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Egg quality is vitally important for a successful pregnancy — whether that’s natural or through IVF. Research has shown poor egg quality is strongly associated with chromosome abnormalities, which in turn impacts embryo quality. It is also the main cause for embryo arrest, IVF implant failure, and increased miscarriage risk for older women. It is important to note though that chromosome issues are a subset of egg quality issues. As we see later on this page, egg quality is heavily dependent on hormones.
More and more women are considering freezing their eggs too. An egg freezing clinic will determine the likely quantity of one’s eggs, and the guidance on how to proceed, by looking at AMH (we can help with arranging an AMH test.) Needless to say, regardless of procedural protocol, one would wish to freeze the highest quality eggs possible.
Gynaecologists and IVF clinics tend to think of egg quality decline as part of an irreversible ageing process that can’t be improved. Our work shows this is not necessarily the case.
The most important story about an egg’s journey from birth to maturity is often not fully told. It takes up to a full year for an egg to grow from a follicle in its resting state to being able to be released.
Follicles are selected from the pool of resting follicles almost a year before ovulation. About 5 months before ovulation, a follicle is chosen to become a primary follicle. A month later, it reaches its secondary stage, and approximately 65 days before ovulation, the follicle cycles through the pre-antral and antral phase. Over the course of these 5 months, the follicle quadruples in size and goes through many stages of proliferation.
During this period, before the follicle is signalled by follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) from the pituitary gland, key hormones prepare it to be healthy and responsive. The follicle only becomes dominant during the last 2–3 weeks through the ovary. During the selection phase, lasting ten days, the follicle activates mechanisms to make itself responsive to FSH. The follicle grows to twice its size, rises to the surface to the ovary and becomes oestrogen-producing.
It fulfils its major purpose and releases its egg, which leaves the ovary and travels down the fallopian tube, seeking its chance to become fertilised. The follicle ends its life cycle by turning into an endocrine gland, called the corpus luteum, which secretes the progesterone needed to maintain the pregnancy if the egg gets fertilised.
The intricate hormonal map that an egg has to navigate strongly suggests that when there is a hormonal imbalance, the chances of a good quality egg maturing would likely be compromised.
Age is often cited as a major factor for egg quality. The older one is, the poorer the egg quality. While this is generally true, age is not a disease. For example, while old age is associated with dementia, it is not the cause of dementia, rather, brain degeneration is.
By the same token, in the case of fertility in woman, while older age is associated with poorer egg quality, it is not the cause of poor egg quality, the changing hormonal system is.
An egg grows in an antral follicle into a mature egg in its dominant follicle. When the cycle is going well, the egg and follicle will function properly.
Put simply, FSH stimulates a cycle to begin, LH surges along with Oestradiol surging brings on an ovulation around day 13, progesterone thickens the lining of the uterus post ovulation in preparation for the reception of an embryo. When this process is disrupted, egg quality will be adversely affected.
Irregular periods or missing periods are clear signs for poor egg quality. The reason for irregular and missing periods are nearly always hormonal imbalance.
If you’re unsure about the quality of your eggs, we can help arrange egg quality tests which consist of 5 key hormones to be carried out on day 2,3 4 or 5 of a period.
We at TCM Healthcare specialise in improving egg quality by improving hormones, thereby helping follicle development and egg quality. Our work has been testified by multiple reviews form women many of whom went for cycles of IVF only to discover later that their hormonal imbalance were not detected or addressed.
Read more on our blog page.
Our approach focusses on using natural herbal remedies and acupuncture to strengthen the reproductive system and general health, bringing the hormones into balance and ensure a regular period. We do not prescribe any synthetic hormones. Once hormonal balance is achieved and the period regulated, ovulation is likely to occur and egg quality will improve, where natural pregnancy results. We primarily use bespoke herbal remedies, but will use acupuncture if the situation warrants it.
Patients bring us their test results and medical record. We do a first consultation lasting 30 to 40 minutes, in which we do non-invasive and pain-free Chinese medical diagnostic procedures, in order to understand your particular condition and circumstances thoroughly.
Our specialist prescribes a unique herbal formula, usually consisting of around 20 kinds of herbs, from which you will make drinks and consume twice a day for 18 days in a month.
A month after the first consultation, you will be done with the first round of herbal remedy. We do a second consultation, lasting 30 minutes, doing another diagnostic procedure to see how well you’ve responded to the treatment. Another prescription will be written.
This monthly cycle will repeat 3 or 4 times before you are asked to have another AMH test carried out. Most patients see significant improvements. They also report their periods are now much more regular, which increases the chance of a successful IVF cycle (for instance, a higher dosage of stimulating hormone can be used). They then pursue a number of options, including working with us for longer to achieve natural pregnancy, or combining our treatment with IVF — we work some of the best IVF clinicians, who can offer the best of both worlds to our patients.
The fees come to about £480 to £530 a month on average. Given our success rate, the fees of our treatment programme compares very favourably with IVF — all 3 courses (9 months) of our treatment comes out to be around £4,500 whereas the minimum all-inclusive fee for one IVF cycle stands at £6,000.
Once a month. Most patients come from 3 to 9 months. Some combine our treatment with further IVF cycles.
A traditional Chinese medical consultation involves the following steps.
The practitioner may scrutinise your complexion, eyes, tongue, and movements to gain insight into how your organs are functioning. The tongue is a particularly important source of information, and its colour, body, coating, and moisture will all be taken into account.
The practitioner assesses the patient’s energy and general condition by taking into account your body heat, odour, skin sensitivity, and uses other senses to gain an insight into the your condition.
To gain a full picture, the practitioner will ask detailed questions about your complaint and your medical history. They will want to find out whether your problems vary at all according to the time of year and your diet, feelings or emotions.
This can provide a highly sensitive and detailed picture of your general health. The practitioner will take a number of different ‘pulses’ using three fingers put on the wrist of each hand of the patient. This enables him to gain further information about the quality and functioning of the five major organs. The practitioner will take account of your general health and strength, as well as all of your symptoms, whether they seem to you to be connected or not. This will be the basis for deciding on the best treatment.
Monthly consultations are required to gauge your progress. The prescriptions will be devised accordingly — for treating a changing condition, a fixed single herb or formula is unlikely to be effective over time.
Patients want to know how long they need to see us for. We say after 3 months of treatment, we will review progress, retesting hormones and check subjective experience, such as period cycle regularity and sexual interest. If they are at normal levels, we discharge the patients.
If they are better but still need further improvement, patients may need second course of treatment at the same or less intensity.
Typically, women see us for 3 courses of treatment, ie 9 months total.
The point is that the way we treat patients means they should not rely on our treatment for too long. Their improved health and function should stay with them if they look after their health.
We have just launched a second opinion service where you can send us your hormone test results, sperm test results and other results. Consultations will be done on the phone and it will not be a face-to-face medical consultation.
Since we work with IUI, IVF, ICSI, egg and sperm freezing specialists, we can explore a full range of options with you prior to your committing to a course of actions that may be best for you. There is no charge for this service.
We offer this service in good faith based on our clinical experience and our work with partner agencies such as IVF specialists. We do not accept any liability and we will urge you to triangulate opinions given with your own doctors before you decide what may be best for your circumstance.
Call us any time on 0207 096 0283 or fill out our enquiry form.
We would like to see the following test results (less than 2 months old):
If you have not done them yet, we can arrange them for you. Results come out in 1–3 days.
A booking fee of £100 (refunded when you attend) will be processed at booking.
Late cancellation fee £50
We appreciate that you might not be well or have urgent matters to attend. As a result you may have to postpone the appointment. We would like to have at least 24 hours' advance notice. A late cancellation fee of £50 is payable if advance notice is not given.
Yes. No medical system is foolproof and medical practitioners, however good, are not omnipotent. As great as our success rates are, they are not 100%. There are times patients do not respond to our treatments despite our best efforts.
Delayed improvements are possible when patients rest a little. However, even with rest, patients may still not respond well. Fortunately, these cases are in the minority. We minimise the number of these cases by trying to understand our patients’ conditions as much as possible before taking them on. We minimise time and financial commitments from patients by insisting they have hormone or sperm test results prior to treatment, and to get retested after 3 months — following our evidence-based approach.
At TCM Healthcare, we will always have your best interests in mind and we will do our best.
