Egg Quality: What It Means for Fertility and How to Improve It Naturally
When it comes to fertility, much of the conversation focuses on timing, hormones, or age–but egg quality plays a central and often overlooked role. Whether you’re trying to conceive now or planning for the future, understanding egg quality can empower you to take meaningful, proactive steps toward supporting your reproductive health.
In this article, we’ll explore what egg quality means, why it matters for fertility, what influences it, and evidence-based ways to support healthy egg development.
What Is Egg Quality?
Egg quality refers to an egg’s ability to mature, fertilize, and develop into a healthy embryo. The egg contains chromosomes, or genetic material, which will determine the genetic makeup of your future baby. While some genetic factors can’t be changed, many can! By focusing on supporting egg quality, you increase the chances of a healthy pregnancy and baby.
Unlike sperm, which are produced continuously, women are born with all the eggs they will ever have. Over time, both the number and quality of eggs decline—making egg quality a key factor in fertility, miscarriage risk, and IVF outcomes.
Why Egg Quality Matters for Fertility
Egg quality directly impacts several aspects of reproductive success, including:
The ability to ovulate a healthy, mature egg
Successful fertilization
Embryo development and implantation
Risk of chromosomal abnormalities
Miscarriage risk
Poor egg quality is associated with irregular ovulation, difficulty conceiving, recurrent pregnancy loss, and lower success rates with assisted reproductive technologies.
Egg Quality and Age: What’s Really Happening?
If you are waiting until a later age (late 30’s–early 40’s) to have children, it is essential to consider and optimize your egg quality. Simply by living longer, we are exposing ourselves and our eggs to stress, environmental toxins, and our egg supply is steadily decreasing.
As we age:
Mitochondrial function in the egg declines
Chromosomal errors become more likely
Oxidative stress increases
DNA repair mechanisms become less efficient
However, biological age and egg health are not solely determined by calendar age. Lifestyle, metabolic health, nutrient status, inflammation, and environmental exposures all play significant roles in how eggs age.
Key Factors That Influence Egg Quality
1. Oxidative Stress
Eggs are highly sensitive to oxidative damage. Chronic inflammation, poor blood sugar regulation, environmental toxin exposure, and nutrient deficiencies can all increase oxidative stress within ovarian tissue.
2. Mitochondrial Health
Mitochondria provide the energy needed for egg maturation, fertilization, and embryo development. Impaired mitochondrial function is a major contributor to age-related declines in egg quality.
3. Hormonal Balance
Disruptions in insulin, thyroid hormones, cortisol, or reproductive hormones can interfere with follicle development and ovulation quality.
4. Blood Sugar and Metabolic Health
Insulin resistance and blood sugar instability are strongly associated with poor egg quality, particularly in conditions like PCOS.
5. Nutrient Status
Egg development depends on adequate levels of key nutrients–including antioxidants, B vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids–months before ovulation occurs.
Is There a Way to Check My Egg Quality?
We can assess sperm quality by doing a semen analysis, but we don’t have a great way to assess our egg quality. Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) looks at the number of eggs, but not their quality. Antral follicle count uses an ultrasound to look at the number of follicles in the ovaries, which can also determine egg count, but once again does not tell us the quality.
Progesterone tested about 7 days after ovulation can give us a clue about egg quality. Progesterone is made by the follicles in the ovaries after ovulation, so if your eggs are not getting the nutrients they need, progesterone levels will be lower. The health of the follicle and eggs are very much connected. Progesterone is also very important for maintaining a pregnancy, so if you are trying to conceive it is worth checking for multiple reasons.
Can Egg Quality Be Improved?
While diet, lifestyle, and environmental exposures play a cumulative role throughout our lives (and even our own mother’s life), the 3-4 months prior to ovulation have a huge impact on the quality of that particular egg as it matures. That means you still have the chance to drastically improve the quality of your eggs.
This is especially relevant for:
People over 35
Those with PCOS or insulin resistance
Unexplained infertility
Prior IVF failure or poor embryo quality
Recurrent pregnancy loss
Eggs take approximately 90 days to mature before ovulation, which means that changes you make today influence egg quality three months from now. This is why fertility-focused nutrition and supplementation protocols are typically recommended for at least 3–6 months.
Evidence-Based Ways to Support Egg Quality
1. Prioritize Blood Sugar Balance
Stable blood sugar supports hormone health, reduces inflammation, and improves ovulatory quality. This includes:
Regular meals with protein, fiber, and healthy fats
Avoid skipping meals (especially breakfast!) or fasting when TTC
Eat enough–you need enough of the building blocks to create hormones.
Avoid excess carbohydrates and sugary foods
2. Reduce Oxidative Stress
Lifestyle strategies such as sleep optimization, stress regulation, gentle movement, and reducing toxin exposure can meaningfully impact egg health. It is also important to reduce other sources of inflammation:
Avoid alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and other drugs
Minimize exposures to environmental toxins such as BPA, phthalates, parabens, and artificial fragrances
Address any underlying chronic infections, gut issues, mold exposures, or dental issues which may be contributing to overall inflammation.
3. Support Circulation to the Ovaries
Reduced blood flow to the ovaries can negatively impact egg quality. A few ways to support healthy blood flow:
Get your iron levels checked. Iron is necessary to help transport oxygen in the blood, and low iron means less oxygen is getting to your ovaries (and other tissues).
Move your body daily. Sitting for prolonged periods can restrict blood flow to the pelvis.
Cold exposure–such as ending showers on cold–gets your blood moving.
Red light therapy over the pelvis helps support bloodflow to the ovaries.
4. Targeted Supplement Support
There are many supplements backed by research to support egg quality. Antioxidants help to protect the egg from damage to its DNA, mitochondrial cofactors help to support energy production, and nutrients involved in DNA repair and cell division …
CoQ10 is one of the most well-known supplements for egg support. It supports mitochondrial function and has antioxidant actions.
Melatonin has potent antioxidant actions, improves mitochondrial function, and in IVF studies supplementation results in better egg and embryo quality.
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) acts as an antioxidant, decreases inflammation, and can also positively impact insulin response
Green tea contains potent antioxidants, and in supplement form you can avoid the caffeine and tannins which can sometimes irritate the stomach.
Acetyl-L-carnitine reduces insulin sensitivity and increases ovulation and pregnancy rates
You can check out the specific supplements and brands I frequently recommend for egg quality support through my Fullscript:
Supporting Egg Quality Is About Preparation, Not Perfection
Improving egg quality isn’t about chasing perfection—it’s about creating the most supportive internal environment for conception and early pregnancy. Because egg development occurs over several months, the most impactful approach is one that addresses nutrition, blood sugar balance, oxidative stress, hormone signaling, and targeted supplementation together.
To support this process, I created my Pregnancy Prep Package—a comprehensive, practitioner-designed program for people who want to be proactive and intentional about fertility support before conception.
This course is ideal if you are looking for:
A structured, evidence-based approach to improving egg quality and overall fertility
Guidance on fertility-supportive nutrition and lifestyle strategies
Practitioner-selected supplements to support egg and mitochondrial health
Support you can start immediately, without waiting for an appointment
Disclaimer: The information in this article is intended for general informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition, nor should it replace guidance from a qualified healthcare professional. Please speak with your provider about your individual health questions and before making any changes to your care plan.