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Thanks atomic! I didn't think just the increase of protein would be enough to help the egg quality. When you start to Google you see soooooo many things...i saw coq10, inositol...i even saw some new research about women with pcos age and testosterone decreases too much and that is what's causing poor egg quality. Google can so be the devil at times!!! So much conflicting info that can drive people insane!
Fantastic idea with the vitamins. Definitely going to try that.
I now get the SMEP...and I think we will try the eod idea you have with it.
Thanks thanks and more thanks ! :)
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I know it's so weird but yes just these little teensy switches in macros can make a real difference with egg quality. As u know already PCOS can be really improved just by getting a bit less carbs, a bit more fat/protein even keeping everything else the same. Just read a study that showed even just eliminating one sugary drink a day may make a huge difference in egg quality even when all other things are kept the same.
You can take coq if you want to - I was pretty hopeful about that about 2 years ago and was giving it to lots of people but unfortunately it really did not seem to help and I've moved away from it because it is super expensive.
Inositol I have mixed emotions about. I think it is kind of a cheat version of what you're already doing via diet and when people are adding it onto diet (instead of instead of making diet changes) it has seemed to prevent conception.
Ooh that sounds like an intriguing study, I'll have to track that down.
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I know it's so weird but yes just these little teensy switches in macros can make a real difference with egg quality. As u know already PCOS can be really improved just by getting a bit less carbs, a bit more fat/protein even keeping everything else the same. Just read a study that showed even just eliminating one sugary drink a day may make a huge difference in egg quality even when all other things are kept the same.
You can take coq if you want to - I was pretty hopeful about that about 2 years ago and was giving it to lots of people but unfortunately it really did not seem to help and I've moved away from it because it is super expensive.
Inositol I have mixed emotions about. I think it is kind of a cheat version of what you're already doing via diet and when people are adding it onto diet (instead of instead of making diet changes) it has seemed to prevent conception.
Ooh that sounds like an intriguing study, I'll have to track that down.
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Hey atomic, I thought I replied yesterday...not sure what happened.
These are the sites I visited: Androgen | HealthyWomen
https://www.centerforhumanreprod.com...-implications/
The first link got me wondering if that's the reason my periods are now regular and i have such a low sex drive since my second son (sex drive was through the roof before LOL).
Of course I am a random crazy googler so I have no idea if there's any truth to what is mentioned in those links...if you get a chance to check it out would love to hear your thoughts.
Personally, I do think my issue may just be to get my diet within the proper limits. I think I worry too much about the carbs and it causes me to eat less than I should be eating.
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I think that it's all very speculative and while I'm intrigued by the concept I'm not ready to sign off on it. But I will say this - over the last few years I have seen a trend where women with PCO-tendencies have gone onto these super restrictive diets and taken lots of herbs to "lower testosterone" then still had a very hard time getting pregnant (seemingly harder than they'd had in the first place, in many cases!). So this is definite evidence to me about not going onto myoinositol...may lower things even further.
I believe the way PCOS works is that you can change your diet and exercise OR you can do herbs and stuff. Some people don't change their diet/exercise (or they have a lot of weight to spare to start out with) and then adding the herbs for them can maybe work for them. But I think diet and exercise is by far the best way to correct PCO-tendencies, and when people are doing BOTH diet/exercise and the herbs then it seems to be entirely possible to go too far in the other direction - now whether that's down to lower testosterone and egg quality as this theory says or what I suspect, which is by lowering estrogen so far that it basically renders us subfertile - either way it I believe this to be a very real risk of going overboard treating PCOS.
The good news is that it's the same fix, since testosterone and estrogen are made of the same stuff. It's the good old, full fat dairy daily (even 2x a day) 4-6 eggs a week, salmon if you like it, red meat if you don't (and if you're ready to take it this far, try adding in salmon 1x and red meat 1x a week) And do this at the same time as you boost calories overall (if you need to) via small amounts of whole grains, fruits, and veg and get more fat (50-60 g) from primarily vegetable sources like olive oil and also drop fiber at the same time if you haven't already. This will give your body the raw materials it needs to keep making testosterone, estrogen, progesterone without aggravating any underlying PCO-tendencies.
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This post made me smile! Thank you SO much.
Another egg quality question for you - How long does it take for the diet (salmon etc) to improve egg quality? Should I give it 3 months and then try again?
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It will immediately improve your ability to get and stay pregnant by boosting estrogen and progesterone. We do not even know that your issue is egg quality and so I do not want you to hold off on trying for some amount of time thinking "this is how long I need to improve my eggs" because for all we know, we'd miss out on Goldie the Golden Egg by doing that!
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thanks atomic! another question (hope it's not too much of a crystal ball question). I have femara for 2 more cycles. i honestly panicked a bit and was too anxious this cycle so I didn't take it. I felt like after the second month on femara, my temps didn't drop as much as they ALWAYS do for pre O and so the rise in temp post O wasn't as significant. i don't know if any of that has any bearing on my fertility but it all made me panic about wasting the femara lol
so i decided to take this month off to see if my temps "normalize" and see how i feel next cycle.
i agree with your advice on not holding out on trying but on the other hand i feel so nervous that i would be wasting the femara ...i think i'm just looking for some advice from someone who is way more experienced with all of this TTC stuff.
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It's normal to see changes in temps on Femara because it affects estrogen levels. This is how the Femara works for fertility, and likely how it sways, so I do urge you to not let changes in temps prevent you from using it. In fact many docs will tell people not to temp while on it because it will be so much harder to see the variations in temp before and after O.
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Ohhhhhhhhhhh!!! As always, thanks so much atomic!!! It would be awesome if by some miracle I conceive this cycle but if I don't, I'll take the femara next cycle. :pray:
