How Does Age Affect Egg Quality and What Can You Do About It?

Medically Reviewed by Dr. Silvana Chedid on September 1, 2026

Age affects egg quality by increasing the share of eggs with chromosomal irregularities over time, a shift that becomes more pronounced after your early 30s and again after 37. You cannot reverse that process, but you can optimize the conditions around whatever eggs you have and, when it makes sense, consider donor eggs or preservation earlier rather than later.

At Chedid Grieco, the patients who come to us with questions about age and egg quality span a wide range. Some are in their early 30s and planning ahead. Others arrive in their late 30s or 40s, and a sense of time pressure is usually already part of what they are bringing into the appointment. Consultations happen at our Miami office and treatment takes place at our FDA- and NYDH-licensed facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

What We See Happening to Reserve and Quality Over Time

Women are born with the full set of eggs they will ever have, somewhere around one to two million at birth. By puberty, that number has already dropped to roughly 300,000, and the attrition continues from there. Research summarized by the National Library of Medicine describes the decline as fairly steady until around age 32, after which the rate of loss accelerates, and accelerates again after 37. What we see in practice tracks that pattern: by the mid-30s, most patients are dealing with both fewer eggs and a higher share that carry chromosomal irregularities.

The quality issue tends to be the more consequential of the two, and this surprises patients who have been focused primarily on reserve numbers. The longer eggs sit in the ovaries before ovulation, the more opportunity there is for accumulated DNA damage, which raises the rate of errors when the cell goes through division. The outcomes we see from those errors are mostly either fertilization that does not complete, or embryos that show chromosomal concerns when we test them.

What New Research Reveals About Ovarian Aging

For decades, egg quality and quantity were treated as the whole explanation for declining fertility with age. A 2025 study from UC San Francisco, published in the journal Science, found that the tissue surrounding the eggs, including supporting cells and nerve networks within the ovary, changes with age in ways that affect how eggs mature and how quickly fertility declines. The researchers observed that these supporting structures become denser and more active over time, and that disrupting them in animal models changed how many eggs began maturing at all. The practical takeaway for patients is that ovarian aging involves more than the egg cell alone, which is part of why we assess reserve and quality together rather than relying on a single number.

How We Test for Egg Quality and Ovarian Reserve

We rely on a combination of tests rather than any single result. AMH and FSH levels give us a hormonal picture of ovarian reserve, and a pelvic ultrasound with an antral follicle count gives us a direct look at how many resting follicles are visible at a given point in your cycle. None of these tests measure chromosomal quality directly, which is why age remains the most reliable single indicator we have for that specific risk, but together they help us build a realistic picture of what a treatment cycle is likely to look like for you specifically.

How We Factor Age Into Treatment

We see the effect of age across every stage of assisted reproduction. Patients in their late 20s or early 30s respond more readily to stimulation and tend to retrieve more eggs per retrieval, which also fertilize at higher rates. The shift becomes more apparent after 35. In the 35 to 37 range, own-egg cycles generally still produce results we can work with. After 40, we see more significant drops, and we go through those numbers directly with patients rather than softening them.

Conditions such as endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome can compound what age alone is already doing to reserve or quality, so we factor in your full history rather than treating age as the only variable. We also ask about lifestyle factors routinely: smoking is tied to faster depletion of ovarian reserve, and significant weight changes in either direction disrupt the hormonal environment in ways that show up in how patients respond to treatment. Adjusting these before a cycle has made a difference in cases we have handled often enough to be worth raising. Patients specifically weighing how age affects in vitro maturation success rates can find a closer look at that comparison in our IVM-specific guide.

What We Discuss on Nutrition and Supplements

We cannot undo what aging does to eggs, but we work with patients on optimizing the conditions around whatever eggs they have. On the nutrition side, diets high in antioxidant-rich foods come up regularly in these conversations because the evidence behind them for protecting eggs from oxidative damage is solid enough to act on. In supplement conversations, a handful of options come up more often than others:

• Coenzyme Q10, which comes up most often because of its role in mitochondrial function within the egg.
• Vitamin D, worth checking and correcting when low, since deficiency turns up frequently in this patient group.
• Folate, relevant regardless of what else a patient is already taking, given its role in DNA synthesis.

We consistently advise patients to bring their supplement list to us before starting anything new, because there are real contraindications at specific points in treatment that matter. The basics also make a difference: patients who maintain consistent sleep and regular physical activity tend to show more stable hormone levels when we run labs.

When Donor Eggs Enter the Conversation

We discuss egg donation when diminished ovarian reserve or significantly compromised quality makes a successful cycle with a patient’s own eggs unlikely. The chromosomal profile of donor eggs is tied to the donor’s age at retrieval, not to how old the recipient is, which is why success rates with donor eggs stay more consistent across a wider range of recipient ages, including patients for whom own-egg cycles have already shown diminishing returns.

What preimplantation genetic diagnosis adds is a selection layer before transfer. Rather than proceeding without chromosomal information, we choose embryos that have tested accurately. For older patients specifically, where a higher proportion of embryos tend to show chromosomal errors and where each cycle represents a significant commitment, the difference between selecting in versus transferring without that information can meaningfully affect outcomes.

How We Handle Preservation Timing

Preservation timing comes into the consultation even when a patient has not arrived asking about it. For patients who are not ready for active treatment yet, we would rather raise the question early enough that the answer is still clearly favorable, because that window closes earlier than most people expect. We go through timing concretely based on where you actually are, not just as a general case for why freezing is worth considering.

Chedid Grieco has practiced reproductive medicine across both the Brazilian and American regulatory frameworks for more than 30 years, and Dr. Silvana Chedid personally introduced ICSI to Brazil, a technique that remains central to how we handle egg quality concerns in the lab. Whether you are exploring fertility tourism as a path to more affordable treatment, or you are just beginning to understand your options, our team can give you a direct picture of where you stand. Contact us to schedule your consultation in Miami.

Frequently Asked Questions About Age and Egg Quality