34 years
My dr said I have very bad egg, that why I'm not getting pregnant,is there any medication I can take to have a quality egg?
Aug 26, 2014
s a woman ages, her fertility declines. The eggs inside her ovaries become increasingly unable to develop into a baby, which leads to infertility.
To get pregnant, it is not as much the total number of eggs that matters, but also the proportion of eggs that are of high-enough quality. Eggs must respond to hormones that trigger ovulation, they need to successfully fertilize, and they must kick-start the cell divisions needed to form an embryo. Not all of the eggs in a woman’s ovaries are capable of this, but having an ample supply of good ones means a woman has an adequate “ovarian reserve,” improving her chances of a pregnancy. When the opposite is true, or a high percentage of eggs are of poor quality, the likelihood of infertility increases.
Low-quality eggs have internal defects -- problems with their chromosomes or with their energy production -- that prevent them from producing healthy embryos. Women struggling to conceive may not even realize their egg quality is impaired if their periods seem normal.
By the time women enter their 40s, most of their eggs will be of poor quality. This is reflected in lower IVF success rates as they age. IVF success rates for women are around 45% at age 25 and drop to 35% by their mid 30s. IVF success rates decline even further to 19% by age 40 and 3% at age 44.
By the same token, there are younger women who, due to medical conditions, have a poor ovarian reserve. Surviving cancer patients and women undergoing premature menopause are two examples.
One way to think of diminished egg quality is a battery analogy. Consider each egg as possessing a number of batteries that provide its energy stores. The batteries are analogs of tiny organelles called mitochondria, which are the energy producers of mammalian cells.
As we grow older, the energy-producing capacity of the mitochondria decreases (this is why older people run slower than young people). The egg is connected to the circulation prior to ovulation, and it is connected again after embryo implantation.
But during the seven days between ovulation and implantation, the egg and the embryo that results from it are dependent on energy coming from the mitochondria, which were in the egg at the moment of ovulation (no mitochondrial replication takes place until after implantation).
The older egg usually looks normal at the time of ovulation and its initial fertilization and embryonic development remain normal. This is because its energy stores are still adequate.
However, it soon runs out of batteries and stops dividing.
Implantation is not achieved because the embryo stops dividing before it reaches the implantation stage.
We do not yet know how to increase the energy stores to an egg prior to ovulation. When egg quality is low, the only therapy that has a proven track record and produces reliable results is egg donation.
To get pregnant, it is not as much the total number of eggs that matters, but also the proportion of eggs that are of high-enough quality. Eggs must respond to hormones that trigger ovulation, they need to successfully fertilize, and they must kick-start the cell divisions needed to form an embryo. Not all of the eggs in a woman’s ovaries are capable of this, but having an ample supply of good ones means a woman has an adequate “ovarian reserve,” improving her chances of a pregnancy. When the opposite is true, or a high percentage of eggs are of poor quality, the likelihood of infertility increases.
Low-quality eggs have internal defects -- problems with their chromosomes or with their energy production -- that prevent them from producing healthy embryos. Women struggling to conceive may not even realize their egg quality is impaired if their periods seem normal.
By the time women enter their 40s, most of their eggs will be of poor quality. This is reflected in lower IVF success rates as they age. IVF success rates for women are around 45% at age 25 and drop to 35% by their mid 30s. IVF success rates decline even further to 19% by age 40 and 3% at age 44.
By the same token, there are younger women who, due to medical conditions, have a poor ovarian reserve. Surviving cancer patients and women undergoing premature menopause are two examples.
One way to think of diminished egg quality is a battery analogy. Consider each egg as possessing a number of batteries that provide its energy stores. The batteries are analogs of tiny organelles called mitochondria, which are the energy producers of mammalian cells.
As we grow older, the energy-producing capacity of the mitochondria decreases (this is why older people run slower than young people). The egg is connected to the circulation prior to ovulation, and it is connected again after embryo implantation.
But during the seven days between ovulation and implantation, the egg and the embryo that results from it are dependent on energy coming from the mitochondria, which were in the egg at the moment of ovulation (no mitochondrial replication takes place until after implantation).
The older egg usually looks normal at the time of ovulation and its initial fertilization and embryonic development remain normal. This is because its energy stores are still adequate.
However, it soon runs out of batteries and stops dividing.
Implantation is not achieved because the embryo stops dividing before it reaches the implantation stage.
We do not yet know how to increase the energy stores to an egg prior to ovulation. When egg quality is low, the only therapy that has a proven track record and produces reliable results is egg donation.
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