What is the most common cause of poor egg quality? It may not be what you think. Low levels of ATP, and free radical exposure are the two most common causes of poor egg quality. What the heck is that and what can you do about it?

What exactly is poor egg quality?

Eggs with poor quality are those that have an incorrect chromosomal profile. Unfortunately, this leads to embryos that either stop developing even before an attempt at implantation, an embryo that has trouble implanting into the lining of the Uterus, or one that does in fact implant, but results in miscarriage.

How can you increase egg quality?

It breaks down like this: Women are born with a finite number of eggs that are suspended in the early stages of meiosis ( a fancy word for chromosomal separation) until recruited by the body about three months before ovulation. It’s during this three month period that your eggs go through the later stages of meiosis (division of chromosomes). This process takes a lot of cellular energy and is powered by your mitochondria’s ability to create ATP (aka: chemical energy). If your mitochondria are unable to produce enough ATP due to oxidative stress from free radicals, the integrity of chromosomal division is vulnerable to mutation and degradation, leaving the quality of your eggs less than optimal.

So, the short answer to how you can increase your egg quality? By increasing the power by which your cell is able to pull apart it’s chromosomes efficiently, and by removing free radicals from the cellular environment when this process is taking place.

1. Generate better chromosomal quality by increasing cellular energy: Growing evidence suggests that egg quality is related to the ability of mitochondria to generate ATP energy, and not as it was once thought, to the degradation of eggs over 30 to 40 years. There are several well studied supplements that can do this including Ubiquinol (600 mg per day).
2. Reduce free radical exposure: Free radicals are the chemical molecules that hang out in your cellular fluid and break chromosomes. These come from toxicants in your environment including bleach, Lysol, Clorox, the skin, hair and nail products your choose to use, the scented candles you burn daily, the processed food you eat and the containers your place your food in.

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