Supplements or other ideas to improve egg quality?

[Anonymous]

What do folks do to improve egg quality in the months before egg retrieval/IVF? Anything I should take/do/avoid? For how long? I'm over 35. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Acupuncture and ubiquinol

[Anonymous]

Agree with pp and will add Vitamin D. Ideally you'd have about three months before retrieval.

[Anonymous]

I take a lot of stuff... I'm of the "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" mind.

So let's see...I do acupuncture, have revamped my diet (I'm the OP of the recent diet thread) and take the following:
- prenatal
- wheatgrass pills
- vitamin D
- fish oil
- ubiquinol
- DHEA
- maca pills
- spirulina pills
- l-argenine
- insositol
- vitamin B12
- vitamin B6
- zinc
- melatonin
- probiotic pill
- royal jelly

...my doc at SG knows and is OK with it all, but he did make fun of me.

[Anonymous]

Ubiquinol (high-absorption CoQ10) has some research to support it. You need to take it for several months though, I don't think there's anything you can do the month before.

[Anonymous]

Check with your doctor about DHEA, since it can affect hormone levels. Melatonin is also contra indicated if you have thyroid issues. The rest should be fine.
Get your vitamin D levels tested. Vitamin-d3 is supposed to be better absorbed than the d2 form.

[Anonymous]

I took CoQ10 and vitamin D for my second fresh cycle. The embies did look much better, but the cycle was a bust. (The first cycle with just prenatals was successful. I think before I was almost two years younger, damn it!)

[Anonymous]

^^because I was younger before

[Anonymous]

Thanks! This is helpful. I'll check out the out thread too. I generally eat pretty healthily and am not overweight, so my plan had been to just continue on that path--I eat lots of fruits, veggies and protein, but I don't avoid an after dinner treat, wine, etc. I've tried acupuncture, but found it stressful (both making time for the appointments and lying still with needles in me!). Maybe I'll give it a try again....

[Anonymous]

I took royal jelly and a low dose of DHEA. Also I did accupuncture. That cycle was successful but who know if all that made a difference.

[Anonymous]

Which royal jelly do you all take? I've seen so many different varieties!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which royal jelly do you all take? I've seen so many different varieties!

I got it at Whole Foods. They only had one brand.

[Anonymous]

I did acupuncture. I know it's only one anecdote but my failed cycle (prior to trying acupuncture) resulted in fewer eggs and they fertilized poorly. We were only able to do a 3 day transfer with a morula and an 8 cell embryo. The following cycle (during which I did acupuncture) used the exact same medical protocol but I got tons more eggs, better quality, and they fertilized better. Embryos were doing well enough that they were able to bring them out to blast stage which I'm pretty sure is what helped make that cycle successful.

So, for me, the only obvious difference between my two cycles was acupuncture. I found one who specialized in fertility. She wasn't conveniently located and she wasn't covered by insurance but I made it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which royal jelly do you all take? I've seen so many different varieties!

I take this kind, in honey: http://www.amazon.com/YS-Royal-Jelly-Honey-Bee/dp/B00014FT06/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430842920&sr=8-1&keywords=royal+jelly

I've also taken the capsules before.

[Anonymous]

You should read It Starts With The Egg by Rebecca Fett