A poor quality egg can alter the reproductive

What is poor egg quality?

The egg quality indicates how prepared a woman’s eggs are to become healthy embryos, once fertilized.

The good quality of the eggs is essential to be able to have a baby, since, to transform into a healthy embryo; the egg needs to have the appropriate chromosomes and the ability to combine them with those of the sperm.

The egg must have enough energy to be able to grow and divide normally.

A poor quality egg can alter the reproductive process and make the difference between getting a pregnancy to term or not.

Poor-quality eggs can lead to chromosomally abnormal pregnancies, increasing the risk of the baby having genetic disorders.

What are the causes of poor egg quality?

Age is the factor with the greatest influence on the egg quality of women.

From the age of 35, a notable reduction in the number of eggs in the woman’s ovaries and, above all, in their quality, begins to appear.

When she reaches 40 years of age, poor-quality eggs often outnumber good-quality eggs, so her chances of getting pregnant decrease significantly.

Not only age is a risk factor for poor egg quality

Young women, under the age of 35, may also have poor egg quality as a result of:

• Genetic problems
• Immune problems
• Cancer treatments
• Smoking, alcoholism, drugs
• Endometriosis
• Obesity
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome

Can poor egg quality be diagnosed?

Each woman is born with a finite number of eggs. During her fertile stage, in each cycle a certain number of follicles are recruited and expel their eggs, for an normal ovarian function, and little by little, over the years, it is inevitable that they will become exhausted and reach menopause.

The number of follicles, with eggs, which you have at all times, is what we know as the ovarian reserve.

To know the ovarian reserve and be able to assess it and quantify it, it is done by:

• Analysis of the well-known antimüllerian hormone AMH, FSH, estradiol.
• Count of antral follicles, performed with ultrasound in the first days of the cycle.

It is not always parallel in a woman to have low quantity of eggs and poor quality of eggs.

It is necessary to differentiate patients with low ovarian reserve from patients of poor egg quality, although from the age of 35 they usually go together.

Currently, there is no analytical or other non-invasive technique that, a priori, can indicate that a woman’s eggs, even though they have a high number, are of good quality.