How to Improve Egg Quality for IVF: What Works and What Doesn’t

Quick answer: You cannot reverse the effect of age on your eggs. But you can support the eggs you have. The steps with the best support are simple:

• stop smoking
• reach a healthy weight
• treat thyroid, insulin or vitamin D problems
• eat a balanced, Mediterranean-style diet

Start at least 3 months before IVF. Supplements like CoQ10 or DHEA have mixed evidence and should only be taken on a doctor’s advice. The right IVF plan often matters more than any supplement.

Key takeaways

• Age is the biggest factor in egg quality.
• Eggs take about 3 months to mature, so start changes early.
• AMH tells you how many eggs you have, not how good they are.
• Major guidelines do not recommend routine add-ons like DHEA or growth hormone.
• A personalised IVF protocol and a review of past cycles often help more than supplements.

What Does “Egg Quality” Mean?

Egg quality mainly means whether an egg has the right number of chromosomes. A chromosomally normal egg is more likely to:

• fertilise normally
• grow into a healthy embryo
• implant and lead to a pregnancy

An egg with abnormal chromosomes may still fertilise. But the embryo may stop growing, fail to implant, or lead to an early pregnancy loss.

Eggs also need healthy mitochondria, the tiny “power units” inside cells, to divide and grow properly.

You cannot see egg quality on an ultrasound. A scan shows follicle size and number, not quality. Quality is judged after fertilisation, through embryo development and, if done, PGT-A chromosome testing.

Read more: Egg Quality vs Embryo Quality

Egg Quality vs Egg Quantity

Many women confuse the two. They are different, and they are tested differently.

Table 1: Quality vs quantity

ESHRE’s guideline strongly recommends AMH or antral follicle count to predict how the ovaries will respond to stimulation. Neither test measures egg quality.

Low AMH? You may have fewer eggs, but their quality depends mainly on your age. See Low AMH and Diminished Ovarian Reserve.

Why Age Matters Most

Quick answer: As women get older, more eggs carry chromosome errors. Lifestyle changes cannot undo this, but they can help the eggs you have.

A large study of 15,169 embryo biopsies found that chromosome errors were common at every age but rose sharply as women got older. Even in one US centre with patients of all ages, only about 45% of 1,915 tested blastocysts were chromosomally normal.

Table 2: How age affects egg quality

[Clinic: add Mamata’s own PGT-A euploidy rates by age band here, with year and sample size. This is original data AI tools and journalists will cite.]

See also: IVF Success Rates at Every Age and Advanced Maternal Age.

What Actually Improves Egg Quality? (Evidence Summary)

Table 3: Evidence at a glance

Your 90-Day Egg Quality Plan

Quick answer: Eggs take about 3 months to mature before they are released. Changes made now affect the eggs collected in about 3 months.

Table 4: A simple 90-day plan before IVF

Supplements started 2 to 3 weeks before egg collection are too late to make a difference

Lifestyle Changes That Help

Table 5: Daily habits and egg health

Need a personalised plan? See our Nutrition and Wellness service.

An Indian diet works well. You do not need avocados or imported “superfoods”. Dal, seasonal vegetables, curd, millets, nuts and seeds fit a Mediterranean-style pattern well.

Medical Conditions to Treat Before IVF

Some health problems affect eggs and response to treatment. Fixing them often helps more than any supplement.

Table 6: Conditions to check

Supplements: What You Should Know

Quick answer: No supplement is proven to reliably improve egg quality for everyone. Some may help selected women. Take them only on a doctor’s advice.

• Folic acid: recommended for everyone planning a pregnancy.
• Vitamin D: worth correcting if your blood level is low.
• Myo-inositol: may help women with PCOS and insulin resistance.
• CoQ10: supports mitochondria. A 2023 network meta-analysis suggested CoQ10, DHEA and growth hormone may improve outcomes in poor responders, but trials are small.
• DHEA and growth hormone: ESHRE does not recommend them routinely. Use them only under specialist care.

Poor response to stimulation happens in roughly 9% to 24% of IVF cycles. This is the group where add-ons are most often discussed, and where a specialist’s judgement matters most.

Why not just take everything? Some supplements interact with medicines. Some, like DHEA, can affect hormone test results. And money spent on unproven products is often money better spent on testing and the right treatment.

The Bigger Lever: Your IVF Protocol

For many women, especially those with low AMH or a poor previous response, the IVF plan itself matters more than supplements. This includes:

• the right stimulation medicines and dose
• the right trigger timing
• whether to plan more than one egg collection to bank embryos
• whether PGT-A or embryo time-lapse monitoring suits you
• considering egg freezing earlier, if you are planning for the future

Don’t forget the male partner. Embryo quality depends on the sperm too. A semen analysis and, in some cases, a sperm DNA fragmentation test are part of good preparation.

Had Poor Egg or Embryo Quality in a Past IVF Cycle?

Table 7: What to review after a disappointing cycle

Bring your previous embryology report to your consultation. Read: What to Do If IVF Fails and Donor Egg IVF vs Own Egg IVF.

Planning IVF in the next few months? Book a pre-IVF consultation at Mamata Fertility Hospital, Secunderabad. Bring your AMH, FSH and antral follicle count results, and any past IVF reports. We will tell you what is worth changing and what is not.

• Book a Pre-IVF Consultation
• Call +91 8790337035 or 040 45678899

Myths About Egg Quality

Table 8: Myth vs fact

What Does “Egg Quality” Mean?

Egg quality mainly means whether an egg has the right number of chromosomes. A chromosomally normal egg is more likely to:

• fertilise normally
• grow into a healthy embryo
• implant and lead to a pregnancy

An egg with abnormal chromosomes may still fertilise. But the embryo may stop growing, fail to implant, or lead to an early pregnancy loss.

Eggs also need healthy mitochondria, the tiny “power units” inside cells, to divide and grow properly.

You cannot see egg quality on an ultrasound. A scan shows follicle size and number, not quality. Quality is judged after fertilisation, through embryo development and, if done, PGT-A chromosome testing.

Read more: Egg Quality vs Embryo Quality

Frequently Asked Questions

Related reading

• Poor Egg Quality and Fertility
• IVF Cost in Hyderabad
• How to Choose an IVF Clinic
• ICSI Treatment
• Female Fertility Treatment
• Male Infertility Treatment. 

Sources:

• ESHRE guideline: ovarian stimulation for IVF/ICSI (PMC)
• Franasiak et al., 15,169 trophectoderm biopsies (PMC)
• Euploid rates in 1,915 biopsied blastocysts (Texas Fertility Center)
• Network meta-analysis: DHEA, CoQ10, GH for poor ovarian response