Poor Egg Quality Is Not a Diagnosis

00:00 – Poor egg quality is not a diagnosis
Why egg quality is assumed, not measured, and what clinics actually use as proxies like age, embryo grading, and IVF response.

01:10 – What clinics are not evaluating when egg quality is blamed
Inflammation, mineral status, immune balance, nervous system regulation, and metabolic health are rarely assessed.

02:15 – Stress physiology, low AMH, and hormone signaling
How chronic stress, adrenal function, and thyroid signaling influence AMH, FSH, and follicle development.

03:20 – Gut and microbiome health and egg development
Why gut inflammation, infections, and poor nutrient absorption can directly affect ovarian environment and outcomes.

04:55 – Food sensitivities, immune activation, and fertility
How immune reactions and chronic inflammation can disrupt egg maturation and implantation.

06:10 – Mineral depletion and egg energy production
The role of iron, magnesium, zinc, and other minerals in mitochondrial function and hormone synthesis.

07:25 – Blood sugar instability and ovulation health
Why glucose swings, night waking, and metabolic stress impact egg development even in normal-weight individuals.

08:20 – Mitochondrial function and the 90-day egg development window
Why egg development takes time and how energy production affects egg competence.

09:10 – Nervous system dysregulation and fertility outcomes
How anxiety, trauma, perfectionism, and chronic vigilance signal the body that it is not safe for reproduction.

10:40 – Why pregnancy can happen with low AMH
How improving the internal environment can lead to pregnancy even when AMH stays low or unchanged.

[00:00:00] If you've been told that you have poor egg quality, here is the truth. It's a label based on assumptions not measurement. Today I'm showing you the five patterns that when we address can often lead to pregnancy success, even with low AMH or if IVF has failed.

Excited for you to listen. Let's go.

Welcome back. I'm Sarah Clark, founder of Fab Fertile, and welcome back. I'm Sarah Clark, founder of Fab Fertile. For over a decade, my team and I have helped hundreds of couples improve their chances of pregnancy success, whether naturally or through IVF. We specialize in helping those with low AMH, high FSH to diminished ovarian reserve, premature ovarian insufficiency, and recurrent pregnancy loss, using functional lab testing and personalized fertility strategies at the end of this episode.

In this episode, you'll learn what actually affects egg development, the testing we use to identify hidden patterns and the changes we see in almost every successful pregnancy case. If you found this episode helpful, please hit subscribe, and if you know someone else who's on the fertility journey, please share [00:01:00] this podcast with them.

We are talking all about egg quality. First of all, they can't measure it. They assume it, so they'll look at your age. They'll look at the embryo grading, what the the embryo quality the PGT test, the testing on the embryo.

They'll look at your IVF response cycle irregularities, but none of that is going to evaluate inflammation in your body. Did anyone look at your high sensitivity C-reactive protein? Did anybody look at your mineral status? We see people's minerals depleted across the board. Did anyone look at your immune system?

Your immune balance, and you're getting every cold and flu. You've got cracked lips or brittle nails. Your your immune system is down. What about the stress piece? So your stress physiology, did anyone look at your nervous system? Maybe your nervous system is dysregulated, which is what we see the, with the low AMH and the high FSH.

The adrenals impact the thyroid impacts the AMH and the FSH and the follicle count. And that can be [00:02:00] why things are not working. People will tell me, my health is great. How's your stress? It's off the chart. There's typically something going on with your health, otherwise you'd already be pregnant.

It's not, but you rushing to IVF, we need to be able to work on this. Your circadian rhythm. If you're of a hard time falling asleep or we wake up during the middle of the night, maybe you've got blood sugar issues or magnesium deficiency, or you've got a sluggish liver.

Maybe you're waking up early in the morning and your adrenaline is spiking. And then also looking at the health of your gut microbiome. We do stool testing, look at the DNA of the stool. It's part of our Fab Fertile Method. We have access to tests. We ship them worldwide, North America, Europe, UK, Australia, New Zealand, ship them worldwide, and being able to look at food sensitivity testing, stool testing, look at the DNA of the stool.

Genetic testing, different from the karyotype that you do at your fertility clinic. We do mineral deficiencies testing, looking at your minerals. Looking at the vaginal and the seminal microbiome, maybe you just have infections in there and that's why it's not implanting and that's [00:03:00] why you're not being able to get pregnant naturally or the trans before you do a transfer.

We have got to do the gut microbiome and the vaginal microbiome. If you've got a beautiful embryo there waiting for you, you've got to work on the environment and the vaginal microbiome beforehand. Don't go ahead and do that transfer without doing that. It's key. And so working on the health of the gut and the vaginal microbiome, a short period of time, 90 days to improve the egg health, we can make massive change.

The longer you have, the better to be able to work on the strong foundation for a healthy pregnancy, healthy child. I know we all feel in a rush right now, but if if you're over 40, we can start feeling a panic. But the well-meaning REI, is going to tell you your AMH is too low.

There's nothing you can do. And it just makes us spiral and worry and full of anxiety. And that's not how our system feels calm to be able to improve the chances of this working. So we're talking about some patterns here. So the egg quality is not measured, it's assumed. The the gut and [00:04:00] the microbiome.

So common clues we see is lifelong constipation, loose stool. So IBS, absorbing all your minerals, constipation, we typically see that along with thyroid issues. Bloating, we shouldn't eat a meal and feel like three months pregnant. Or food reactions all of a sudden you're having a food sensitivity to

some of your favorite foods that you're always eating and all of a sudden you can't eat almonds or having an issue with coconut milk or nuts, they give you a problem. You've got a shellfish allergy, you've got an EpiPen, that's the body's under attack.

And we tend to take those foods out. Obviously if you're anaphylactic, we don't bring them back in. But as we start to calm the immune system and inflammation, you can bring most of the foods back in. If your blood sugar is on a roller coaster, you could be feeling nauseous or shaky. Or hangry maybe you're dealing with heartburn we see people that have GERD or acid reflux.

So we then we see infections being passed back and forth between partners. So with h pylori, which we pass via saliva. [00:05:00] So these are issues around the gut microbiome, which is key. But we don't wanna be just doing one gut test, doing a protocol. This is multifactorial and we need to be able to be able to.

Look at a full protocol, looking at your blood work, looking at your food sensitivities, your genetic side of things, and being able to pull this all together so you can fast track it. Otherwise, you just do piece here, piece there. It doesn't work. You throw up your hands and you give up.

The analogy of digging away for the gold and we give up before the gold on the other side. This case a healthy pregnancy. And so if you've got those issues going on in your gut. And we see parasites, bacterial infections, fungal infections, the health of the gut microbiome that can Im impact the eggs.

You've got inflammation in your body. It's going to raise the immune activation. It's going to disrupt your nutrient absorption, metabolic stress. And then it's the domino piece where the stress has impacted your biomarkers and then that can impact your egg quality. The [00:06:00] mineral depletion, a lot of people are anemic and that can impact the health of the thyroid as well.

We see that connected. So if you're supplementing with iron, maybe it's your gut issue and so the iron and the thyroid connected. We can supplement if you're doing iron infusions . Why is it low? Is there something going on with the gut health?

Mineral depletion. So leg cramps, maybe you've got magnesium deficiency, which 85% of us have this, if you've got eye twitches and cramps and leg cramps. Could be low magnesium. Cracked lips. Nutrient deficiencies, the brittle nails are you absorbing your nutrients? Maybe you're just exhausted, you're dizzy, you got headaches.

With those minerals, are they low? And we boost up your B vitamins. We do see a lot of people that they're not absorbing their B vitamins. They have the MTHFR gene variant. That's when we look at the genetic side of things. You need support with your methylation pathways to be able to absorb the B vitamins.

So eggs need stable minerals for energy production, hormone synthesis, and cell signaling. We will bring in an HTMA. A hair tissue mineral analysis is a [00:07:00] very inexpensive test, but we can look to see your mineral levels, look to see if you have any heavy metal exposure and being able to

boost everything up. We do see this as a theme with low AMH and high FSH, just low minerals. As we start to nourish the body and bring that back online, that's when the hormones come back online. The next pattern would be the blood sugar and metabolic rhythm. So many type A professionals are normal weight but metabolically unstable.

So you get that 3:00 PM crash irritability when you're hungry. I remember driving along, my husband's i'm just going to keep driving. This is wonderful. I'm like, you don't stop the car right now. I'm either going to pass out, throw up, or beat you up. I am hangry. Waking up between 2-4am in the night, is your blood sugar taking a dip, carb cravings, or just give me some carbs.

Brain fog. So if your blood sugar is unstable and on a rollercoaster, that unstable glucose can impact your ovulation and your menstrual cycle. And this is a theme we see it all the time. We [00:08:00] have people do continuous glucose monitors and you can actually see how food will impact your health, and that is key if the blood sugar is on a rollercoaster.

Another pattern we see is the mitochondrial output. So the eggs contain more mitochondria than any cell in the body. And so clues of low output, if you're exhausted, if you're fatigued. Low stress tolerance. Everyone just sets you off and you just feel overly anxious. You've got palpitations, you've got poor sleep, slow wound recovery, or just slow recovery from exercise.

Are things just low for you? The mitochondria going to drive the egg development. It takes 90 days for the eggs to renew themselves. So it's not a quick fix. But in a short period of time. We can make massive change. Using testing, looking at your blood work, reducing inflammation from a food sensitivity from environmental toxin, looking at your thyroid, looking at your blood sugar, addressing the stress, which is the next pattern. We see that HPA axis. Nervous system, so we see people that have a lot of [00:09:00] anxiety and panic and wired, but tired.

Insomnia, like jaw tension, like TMJ should be able to, at one point my jaw was like locked up and the dentist was like you're going to need a mouth guard if you don't just, let this let this release. 'cause it was so tense. When I was diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency, I didn't even think I was stressed.

Of course I was stressed. Tons of stress going on in my life at that point when I was 28. It is to be able to acknowledge where you are. Maybe you got neck pain maybe you need to have a chiro. Things are out of balance . It's bringing in a team.

Sometimes. The chiropractor can help with jaw tension, with neck tension to be able to align that if there's a structural misalignment the perfectionist piece, if you're like, I'm not doing it unless it's perfect. Then that can cause a lot of stress within our body. I did a whole podcast episode on perfectionism.

It is a theme we see with couples that are on the fertility journey and that hyper vigilance, got to check the checker. I don't trust anyone. I got to check this. I got to research it. If [00:10:00] I don't do it, it'll never be done. And then we've piled all this stuff on our shoulders and it's too much for us to take, so we need to hand it off to someone else.

And being able to recognize like that, that we're not trusting, that we're not trusting the process. 'cause deep down we're fearful it'll never work. And so then that signals our body that uhoh, it's not safe to bring in a baby. So we give that over to someone. Part of our team

we have an OB GYN with a functional medicine background. We have functional nutrition practitioners, fertility mindset coaches, putting this all together using functional lab testing. It's multifactorial low AMH, high FSH, poor egg quality, and over 35 in the 40s, being able to work on your health and recognize

the elephant in the room is the stress piece, and we're just flooded with trauma, with emotions, with worry, with anxiety, with impatience, with anger, with feeling stuck while everybody else seemingly moves on. And all this pressure we put on ourselves and that's going to impact our ovulation.[00:11:00]

It's going to impact our immune system, impact our progesterone, our digestion and inflammation often all at the same time. And so when we address these patterns, this can lead to pregnancy even with low AMH because the eggs develop inside an environment and they improve in that environment.

When you improve the environment, you improve the eggs. Your AMH may go up, it may say the same, but the AMH does not predict your ability to get pregnant. And so we do see AMH go up all the time, but we help people as with an AMH as low as a 0.02. ng/mL. None of these outcomes predict whether you can get pregnant.