{"id":1184,"date":"2020-02-13T15:56:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T15:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.theduff.co.uk\/?p=1184"},"modified":"2021-03-16T09:23:44","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T09:23:44","slug":"egg-quality-quantity-ovarian-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theduff.co.uk\/egg-quality-quantity-ovarian-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"Age vs fertility<\/strong> \u2013 and what you can do to improve egg quality and egg quantity for IVF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER YOU'RE TRYING TO CONCEIVE NATURALLY OR VIA FERTILITY TREATMENT<\/strong>: if you have low-quality eggs, or a low egg count, or a combination of the two, things become jolly difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term \u201covarian reserve\u201d relates to both the quality and the quantity of your ovarian eggs \u2013 and both are important when it comes to getting pregnant. Age is the biggest determinant of ovarian reserve: the older you are, the lower it\u2019ll be. If you\u2019ve just started secondary school and you\u2019re reading this article for some reason, now might be the time to start scouring the playground for potential sperm donors\/fathers. Just kidding. I was totally kidding. I really need to stop making jokes like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway! Here are some questions you might have about eggs \u2013 and my attempts to answer them in a way that\u2019s easy to understand without resorting to horrendous jokes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many eggs do I start with? And how quickly do I lose them?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re born with all the eggs you\u2019ll ever have, and there are an awful lot of them: approximately two million. But it\u2019s not the case that you\u2019ll lose one egg a month from puberty onwards and still have a repository of just under two million left over when you\u2019re 84. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, you\u2019re pretty much constantly losing eggs \u2013 even when you\u2019re still a child. By the time you hit puberty, you\u2019re already down to your final 350,000 or so eggs \u2013 and then every month after puberty you\u2019ll continue to lose about 1,000 eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens to all the eggs? Well\u2026 during the average cycle<\/a>, FSH is released to stimulate the growth of a small number of egg-containing follicles in the ovaries. Only one of the egg-containing follicles will grow to be big and strong enough for fertilisation \u2013 and therefore only one egg will be released into the fallopian tube. All the others will die off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how do we get to the \u201c1,000\u201d number? Well, in addition to those few \u201cstimulated\u201d follicles that die each month, you also <\/em>lose almost 1,000 other eggs. Every single cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"RIP<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If I\u2019m consistently losing 1,000 eggs a month, what changes at the age of 35 to cause all the \u201cooh you\u2019re too old now\u201d scare-mongering? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the age of 35, surely you\u2019re just 12,000ish eggs down from where you were at the age of 34, right? Wrong: the rate of egg depletion increases as you age. By the time you\u2019re 30, you\u2019ll have about 12% of your eggs left. When you get to 40, you\u2019ll be down to your final 3%. A few years later and they\u2019ll mostly all be gone. (Menopause is typically between the ages of 48 and 55.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You won\u2019t suddenly start dropping a load more eggs as soon as you\u2019ve made a wish over the 35 candles squished onto your birthday cake, but doctors tend to use that age as a shortcut to determining your likelihood of conceiving both naturally and with fertility treatment. Some clinics and hospitals will use the age of 37 or 40 instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Of course, women don\u2019t all <\/em>begin life with the exact same number of eggs. And the rate at which they lose them differs slightly too: it\u2019s all down to the natural inclinations of the body, and it\u2019s why women go through menopause at slightly different ages.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Follicle
Source: Clearblue<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I started my periods really young; will that affect the age at which I lose all my eggs? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No. As we\u2019ve seen, women lose THOUSANDS of eggs all the time \u2013 <\/em>even before they hit puberty. An extra few eggs that die as a result of two extra years of menstruation means nothing in the grand scheme of things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same explanation goes for women who\u2019ve spent many years on the pill: they\u2019ll have lost thousands of eggs a month anyway, so a few hundred \u201csaved\u201d eggs (through not ovulating) means nothing really.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there <\/strong>anything <\/em><\/strong>I can do to slow down egg loss? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The number of eggs you\u2019re born with and the rate at which you lose them is pretty much set in stone: lifestyle factors don\u2019t really get a look-in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except for just ONE lifestyle factor, that is: smoking. Practically all scientific studies show that smoking accelerates the loss and <\/em>quality of eggs \u2013 and as a result, it may also bring forward your menopause by several years too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Two other factors to be aware of are radiation therapy and chemotherapy: both have been shown to reduce the quantity of eggs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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