Catching the "good egg"

[Anonymous]

Following on the earlier post, can anyone recommend ways to help catch the good egg for those of us that are older?

Acupuncture
eliminate caffeine
DHEA?

[Anonymous]

all of those and i cut out drinking completely.

[Anonymous]

Luck, pure and simple.

There is no way that acupuncture can make the body produce an egg that has strong enough mitochondria to not scramble its chromosomes prior to ovulation, and to survive and thrive into a healthy baby. There is slight anecdotal evidence that DHEA or Resveratrol might help with this, but no studies have been completed and they haven't helped me or other women I know. (Perhaps they help certain women for certain unknown reasons.)

There are studies showing that cutting out alcohol will slightly increase the success rates of IVF, but no studies showing it helps if you are not doing IVF. There are studies showing caffeine over a certain level can slightly increase your chance of miscarriage, but that is not necessarily the same as producing a good egg in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Maybe a time machine to go back to when we were all 23 (and in no way ready to be parents!).

When I went to a east/west medicine specialist, he said stopping all cardio exercise would help with egg quality. I am following his advice, but I am pretty skeptical.

[Anonymous]

First baby: got pregnant after 3 rounds of IVF. Before the 3rd round, I started weekly accupuncture, reflexology, and pilates (I already was very healthy and exercised everyday).

Second baby: First round of IVF, did everything listed above, but had a horrible cycle and a BFN. Ran out of $ so with 2nd round did none of the above, had a perfect cycle, BFP now 20 weeks along.

So who in the world knows?! I would recommend doing whatever you can afford and whatever causes you the less stress. I think accupuncture helps with stress, if the money and keeping appointments don't stress you. Make sure you get a practionier that specializes in fertility, because many do not.

Good luck.