Who is the author of It Starts with the Egg?

The author of It Starts with the Egg is Rebecca Fett.

Health & Nutrition

It Starts with the Egg Book Summary - It Starts with the Egg Book explained in key points

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It Starts with the Egg summary

Name: It Starts with the Egg
Rating: 4.5 (60 reviews)
Author: Rebecca Fett

Rebecca Fett

How the Science of Egg Quality Can Help You Get Pregnant Naturally, Prevent Miscarriage, and Improve Your Odds in IVF

4.5 (60 ratings)

19 mins

Brief summary

It Starts with the Egg by Rebecca Fett empowers women to optimize their egg quality to improve fertility outcomes. The book provides research-backed advice on how to reduce exposure to toxins and improve nutrition to increase the odds of a healthy pregnancy.

Topics

Family Planning Women's Health & Maternity Diet Fertility

Table of Contents

It Starts with the Egg
Summary of 5 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Science-backed methods to boost fertility.

Do you know how babies are made?

Yes, sure, we all know the basics. Babies happen when a healthy sperm meets a healthy egg. But for many people – couples facing fertility challenges, nonheterosexual families, single people who are ready for children of their own – facilitating that introduction between sperm and egg is a process full of challenges. Suddenly, babymaking can start to feel far from simple.

All kinds of complex health and lifestyle factors play into your chances of conceiving and carrying a healthy baby to term. Whether you’re starting out on your fertility journey, about to embark on or in the midst of fertility treatments such as IUI and IVF, or looking into other reproductive options like donor sperm, egg freezing, or surrogacy, taking steps to improve egg quality can significantly boost your odds of conceiving.

In this Blink to Rebecca Fett’s It Starts with the Egg, we’ll cover why egg quality is such a critical factor in conception, and how you can make simple, effective changes to enhance it. But remember that fertility is complex and affected by a range of factors – so it’s important to supplement the general health advice shared in this Blink with tailored advice from a medical professional.

Egg quality is crucial for a successful pregnancy.

Before we begin, a heads-up – for the sake of clarity, over the course of this Blink, we’ll be talking directly to a hypothetical person who wants to improve their egg quality. But if you’re a partner or potential donor parents following along as well, this information is equally relevant to you – so don’t go anywhere!

Okay, let’s talk eggs. If you’ve been trying for a baby for a while, you’ll know that timing is crucial. You need to have sex in the fertile window around ovulation – only a few days every month – or your chances of conceiving are zero. Most fertility advice focuses on helping you identify and maximize that window.

Unfortunately, when it comes to conception, the math isn’t always as simple as we’d like it to be. Sperm plus egg doesn’t necessarily equal baby. Once an egg is fertilized by a sperm it becomes an embryo. Roughly a third of fertilized embryos survive to become babies. Higher-quality eggs are more likely to survive past the embryo stage.

So if you’re struggling to conceive, timing sex right is only part of the picture. Taking steps to optimize egg quality is equally, if not more, crucial.

What do we mean by a high-quality egg? Well, it should have – quite literally – good genes. Before maturation, the egg is known as an oocyte, and it contains 46 chromosomes – long molecules that carry genetic information. Forty-six is kind of a magic number – every human cell contains 46 chromosomes. During meiosis – the name given to the egg’s maturation process – these 46 chromosomes consolidate into 23 chromosomes. The sperm supplies the other 23, to give your embryo its unique genetic makeup. The thing is, not every egg comes through meiosis with the correct number of chromosomes. Chromosomally abnormal eggs are known as aneuploid eggs. Even a perfectly healthy, fertile woman will have cycles that produce aneuploid eggs. These eggs usually fail to fertilize. If an aneuploid egg does fertilize, it usually doesn’t survive, and a miscarriage results. Forty-one percent of miscarriages are the result of chromosomal abnormalities.

So, is it really possible to enhance egg quality?

A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever produce in her life – egg quantity is a fixed deal. And for a long time, scientists thought the same about egg quality. The conventional wisdom was that aneuploid eggs were the result of accumulated damage to the egg related to the aging process. In other words, as a woman gets older, her egg quality declines. It’s true that age impacts egg quality. But we’re now starting to understand that chromosomal damage is likely to occur during meiosis. Any errors that occur during this process can result in missing – or extra – chromosomes. Just what we don’t want. But the good news is that meiosis presents us with a window of opportunity, where we can actually influence egg quality. We can do this specifically by supporting the egg’s mitochondria. These are the cell structures that convert fuel sources into cellular energy – that’s the same cellular energy that powers the demanding process of meiosis. Supercharging the egg’s mitochondria means supporting meiosis and boosting your chances of producing a chromosomally normal egg. We’ll find out how to do that in the next section.

Simple supplements can dramatically boost your egg quality.

TTC, IVF, hCG – fertility talk is filled with acronyms! So here’s another one to add to the mix: CoQ10, short for Coenzyme Q10.

This little coenzyme is found in nearly every cell of the human body – including the egg. It performs an important function – it’s kind of a go-between, transferring electrons between other molecules within the cell. As such, it’s a key player in the egg’s mitochondria – the energy structures that power the egg’s development. Increasingly, research suggests that poor mitochondrial function is a key factor in age-related infertility: as we age, mitochondrial function declines. Poor mitochondrial function is also thought to underpin other fertility issues such as premature ovarian failure.

Avoid certain toxins to enhance your fertility.

As well as boosting your egg quality by incorporating supplements like CoQ10 and folate, it’s also crucial to protect your eggs from external toxins that may cause them damage. In particular, the chemical bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA.

In 1998, at a university lab in Ohio, Dr. Patricia Hunt noticed something disturbing. Hunt and her team were studying the egg quality of mice. Typically, only 1 to 2 percent of the eggs she looked at exhibited any chromosomal abnormalities. But in August of that year, there was a dramatic spike – now, 40 percent of the mouse eggs were displaying chromosomal errors. What caused this sudden change? Well, testing eventually showed that after the plastic cages the mice were kept in and their water bottles had been washed with detergent, they’d begun leaking BPA. Once they’d all been replaced, the mouse egg quality gradually stabilized.

Eat your way to better quality eggs.

A healthy diet can boost fertility. But there’s a little more to it than that. Understanding the science behind egg quality can help you make targeted dietary changes specifically designed to boost your chances of successful conception and a healthy pregnancy.

The first thing to understand is how blood sugar levels can influence reproductive health. Lots of food contains glucose. When glucose is released slowly and steadily into the bloodstream that’s not a problem. But sugary or highly processed foods contain glucose that breaks down quickly and floods the bloodstream all at once. As a result, the pancreas produces high levels of insulin, a hormone that directs the body’s cells to store or convert glucose to fat. When that happens too often, cells become less receptive to insulin’s message; the pancreas has to produce even more insulin; and the body’s hormones become dysregulated, creating potential fertility challenges. Specifically, this dysregulation can both impact the frequency of ovulation and impair mitochondrial function within the egg. In fact, a Danish study showed that women with blood sugar levels that, while elevated, still fell within a normal range, were only half as likely to fall pregnant within a six-month period as women with low blood sugar levels.

Final Summary

Egg quality is a key factor in falling pregnant and staying pregnant. And the good news is that simple lifestyle changes really can boost egg quality, no matter your age or fertility diagnosis. Adding targeted supplements, avoiding certain toxins, and eating well can make all the difference to your eggs.

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What is It Starts with the Egg about?

It Starts with the Egg (2014) demystifies the science behind egg quality and how it impacts outcomes for fertility and pregnancy. In bringing together a range of reputable studies, it offers evidence-based advice on how to make simple lifestyle changes that will improve egg quality and optimize fertility.

It Starts with the Egg Review

It Starts with the Egg (2014) is a valuable resource for anyone struggling with fertility issues. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Provides evidence-based strategies backed by scientific research, giving readers practical methods to improve fertility and increase chances of conception.
Dives deep into the impact of environmental toxins and lifestyle factors on fertility, making it a comprehensive guide for those looking to optimize their reproductive health.
Offers a solutions-oriented approach to fertility issues, guiding readers through various treatment options and empowering them to take control of their reproductive journey.

Who should read It Starts with the Egg?

Prospective parents thinking about trying for a baby
Couples who’ve been trying for months without a positive pregnancy test
Anyone facing fertility challenges

About the Author

Rebecca Fett is a qualified molecular biotechnologist and biochemist. As a biotechnology patent attorney, she gained deep expertise in collating and analyzing medical data. After undergoing IVF, she turned her expertise toward helping others understand the complex science of fertility.

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