Now Easter is over, it is time to move the focus from chocolate eggs, to your own egg health!
Below are a few tips and tricks to improve your egg health. This is not something to just consider when you are starting to try for a baby — by looking after your egg health sooner rather than later, you will genuinely reap the benefits later on!
ScreenMe was created with the exact mission to help women understand their own bodies and thus be empowered to take back control of their own health. Scroll down to see how we can help you through — Fertility packages, Online consultations, Nutrition packages, and more!
Take a moment to breathe…
Thinking about egg health, fertility, and general health can be a scary topic, with so many confusing articles, sources, believes and more. So ScreenMe’s first tip is not to put a huge amount of pressure on yourself to change your entire lifestyle drastically.
TOP TIPS:
- One easter egg won’t reverse your whole journey
- It is so important to practice balance in your life. There will be days where you don’t hit your targets, feel a bit rubbish or eat a load of junk food. It is more important how you respond to this, rather than the actual deviations themselves. Being kind to yourself, and understanding that health can be difficult to maintain is so important. So, don’t beat yourself up about the small things — just focus on the journey as a whole.
- Some people find is easier to stick roughly to a 80/20 routine, whereby you are less strict for 20% of the time, but aim to follow your routine for 80% of the time. This is a great way to enforce accepting balance in to your life,
- Take time to yourself
- In such a fast-paced world, it is easy to become fully consumed with certain aspects of life such as work, meeting friends, education, etc. This can raise stress levels in the body, which will impact all aspects of your health including brain function, fertility, weight management, and more! Make sure to set aside time where you can fully unwind. Do an activity that gives you genuine release and makes you feel good about yourself. This differs for different people, but some positive options include: yoga, meditation, reading, painting, playing an instrument…
- Try to not count ‘going on your phone’ as this time, unless you are doing that makes you feel genuinely good. While social media can be great, it is often relied on for validation and can not always be the most positive influence.
Eat foods that boost your egg health
Your whole body, including your eggs will reap the benefits if you maintain a healthy diet. Some general tips include:
TO DO
- Eat the rainbow
- Try to fit as many colours in to your diet each day.
- This increases the variety of micronutrients you are giving to your body.
- Load up on veggies
- Aim for as many portions of vegetables as you can. Set a target of 5-7 and see how manageable this is.
- Fruit is also super important, but be careful not to rely on lots of juices or dried fruits, as these can be high in sugar.
- Balanced meals
- Make sure each of your meals are balanced in order to avoid massive blood sugar spikes.
- Include: a protein, fibre, a healthy fat, and plenty of veggies/fruit, with as many of your meals as possible.
TO AVOID
- Processed foods
- in general, anything with a lot of ingredients which you are unsure of, is something to avoid
- Salt & sugar intake
- Sometimes we don’t realise that what we are putting in our body contains high levels of salt and/or sugar.Check the label, particularly of some of your favourite snacks
- If you are struggling — use the NHS App, which scans barcodes of foods, and will show the sugar & salt content, as well as giving it a rating
Get a good night’s sleep
Sleep is so key to regulating your bodily functions, particularly in repair and rebuilding. So making sure you get enough good quality each night is really important.
Melatonin is also secreted when you sleep. This is a vital hormone in the reproductive system, facilitating the development of healthy eggs and the development of embryos.
TOP TIPS
- Take Magnesium before you sleep
- Magnesium has been shown to help with sleep quality and quantity. Taking a simple supplement before bed each night is an easy way to reach your sleep goals.
- Avoid blue light before bed
- Blue light helps to regulate your sleep patterns (circadian rhythm). Naturally, visible light contains blue light, and this helps to boost alertness and wake us up in the morning. However, exposure to blue light before you try to sleep can therefore serve to wake you up and disrupt this pattern. Many electronic devices give off this blue light — so going on your phone just before bed ‘to wind down’, can actually have the opposite effect.
- What you can do:
- You can activate ‘sleep modes’ on many mobile devices to limit your exposure.
- Turn off a few lights in your home as you start o wind down for the evening.
- Wear blue light glasses when working or on your devices late.
- Watch your caffeine
- Caffeine has a half-life of 5 hours — this means that it takes around 5 hours for caffeine to wear off. Therefore, you should avoid caffeine in the afternoon.If you feel like you need or want a hot drink — then opt for a decaffeinated drink, or choose a herbal tea (peppermint is great for actually helping you to sleep instead).
- Remember caffeine isn’t just in coffee. Drinks including many fizzy drinks and energy drinks contain high levels of caffeine, which you may not realise.
- Avoid alcohol
- Even a small amount of alcohol disrupts your sleep, so minimising alcohol intake will improve your sleep quality as well as multiple other benefits.
Exercise for your body
Learning how to exercise in a way that is right for your and your body is essential to overall health as well as egg health.
TOP TIPS:
- Take up yoga
- Yoga is brilliant for improving blood flow, which improves egg health, muscle function, lymphatic drainage and so much more.
- This form of exercise is not too stressful on your body, and also a great way to reconnect the mind and body, taking half or hour or so out of your day to stop and listen to yourself.
- Walking is key
- Walking is another low-impact form of exercise that is an amazing way to hit your daily movement goals, sometimes without even realising!
Supplements
Supplements can be a real thing to consider when trying to maintain or boost egg health. Some are great for general health regardless, whereas some are more fertility focused. We highly recommend speaking to a healthcare professional prior to taking any supplementation. Fancy a chat with one of ScreenMe’s experts? Book a consultation below.
TOP TIPS
- Omega-3
- Brilliant for general health, particularly if you are not a fish or nut fan. Taking one of these each day is great for restoring and repair functions, your immune system, as well as antioxidants to improve egg health.
- Coenzyme Q10
- Is a strong antioxidant, helping the body to fight off free radicals (which damage cells in the body). This supplement is often recommended to support fertility.
Should I freeze my eggs?
While egg health varies hugely between individuals, it is strongly associated with your chronological age. Therefore, this may be something you want to consider, if you are not yet ready for children or are unsure. For more details on this — check out our blog post, ’10 questions about egg freezing’.
Egg freezing can be a difficult, confusing and sensitive topic — so if you wish to speak to one of ScreenMe’s experts, click below.
Get help with ScreenMe
ScreenMe is always here to help you navigate your individual journey, so here are just some of the ways in which we help you help yourself —
- Fertility packages
- Our bespoke made fertility packages are. A brilliant insight in to your reproductive health not just currently, but also in the future. Therefore, if you are curious about your fertility, are struggling to get pregnant or want to maximise your chances of success — then head over to our fertility page.
- ScreenMe’s experts help you to tailor your lifestyle, supplements, nutrition and more to optimise your egg health, maximise your fertility, and optimise your chances of success.
- These include:
- Tailored recommendations — including supplements, diet, products & more
- Bespoke nutritional and lifestyle plan
- Unsure what is right for you? Book an online consultation with one of our experts below!
Healthier bodies more often than not produce healthier eggs — so by taking back control of your own health, you can maximise your chances of producing healthier eggs not just now, but in to the future!
