Can I Still Get Pregnant With Poor Egg Quality? Here are the Important Fertility Details
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8156424/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4025630/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29498933/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26507336/
https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/17/6/1591/2919221?login=false
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8227031/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6769719/