You cannot increase your egg count. You are born with every egg you will ever have, and your body does not produce new ones. But what most people searching this phrase actually want to know is how to make the most of the eggs they have, and that is something you can influence. The real opportunity lies in improving egg quality and maximizing how many eggs mature well during a fertility cycle.
Why Your Egg Count Is Fixed
Unlike sperm, which men produce continuously, eggs are a finite resource set before birth. By the time you start menstruating as a teenager, you’ve already lost millions of them. Even though your body releases only one egg per month during ovulation, it loses thousands of additional eggs each year through a natural process of cell death. Some people are simply born with more eggs than others, and no supplement, food, or treatment can create new ones.
This is why fertility specialists focus on two separate concepts: ovarian reserve (how many eggs remain) and egg quality (how healthy and viable those remaining eggs are). You can’t change the first number, but you have a meaningful window to influence the second.
How Egg Quality Is Measured
The most common way to estimate your remaining egg supply is an Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) blood test. AMH is produced by the small follicles in your ovaries, so higher levels generally signal a larger reserve. Average AMH falls between 1.0 and 3.0 ng/mL, with anything under 1.0 considered low and below 0.4 severely low.
These numbers shift with age. A 25-year-old might have an AMH around 3.0 ng/mL, dropping to roughly 2.5 at 30, 1.5 at 35, 1.0 at 40, and 0.5 by 45. Your doctor may also use an antral follicle count via ultrasound, which physically counts the small follicles visible in your ovaries at the start of a cycle. Together, these tests give a picture of where you stand, but neither one measures egg quality directly.
The 90-Day Window for Egg Quality
Each egg goes through roughly 90 days of development before it’s released at ovulation. During those three months, the egg is especially sensitive to its environment. Nutrition, stress levels, sleep, toxin exposure, and blood flow to the ovaries all shape whether that egg matures into a healthy, viable cell or a compromised one.
This is why fertility specialists recommend making lifestyle and supplement changes at least three months before trying to conceive or starting IVF. Changes you make today won’t affect the egg you ovulate next week, but they will influence the eggs maturing three cycles from now. That lag time can feel frustrating, but it also means you have a real, biologically grounded window to work with.
Supplements That Support Egg Health
CoQ10 is one of the most studied supplements for egg quality. It works by boosting energy production inside the egg’s mitochondria, the tiny power plants that fuel cell division. As eggs age, their mitochondria become less efficient, which is a major reason fertility declines with age. CoQ10 also acts as an antioxidant, neutralizing the damaging molecules that accumulate in aging cells. Typical dosing in clinical settings is 200 mg per day for women undergoing standard IVF and 600 mg per day for those with diminished ovarian reserve, with a general safety ceiling of 1,200 mg per day.
DHEA, a hormone your body naturally produces, has shown promise for women with low ovarian reserve. In one study published in Fertility and Sterility, women supplementing with DHEA saw improvements in AMH levels (a proxy for reserve), and those who became pregnant showed significantly greater improvement than those who didn’t. About 24% of women in the study who reached IVF achieved pregnancy. DHEA is a hormone, not a simple vitamin, so it’s worth discussing with a reproductive endocrinologist before starting it.
Diet and Its Surprising Role
A Mediterranean-style diet, rich in vegetables, whole grains, fish, olive oil, and legumes, is consistently linked to better fertility outcomes, though not in the way you might expect. Studies reviewing couples undergoing IVF found that better adherence to this eating pattern made them 40 to 100% more likely to achieve a clinical pregnancy. Live birth rates were 2.5 times higher in the group that stuck closely to the diet.
Here’s the nuance: the Mediterranean diet did not increase egg numbers or even embryo quality in most studies. One study actually found a 70% poorer ovarian response in women eating this way. Instead, the diet appears to work downstream, improving the uterine lining’s receptivity to an embryo, reducing systemic inflammation, combating oxidative stress, and supporting healthy blood sugar metabolism. So while it won’t give you more eggs, it may significantly improve your chances of a successful pregnancy with the eggs you have.
What Damages Eggs Fastest
Smoking is one of the most clearly documented threats to ovarian reserve. Cigarette smoke contains a cocktail of compounds, including nicotine, cadmium, and a chemical called benzo[a]pyrene, that directly interfere with follicle development. Research shows that smoking accelerates the depletion of ovarian follicles and can trigger menopause earlier than it would otherwise occur. In lab studies, exposure to cigarette smoke compounds delayed follicle development, decreased estrogen output, reduced egg maturation, and lowered follicle survival rates.
Beyond smoking, other environmental exposures warrant attention. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastics (BPA), pesticides, and certain personal care products can interfere with hormonal signaling during that critical 90-day maturation window. Reducing exposure where practical, such as choosing glass food containers, filtering drinking water, and selecting fragrance-free products, removes some of that burden from developing eggs.
Excessive alcohol, chronic sleep deprivation, and high levels of sustained stress also create oxidative damage that can compromise egg quality over time. None of these factors can be perfectly controlled, but addressing the biggest offenders, particularly smoking, gives your remaining eggs the best possible environment to mature.
Medical Options for Maximizing Egg Retrieval
If you’re pursuing IVF and have been told you’re a “poor responder,” meaning your ovaries don’t produce many eggs during stimulation, your doctor may adjust the medication protocol. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends that poor responders consider mild stimulation protocols, which use lower doses of hormones, sometimes combined with oral medications. These approaches cost less than aggressive stimulation and produce comparable pregnancy rates in this group.
Other protocol variations include microdose flare protocols, which use small amounts of a hormone trigger to coax the ovaries into responding, and natural or modified-natural cycles, where doctors work with the one or two eggs your body selects on its own rather than pushing for a large batch. For women with low reserve, the evidence suggests that throwing higher doses of stimulation medication at the problem does not reliably produce more eggs or better outcomes.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection into the ovaries is a newer experimental approach that has generated interest, but clinical trial results remain unpublished. It is not yet an evidence-based treatment.
Putting It All Together
The honest answer to “how to increase egg count” is that you can’t add eggs to your supply. But the number of eggs that mature well, respond to stimulation, and result in a viable pregnancy is something you can shape. Start any supplement or lifestyle changes at least three months before trying to conceive to align with the egg maturation cycle. Prioritize quitting smoking above all other changes if that applies to you. Get your AMH tested so you have a baseline, and talk to a reproductive endocrinologist about protocols tailored to your reserve level if you’re considering IVF. The eggs you have left are the ones worth investing in.