It Starts with the Egg | How to Improve Egg Quality Naturally

many of you have heard that saying that it all starts with the egg well what if it was true and what if there was so much that you can do to improve your egg quality that's exactly what we're going to talk about in this video so keep watching hi i'm dr mark sugar the fertility expert and i work with couples from all over the world helping you get pregnant naturally if you want more help from me then you've got to subscribe to my youtube channel right here with that bell so that i can support you on your fertility journey i just wanted to let you know that my fertility coaching program to work with me and my team one-on-one is open for applications if you want me as your fertility coach to help you on your fertility journey then make sure that you use the link down below in the description to apply to qualify this program is by application only if you qualify you'll be able to join me and my team so that we can support you on your fertility journey so yes it starts with the egg and i don't say that to put any undue pressure on any of you watching the reality is is that egg health and egg quality is super important just like sperm health and uterine environment all of these three factors combined will really optimize and give you the best chance to conceive and if one of those variables is not functioning properly if the other two are really at their peak performance then they can kind of compensate for that third one that's not doing exactly what it should do so yes all three are valuable but in this video we're going to primarily be talking about ovarian health and your eggs that's why it's called it starts with the egg that's right so there are several variables several factors that i want to review and go over and mention that do influence egg quality and quantity okay so the first one is a woman's age age is obviously important and not that there is a lot we can do about it quite frankly i always tell every couple that i work with the last thing you can change and try to influence is your age right there's very little we can do about that but what we do know is that age can influence other variables your age alone will tell you where your success rates and percentages fall and based on that that will help dictate some of the decisions that you can make or should make on your fertility journey so age is a variable that we all need to account for but it's not a variable that we can change all right so some of the other variables that do influence the egg and egg quality are genetics what's the your genetic makeup exposure to environmental toxins right are there toxins that you've been exposed to over your lifetime that have influence or can affect your reproductive system obviously nutrition i talk about this all the time drugs exposure to drugs whether it's pharmaceutical or recreational drugs these can affect and do affect your reproductive system and egg quality alcohol consumption stress blood and oxygen flow and hormonal balance this is the core of the areas that can influence your egg reserve and quality we're going to come back to those in so much more detail in just a few minutes but i do want to cover a little bit more of the basics around egg quality and egg reserve so i've spoken a lot about the egg specifically but one of the other pieces that we do need to understand is where does the egg live it lives in the ovary and actually it lives in the follicle inside the ovary and so ovarian health is also important we can't ignore the health of the ovaries the home the house of the follicle and eggs that you're going to be producing so it's not just about focusing on one area we do have to look at the whole reproductive system and all the organs that are affecting and influence egg quality and egg reserve so ovarian health and what's going on in the ovary are there cysts is there endometriosis growing on on it are they too small these are all variables that do potentially influence the quality of your eggs as well and then the other one is ovarian reserve how many eggs do we have to use inside of our ovaries that may be able to be used in the future so this is definitely a key point right i've spoken about ovarian reserve and ovarian health on many videos so i'm not going to spend a ton of time on it here but i do want to go over some key points if you're new to my channel alright so ovarian reserve and egg quality are determined by two main hormone tests fsh and amh the other variable that can influence or determine help you determine the amount of eggs that you have left is what's called an andro follicle count it's an ultrasound that's done on the ovaries to be able to see how many follicles or andro follicles the ones that are getting ready to mature and grow in that given cycle are there to be matured now just so you know that antra follicle count can change and does change from cycle to cycle so just because you get a specific number let's just say 10 on an andro follicle count doesn't mean that's all the eggs that you have forever no that's just for that cycle and it doesn't mean that that number can't go up or go down it can fluctuate and change so now coming back to the hormones themselves fsh i get a lot of questions from all of you which i love about fsh and amh what do these variables look like so my first question back to all of you is have you had your fsh and amh tested if so comment below and let me know and if you're okay with it let me know what those numbers actually were i'd love to know all right so what do these numbers actually mean there are groups and ranges of these numbers that we need to account for so fsh has several different groups or ranges that we need to pay attention to in the bigger picture we want to see that number below 10 okay and i like to see that number above four and five the first range of being excellent in terms of fsh numbers is between four and six the next range which is considered good is between six and nine between nine and ten is fair because you're kind of approaching that 10 mark which we want to stay below then there is another range between 10 and 13 which really starts to show that your egg quality is starting to diminish and potentially your ovarian reserve although that's not my favorite marker for ovarian reserve it starts to show that that number is going down because your fsh is going up so it starts to show that it might be compromised right and then from 13 to 17 and then 17 and above and so at every one of those variables as fsh increases we start to get a little bit more concerned about the quality and quantity of the eggs that you are producing now it doesn't mean that this number doesn't fluctuate actually fsh fluctuates dramatically and i see it fluctuate often most of your ivf doctors are going to look at your highest reading and base all of their treatments off of that one number that's one of the things i really don't care for because that number does fluctuate and i think we need to account for that but for all of you the lower that number is the better chance you're going to have to conceive that cycle so if one cycle that number is higher let's just say 13 or 15 and then a subsequent cycle that drops down to nine then that is the cycle that we want to try to maximize for you okay i don't suggest testing your fsh or amh every cycle i also want you to recognize that we do need to take this number into account with other hormones lh and estradiol as well but we're not going over that at this specific moment the other hormone that's super important is amh anti-malarian hormone this hormone is the one that is the primary one that we use to determine ovarian reserve now in general we want this number to be higher the higher this number theoretically the better ovarian reserve we do have now that comes with a caveat that we don't really want it over three three and a half because once we start to see that we get concerned about polycystic ovarian syndrome but leaving that aside i'm going to go over some ranges based on age that we want to see for amh levels that helps you determine what potentially or how good potentially your ovarian reserve is so if we see that your age is 27 or younger then we want your amh to be around 2.7 to 3 ish that's a good range okay if you are 33 between 27 and 33 1.9 amh if you are from 33 to 36 then we'd like to see that at 1.3 amh if you are 39 then we'd like to see that around one point nine to one is great and then from 42 and above we do expect it to be somewhere between point five and one again the higher that it is the better right i just spoke to a woman yesterday and i ran her labs and got her lab work back and she is 44 and her amh is 1.5 which is awesome so in her case i'm not so worried about ovarian reserve we need to start focusing on egg quality and all the other variables that might be influencing or affecting her fertility and ability to get pregnant right so in her case it looks great i'm giving you these numbers just as references to account for because everyone's always asking well if my number is if my amh is x and i'm 41 is that good or bad so now i've given you those ranges that you can make that determination for yourself and see what you can do there i have seen amh go up quite a bit over time with the right plan the right treatment and the right support for all of you right now here is the biggest caveat everyone always says well if amh is a marker for ovarian reserve and ovarian reserve should potentially never go up it should only go down why do we see amh go up well that's a great question i've actually done several videos on this specific topic if you want to watch those then you can check them out right here okay so i often get this question as it relates to fsh and amh what happens if my fsh is high and my amh is low what does it mean so i'm not one to focus on the negative but we're going to talk about some of those potential impacts right now and then we're going to talk about what you can do to affect and improve and change those numbers yourself okay so if your fsh is high and your amh is low one is it does indicate that your poor ovarian response to stimulation so if you were to do ivf you're gonna have a lower response to the medication that they prescribe to you doing a traditional stimulation cycle there are several different types of ivf procedures that might be able to account for and accommodate for that variable but in general that's what it means it also means that you're going to have more poor quality eggs and the embryos that you're going to be producing are going to be more poor quality as well that's what this starts to show your your chance of pregnancy does decrease and your likelihood of miscarriage does increase with those two variables now i say that because i want you guys to all have the reality of what these numbers mean but it doesn't mean that has to be true for you and i want you to know that you can change and influence these numbers to improve them to give you better chances to conceive so the good news around all of this is that you have the power that's right you have the power to make change to influence your egg quality and ovarian reserve by the things that you do we talked about those different variables at the beginning of this video and i'm going to come back to those in just a second to talk a little bit more in detail how those can influence your egg quality and reserve but the biggest point that i want to make right now around those numbers and improving them is that it takes time you're not going to see that change in one cycle potentially two cycles potentially even three cycles you need a minimum of 90 to 100 days if not longer for you to improve the quality of the eggs that you're producing and start to recruit more eggs for a subsequent cycle so i say that because i want you all to have patience and understanding and be kind to yourselves and most of all not to question the things that you're doing every cycle it can become difficult and i see this often with many of you that you switch gears too quickly when you're just about to see the improvements and the change that you're making on your egg quality and reserve you're looking for those numbers to improve on the snap of a finger you want to see that change from one cycle you want to see it change from two cycles that might not be possible depending on what your numbers numbers are and the whole picture that we're looking at so please be kind to yourself have some patience with yourself and your ovaries send them some good vibes but give them the time that they need to do what you want them to do so that's super super important so i started off this video talking about age and how that's the one thing you can't change or influence right well now let's get into those other variables that you can have something to say about the first one or sorry the next one excuse me was genetics right so you might think well if i'm born with these things how can i change them well just because you're born with predispositions doesn't mean that they have to be true for you imagine that all those genetic markers were light switches a bank of light switches on a wall right and this one said you're going to have constipation and this one said you're going to age faster and this one said you're going to have poor digestion or whatever it is just because you have that tendency doesn't mean that it has to be true for you you can control with your lifestyle with your diet with your sleep with your stress management with potentially supplements you can control whether those switches are going to go on or off okay so i want you to understand that now you need to know what switches do you have that you've got to manage right so this is where you do some more in-depth genetic testing which one of your healthcare providers can help you do to find out what genetic snips you have that you're predisposed to that you need to account for that potentially will influence your ability to conceive okay i know that's a lot potentially to digest but i want you to understand that in general terms and then you can dive deeper into that with your healthcare team all right so the next one is environmental toxins the way we control that first and foremost is control our regular environment that we're in regularly right that we spend most of our time with in so that's our house that's our car and that's our office right if you all are going to the office these days so at home make sure that you're using non-toxic cleaning um products that all your skin care products all your beauty products all the things you drink out of and eat out of are healthy that when you walk into the house you take off your shoes that you clean your house regularly that you dust regularly that you change your air vent filters regularly these are all variables that influence your environment and can cause additional toxin and burden on your body because it's trying to clean out and manage all those exposures right then obviously car we want to do the same thing with our car we want to make sure it's cleaned regularly inside more importantly and you want to do the same thing with your office environment what can you do to manage the health of your office environment to keep you healthy and not expose you to all sorts of other things some other key things that i do want to mention with that is quality of water your computers and cell phones like not keeping them around you although i have mine on my lap right now but it's not there normally and we have to be careful for all of these things because they influence our environment influence our health of our body and our reproductive system so environmental toxins is also one that you can control and manage the one thing i didn't say here is what happens if you were exposed to some toxin previously let's just say it's heavy metals let's say you were exposed as a kid or or you work in an environment that has all these toxins this is where you need to reach out to your health care team to discuss what you've been exposed to and what's the best way to manage you that now all right the next one is nutrition nutrition is key and a huge foundational piece that everything else needs to be built upon i've done tons and tons of videos on nutrition so i'm not going to spend a ton of time on it right now you can check those out later but nutrition is key keep it simple for yourself okay don't eat junk stay away from packaged foods eat fresh foods drink water primarily don't drink sodas non-processed foods reduce the sugars eat good whole foods the more you cook at home for yourself the more you can control what goes into your body which is key and most of all if you can do this purchase produce and food that is organic because it's going to nourish your body more than the conventional food that you potentially eat all right drugs and alcohol so these are two variables that i think we do need to spend a little bit of time on medications any medication that you've taken does influence the health of your body hopefully it's helping but it does have side effects most of them do right including the birth control pill it has side effects dramatic side effects and i'm not a fan of you being on them if you're on it i would prefer that you find a different way for contraception but all medications all drugs do or can influence the health of your body when we're talking about drugs start to stay away from all the recreational drugs alcohol is one of them all of these things start to damage the cells damage the health of the eggs and diminish the quality of the eggs that you are producing so marijuana alcohol these are key things that we want to get away from also we might actually lump into drugs or recreational drugs we might put in caffeine actually because as much as caffeine is beneficial it does have some negative effects around fertility and pregnancy so these are things that we want to mitigate and decrease for all of you smokers out there you can reduce you can lower you can stop smoking i want to encourage you to do that i just had a woman who i started working with and she stopped three months ago is that potentially too late maybe but it's better that she stops now then keeps going and just keeps saying well i've been doing it my whole life so why not continue now no the more you can stop smoking and the sooner you can do it the better you can improve your egg quality and the health of the cells that your body produces stress the big one listen stress affects everything there are thousands and thousands of research studies how stress impacts any health condition and makes it worse right fertility is absolutely no different i speak to so many of you and review your lab work and see that it's really not a fertility issue fsh looks awesome amh looks great all your hormones look amazing so why aren't you getting pregnant and the thing i keep coming back to is stress so we're not going to make stress go away but i want you to know that you can manage your stress better you have to prioritize it okay this is such a key component to your reproductive health and the health of the eggs that you produce i know it doesn't seem to make sense to many of you but i'm telling you it's a key variable that all of you have the power to control so i want you to start to make changes in your life to minimize stress and improve your egg quality if you're constantly running in that hamster wheel and not giving time for you to focus on yourself on your health on your loved ones on the things that you should be doing to take care of yourself now then you're going to have a much harder time changing the egg quality and getting pregnant because stress trumps everything so if that's not reason enough to make a change i'm not quite sure what it is but i want all of you who are not doing the jobs that you should be doing to manage your stress to start making change with that now blood and oxygen flow we need more blood and oxygenation of our cells and we need that to get to our ovaries to focus on the quality of the eggs that we're producing so we can have good ovarian function right so exercise is key here other things that you can do to improve blood circulation and oxygenation of the cells is acupuncture castrol packs abdominal massage these are all things that improve circulation especially focused on your pelvic area and your reproductive organs the other thing that i do think is important is drinking enough of this water drinking enough water to support your health and your cells we want to keep those hydrated so that they can also be nourished in that way as well and last but not least we do need to have proper hormone balance so if you haven't had your hormones tested start there okay if you need a resource for getting your hormones tested because your ob gyn or reproductive endocrinologist won't test it for you then in the description below there's a link to help you get the testing that you need all on your own you can order it by yourself so you can't do a video that talks about the eggs and ovarian function without talking about supplements because i know all of you are going to post questions about well what can i take to improve my ovarian reserve and the health of my eggs well i've done many videos on this specific topic so i'm not going to talk about the supplements that you can be taking to improve ovarian health but what i will do for all of you is post a link below to my favorite supplements that can help you improve your ovarian health and function i do want to remind you all that just because these are my favorite supplements doesn't mean that they are the supplements that you should be taking okay we all have our unique makeup our unique issues and the thing that you need to do is find out and create your unique plan to support you on your fertility journey okay this is where you need to work with someone to understand your specific situation and then you can come back to my favorite supplements and determine which ones are best suited for you if you've already done that and you know what you need then awesome just use those links to find the supplements that you could use to support your fertility and egg quality and ovarian health these are the supplements that i have vetted i have researched and i approve to be safe for your fertility and egg quality and as i wrap this video up i just want to reiterate to all of you that you have the power right i keep thinking of that song i've got the power i'm not i'm not good i'm not good singing but you do you do have the power you have the power to control and improve your egg quality and your ovarian health and the steps that i just laid out here are the places that you should be starting to take control and improve your egg quality and ovarian health so if you don't remember anything else i want you to take this out of this video okay you do have the power to influence and improve your egg quality and ovarian health and it starts with you so take control of your fertility and start making changes now if you like this video then give me a thumbs up because that lets me know what you like it also lets everybody else know that i've produced an awesome video that they need to watch alright if you're not a subscriber to my youtube channel then you should be so make sure you hit that bell to subscribe and find out when i produce a new video to help you on your fertility journey and most of all i want you all to stay healthy stay safe and stay fertile you

Channel: Dr. Marc Sklar - FertilityTV

Views: 62,253

Keywords: Marc sklar, The fertility expert, Fertility tv, Fertility tips, How to get pregnant faster, Fertility, improve egg quality, how to improve egg quality, it starts with the egg, egg quality, how to improve egg quality and quantity, improve egg quality naturally, tips to improve egg quality, egg health, how to increase egg quality, how to improve female egg quality, poor egg quality treatment, poor egg quality, how to improve egg quality naturally, how to increase egg count

Id: 0nm9Iru54lI

Length: 25min 6sec (1506 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020