Holistic Support for Poor Egg Quality

SERVING CHICAGO AND NORTH SHORE

Holistic Treatment To Improve Egg Quality

One of the most common questions we get at Pulling Down the Moon is whether holistic treatment can impact or improve egg quality. While age still matters, the thinking around egg quality has evolved over the last decade and a diagnosis of poor egg quality has the potential to change or improve.


While no treatment has 100% success rate, holistic treatments like acupuncture, massage, yoga and nutrition counseling work to improve the environment eggs develop within by increasing blood flow, lowering hormonal disruption through stress management and improved sleep, and decreasing inflammation that can impair cell function.

You can shop for Egg Quality Supplements here:

What Affects Low Egg Quality

There are a lot of statistics and some "dice rolling" involved in successfully getting pregnant. Some factors impacting human egg quality are simply genetic. Science has also established that a woman’s age is a significant factor in infertility.


Although it’s hard to control your age or your genetics, lifestyle factors can also help improve the environment in your ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus, which can help eggs that are healthy to stay healthy and increase the chance of conception and birth. For example, strong scientific links have been drawn between female egg quality and lifestyle issues such as smoking, stress, alcohol consumption, nutritional intake, etc.

How to Improve Egg Quality?

Supporting healthy egg quality at whatever stage you are in your fertility journey is where we focus our efforts. Significant science demonstrates that making lifestyle changes can increase your chances of getting pregnant and staying healthy during that pregnancy. Additionally, making sure you’re getting the right levels of important nutrients is also important for egg quality and fertility. But it can be hard, even if you’re eating well, to get the optimal levels of nutrients to support healthy egg quality.


The DNA in your eggs is what it is, so when we talk about how to improve egg quality, there is no way to take one degraded egg and “heal” it. The DNA controls everything about creating a healthy embryo and helping it develop into a healthy baby. However, there is still likely a percentage of “normal” eggs waiting to be fertilized. And it only takes one healthy egg and one healthy sperm to make the magic happen. The goal of holistic fertility services is to create an environment that increases the chances of that healthy, happy meeting, either through natural means or ART means. So, while trying to increase egg quality isn’t scientifically possible, we can support the healthy eggs that still exist and give them a chance to shine.

Our Holistic Fertility Services

Fertility Nutrition & Supplements

LEARN MORE →

Schedule a Consultation

Schedule Here →

Red Light Therapy

LEARN MORE →

Prenatal Care

LEARN MORE →

Postpartum Care

LEARN MORE →

Men's Fertility Options

LEARN MORE →

Improve Egg Quality with Lifestyle Changes

Supporting healthy egg quality at whatever stage you are in your fertility journey is where we focus our efforts. Significant science demonstrates that making these lifestyle changes can increase your chances of getting pregnant and staying healthy during that pregnancy:


  1. Stop smoking: If there isn’t a way to improve egg quality from where the DNA is now, there is certainly something you can do to prevent DNA damage to your eggs: stop and avoid smoking. This goes for both female egg quality and male sperm quality.
  2. Lower stress levels: Infertility itself can cause a huge amount of stress, and we know that the stress hormone cortisol makes getting pregnant harder and can impede egg maturation and implantation. Yoga and massage can be especially helpful for reducing stress levels.
  3. Boost your nutrition: Good nutrition can help improve the longevity of your eggs and their DNA stability. Up your intake of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and healthy proteins. Cut back on highly processed, sugary foods. Talk with our fertility nutritionist and consider joining our 12-week Fully Fertile Nutrition program to optimize your overall fertility and health.
  4. Seek weight management: Weight can impact fertility in several ways. Being overweight can impair hormonal balance and harm fertility, but so can being underweight, which can impede ovulation. Our fertility nutritionist can help you set and keep goals to reach a healthy, fertile weight.
  5. Get exercise: Movement is life. Even a regular walking regimen can improve the oxygen levels in your blood and keep organs and hormones in balance.


Keep in mind that too much vigorous exercise can actually lower fertility levels, so talk with our team at Pulling Down the Moon about the right kind and amount of exercise to boost your fertility levels.⁷‌


Improving Egg Quality with Supplements

Making sure you’re getting the right levels of important nutrients is also important for egg quality and fertility. But it can be hard, even if you’re eating well, to get the optimal levels of nutrients to support healthy egg quality. Science has found that getting the optimal (not too little, not too much) of the following nutrients is critical to a good prenatal vitamin to improve egg quality:



These and other micronutrients can help protect your egg quality and improve other aspects of fertility and support a healthy pregnancy.

Our Patients Testimonials

Why Choose Pulling Down the Moon in Your Fertility Journey?

If you are eager to know more about how to improve egg quality in your efforts to become pregnant, you are not alone. The entire team at Pulling Down the Moon has worked with thousands of women, and we constantly research the latest science about how to help women and men improve their fertility. We’ve also created a community of people going through the emotional and physical roller coaster of infertility. Once again: you are not alone. To get the holistic, knowledgeable, and caring support you need as you go through your fertility journey, reach out to us. Schedule an appointment today!

Read More About Egg Quality

90-Day Prep? Start Here!

June 4, 2024
Whether getting pregnant naturally or using some form of assisted reproductive technology (ART) like IVF , fertility clients come to Pulling Down the Moon because they want to increase their chances of fertility success. We often see clients have better success after a time period of preparation for their cycle. Because the cycle of an egg is about 90 days, it’s helpful for you to prepare and optimize the health of your ovaries, uterus and your whole body at least three months before trying to conceive. In that time, you can monitor your nutrition, increase your vitamin intake, become intentional about improving blood flow and lowering stress levels. All of this can help enhance fertility and create a healthy environment for a pregnancy. Want to create a plan for enhanced fertility? Start here ! Nutrition Preconception nutrition research shows that what you eat can impact the health of your ovaries and eggs either negatively or positively. Yet trying to navigate all the information out there can be overwhelming. The Fully Fertile Nutrition Program is unique to Pulling Down the Moon and exactly what it says: A science-based nutrition program (with some teachings and techniques from Traditional Chinese Medicine and yoga added) especially created to help you prep for your upcoming treatments. With this program, our Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and fertility expert Sadie Wells will help you set goals, regulate blood sugar levels, support the liver, assist in getting your gut and thyroid to function properly, discuss sensitivities, look at possible food eliminations, decrease inflammation and safely cleanse. Your nutritionist will also be an accountability partner and will provide support, encouragement, ideas, and recipes to help you meet your goals while simultaneously working to improve your egg quality. Vitamins and Supplements Pulling Down the Moon has been working with medical doctors for over more than two decades, as well as, keeping up with the latest research and literature in the emerging field of supplements. We can provide recommendations on specific supplements for your unique situation and also help you streamline an overwhelming supplement regimen to include the supplements with the most research behind them for fertility. From finding the right preconception prenatal vitamin to taking a probiotic to getting on a supplement of CoQ10 , we can help you make the right choices as you work on enhancing your fertility during your prep. Blood Flow and Stress Reduction Increasing blood flow and reducing stress go hand-in-hand when optimizing your body for conception. Fertility Acupuncture , Yoga for Fertility , and Fertility Enhancing Massage can all help you achieve healthier circulation and reduce stress. Studies show that embryos with the highest implantation potential are from follicles that have sufficient blood and oxygen. If you want optimum egg health, then promoting oxygen-rich blood flow to the ovaries is essential. No doubt, stress influences your body in many ways and your fertility is not spared. High levels of stress can create an abundance of hormones, which in turn, can disrupt ovulation. By reducing your stress levels, you can have a positive affect on your fertility and your overall well-being. Here are some approaches: Acupuncture In very simple terms, acupuncture is believed to clear blockages in the body in order to allow energy, greater health, and the feeling of emotional well-being to flow freely within the body. And more and more, acupuncture is becoming a widely accepted and sought after natural treatment for restoring fertility. Some research shows acupuncture may improve ovarian functioning, balance the endocrine system and hormones, increase circulation to the uterus and improve egg quality ( and sperm quality for partners !). Additionally, the treatments are balancing, relaxing, and offer clients an opportunity to unplug and feel grounded. Many clients fall asleep during their sessions. Pulling Down the Moon acupuncturists are well-trained in working specifically with fertility clients. They are knowledgeable in treating your whole body and can provide you up-to-date information on fertility health and wellness. Yoga Pulling Down the Moon’s specialized and research based Yoga for Fertility Series offers you another way to prep for enhanced fertility. At each series, you will learn a series of gentle yoga postures designed to improve fertility by increasing blood flow into the pelvis, releasing stress and anxiety, and balancing life energy flow in the body. In addition to this physical practice, we explore concepts from yoga philosophy that frame the fertility journey in a way that reveals our personal strengths, reinforces the joy of everyday life and empowers us to create the family we are meant to have. Through this series, you will also join the wonderful, positive healing community of Pulling Down the Moon and enjoy the energy of all the amazing women who have shared their journey with us - for support to get through this journey! Massage What we offer is unique. Our FEM Protocol™ is a five-part series using massage and related techniques to enhance the health and functioning of the pelvic and abdominal organs, and to promote the client’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. The five parts of the protocol focus on cleansing and detoxification, enhancing reproductive circulation, oxygenating the pelvic organs, and combating stress. Benefits may include : promoting egg quality by improving the follicular environment and increasing its supply of oxygen-rich blood lowering hormone disruption through stress management and clearing lymphatic congestion (a storehouse for excess hormones and toxins) supporting uterine lining through melting abdominal scar tissue, clearing circulatory pathways, and releasing structural tension patterns encouraging relaxation and an overall sense of well-being during your fertility journey We offer a massage treatment schedule to keep you on track during your 90-day prep. And once you’ve actively started trying to conceive, whether naturally or through ART, we encourage you to continue to receive the FEM Protocol to optimize your cycle. It is safe any time in a cycle and we are trained in helping you determine what will be the best treatment for you no matter where you are on your fertility journey! Don't let this summer go to waste - let us take care of you to reduce your stress and enhance your fertility for when you are ready for your next cycle!

Chinese Medicine for Promoting Fertility

By HeJoo Yu, Licensed Acupuncturist, Arlington Heights • February 20, 2023
Elevate your fertility journey with Chinese Medicine for fertility. Explore the holistic approach of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs, designed to enhance egg health, improve blood circulation, and reduce stress.
You don't snooze, you lose!

Don't Mess Around with Your Body Clock

By Beth Heller • July 6, 2022
Why sleep is essential for women doing IVF or fertility treatment.

Breaking Fertility News: The ECS and Your Fertility

May 12, 2022
The Endocannabinoid System and Your Fertility
Show More

Additional FAQs About Egg Quality

  • The Direct Link Between Egg Quality & Fertility

    Women start with all the eggs their ovaries will ever contain from birth (in the millions). By puberty, that number has decreased to around 300,000, which still provides a lot of opportunity for pregnancy. As menstruation continues, egg count and quality will naturally decrease until menopause hits. Human female egg quality has a significant impact on the chance of conceiving and carrying out a healthy pregnancy. Genetic egg abnormalities such as extra or missing chromosomes can decrease the chances of an egg becoming fertilized and developing into a healthy fetus that can mature through pregnancy to birth. A woman’s overall health and environment also significantly impact egg quality and pregnancy success or miscarriage. Efforts to increase egg quality should be focused on controlling the things you can control (like a healthy environment, smoking cessation, good fertility nutrition, and quality sleep) while releasing stress about the things you can’t control. And remember, a man’s sperm quality counts as much as egg quality in fertility too! Pulling Down the Moon can help you focus on the things you can control with our fertility education resources and a wide range of holistic fertility services.

  • Age and Egg Quality and Quantity

    Women in their twenties and early thirties have a greater chance of conceiving and carrying out a healthy pregnancy for several reasons. Ideally, a woman’s body is at the peak of health in this age range and able to handle the demands that pregnancy places upon it. Egg quality and quantity also diminish as a woman ages. Women in their late thirties and into their forties see a natural decrease in egg quality and quantity until menopause. In their twenties and very early thirties, about 70 percent of a woman’s eggs are healthy (no chromosomal defects). By the age of 35, that number has decreased to about 60 percent. Between the ages of 35 and 40, chromosomally normal egg statistics have dropped to about 35 percent.³ However, age is still not the only factor, and scientific developments in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are helping to stretch the age boundary, particularly as younger women freeze their eggs in the hopes of using them at a later age.

  • Can You Measuring Egg Quality?

    There are no 100% accurate ways to measure female egg quality, but there are tests that can give important clues and indications. Aside from knowing your age and the statistics associated with it, your doctor can order tests to measure levels of critical reproductive hormones to see if there are any imbalances. A transvaginal ultrasound with your OBGYN can give some indication of the condition of the ovaries and egg follicles. Your doctor can also test for other conditions that might be impeding fertility, such as diminished ovarian reserve, endometriosis, or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Getting as much information on your overall health as possible can help you know how to proceed with other therapies such as nutritional programs, fertility acupuncture, fertility yoga, and fertility massage, all of which can reduce stresses that can impact your fertility while creating a good environment for your eggs.