Egg Quality Egg quality is often blamed as the cause for IVF failure. Improving egg quality gives you a better outcome from subsequent IVF cycles and also contributes to having a healthy pregnancy and baby. One of the reasons that the focus is more on egg quality than sperm quality is that the egg contributes all the mitochondria for the embryo. Mitochondria are tiny organelles in every cell of your body where energy is produced. All the mitochondria in the embryo come from the egg – none come from the sperm. The mitochondria have their own separate DNA. So every embryo (and person) has one set of DNA in their nucleus from their mother and one set from their father and a completely separate DNA in their mitochondria from their mother. When mitochondria produce energy, they also produce free radicals, which tends to damage them in the process. This is the basis of aging.There are specific nutrients that act as antioxidants for the mitochondria and help to protect them from further damage and protect the eggs (and all the other cells) from aging. This is particularly important for women over 40 years of age or younger women who have been or currently are, smokers.