It Starts with the Egg: How the Science of Egg Quality Can Help You Get Pregnant Naturally, Prevent Miscarriage, and Improve Your Odds in IVF

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If I have listened to them, my cancer wouldnt be discovered in the early stage…I think they are really oriented with the western medicine where everything is timed…they totally excluded alternative and eastern medicine. The choice is yours!! Trust yourself and your own research and you will succeed in making your dreams come true.. For those undergoing infertility treatments including IVF, the recommended doses start at 400 to 600 mg daily, but for most people who are just starting their fertility journey, Fett says a lower dose of 200 mg can be helpful and sufficient. To help limit how many different bottles you have to buy, we include 200 mg of CoQ10 in The Powers for Females, and you can add an extra 400 mg to your sachet with our Extra Egg Health Booster. When should I start taking prenatal vitamins? The book only has one chapter for male issues so if you are looking for more context, this book doesn’t give it. But that should be expected, the purpose of the book is to concentrate on the egg not sperm.

There are two forms of active ingredients in sunscreens: chemical and mineral. Chemical sunscreens include oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate and octinoxate. Mineral (also called physical) sunscreens are zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.the odds of pregnancy were four times higher for women with high vitamin D levels compared to those with a vitamin D

What do we mean by a high-quality egg? Well, it should have – quite literally – good genes. Before maturation, the egg is known as an oocyte, and it contains 46 chromosomes – long molecules that carry genetic information. Forty-six is kind of a magic number – every human cell contains 46 chromosomes. During meiosis – the name given to the egg’s maturation process – these 46 chromosomes consolidate into 23 chromosomes. The sperm supplies the other 23, to give your embryo its unique genetic makeup. The thing is, not every egg comes through meiosis with the correct number of chromosomes. Chromosomally abnormal eggs are known as aneuploid eggs. Even a perfectly healthy, fertile woman will have cycles that produce aneuploid eggs. These eggs usually fail to fertilize. If an aneuploid egg does fertilize, it usually doesn’t survive, and a miscarriage results. Forty-one percent of miscarriages are the result of chromosomal abnormalities. For instance, the chapters on BPAs, phthalates, and supplements were incredibly enlightening. However, I will literally never give up carbs, so I appreciated that she shared the science behind it, but frames the information in a way to empower the reader to choose what works for them, and not obsess over perfection. Some of the chemical sunscreens have been found to disrupt hormones and are best avoided while pregnant or trying to conceive. According to the Environmental Working Group, “The most worrisome is oxybenzone, which was added to nearly 65 percent of the non-mineral sunscreens in EWG’s 2018 sunscreen database. Oxybenzone can cause allergic skin reactions (Rodriguez 2006). In laboratory studies it is a weak estrogen and has potent anti-androgenic effects. (Krause 2012, Ghazipura 2017).” Other studies have found that high levels of oxybenzone can lower testosterone levels, reduce pregnancy duration, and alter birth-weights. Octinoxate is another chemical sunscreen that is probably best to avoid, because it too has been linked to hormone disruption. What’s wrong here? First of all, there’s an ongoing debate in the IVF community whether or not people with DOR have lower quality eggs or just fewer eggs. It probably depends on a lot on the patient’s age and her medical conditions. Rebecca Fett does have autoimmune arthritis (that’s why she used a surrogate), but she was also only 26 when she started TTC. As far as I can tell, she and her husband never tried naturally. They always knew they'd use a surrogate. I have a hard time believing that her doctors told her she was “unlikely to conceive with her own eggs” with a full stop. Perhaps they said she’d be unlikely to conceive “if you wait until you’re 35” or “your odds of needing donor eggs are higher than the average woman your age.” Or even if her initial diagnosis of DOR was a fluke. (This can happen if you’re on birth control when you get tested.)Folate, also known as vitamin B9, naturally occurs in foods such as leafy greens. As a supplement, this nutrient can be found either in the form of Folic Acid or the more biologically active form called 5-Methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF). About 25 percent of Americans have a specific genetic mutation that slows the metabolism of Folic Acid and prevents it from being transformed into the active 5-MTHF form, which is necessary for it to be properly used by the body. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by any means without the Vitamin D also plays an important role in the growth and development of babies. Additionally, Vitamin D works with Calcium to maintain and support the growth of bones and teeth, for both the mom and the baby. It is important to ensure you get enough Vitamin D to maintain your body's functions, especially when pregnant.

Good rating by Consumer Reports for both UVA and UVB. (Excellent UVA, fair UVB). Can be oily and heavy. The lifestyle changes I made based on the "It Starts with the Egg" recommendations are ones that I know I’ll keep for the rest of my life.I have not explored in great depth her research sources, so I can’t speak to the quality of her research review process. Most of her conclusions are consistent with other things I have read in my less-scientific gathering of information off the internet. She discusses the controversy around DHEA and concludes that arguments against its use are probably not warranted. I have come across enough cautions about its use and recommendations for medical monitoring of its affects, that I would personally recommend further exploration of the research and consultation with a medical practitioner if you choose to consider DHEA supplementation.

Many of the book’s recommendations are universal, like reducing exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The recommendations become more granular, however, when it comes to supplement plans for women in different situations. To simplify things, here, we put together four supplement-focused recommendations from “It Starts with the Egg” specifically for women who are coming to the journey later in life. Rebecca Fett is a science writer, former attorney, and mom. At 26, she was diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserves and told she had an incredibly low chance of conceiving with her own eggs. She put her molecular biotechnology and biochemistry degree to work to understand the science of egg quality and fertility, reading every clinical study that could possibly be relevant. That research laid the groundwork for her book, It Starts with the Egg, which provides an evidence-based approach to how to get pregnant with diminished ovarian reserve, improve and preserve fertility, and prevent miscarriage. Five important takeaways from It Starts with the Egg A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever produce in her life – egg quantity is a fixed deal. And for a long time, scientists thought the same about egg quality. The conventional wisdom was that aneuploid eggs were the result of accumulated damage to the egg related to the aging process. In other words, as a woman gets older, her egg quality declines. It’s true that age impacts egg quality. But we’re now starting to understand that chromosomal damage is likely to occur during meiosis. Any errors that occur during this process can result in missing – or extra – chromosomes. Just what we don’t want. But the good news is that meiosis presents us with a window of opportunity, where we can actually influence egg quality. We can do this specifically by supporting the egg’s mitochondria. These are the cell structures that convert fuel sources into cellular energy – that’s the same cellular energy that powers the demanding process of meiosis. Supercharging the egg’s mitochondria means supporting meiosis and boosting your chances of producing a chromosomally normal egg. We’ll find out how to do that in the next section.Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) can be found in the form of Ubiquinone and Ubiquinol. It gets those names because it’s a compound that’s ubiquitous in humans; it’s found in almost every single cell in the body. It’s nearly impossible to entirely avoid phthalates, also known as “the everywhere chemical.” They are present in many beauty, home, and personal care products. The problem is that phthalates decrease the production of estrogen by your follicles, which has a powerful impact on follicle growth and egg development. Researchers have found that phthalates significantly interfere with the growth of ovarian follicles in eggs. The author recommends choosing products that are “phthalate free” when possible. #2 Choose the right supplements