Senior Infertility Specialist and Director of Renew Healthcare, this is the piece of advice most Indian women hear too late: preparation for pregnancy should begin 90 days before conception, not after, according to Dr Rajeev Agarwal. Most women begin preparing for pregnancy the month they start trying to conceive.
But the egg that eventually leads to that pregnancy began its final stage of development roughly three months earlier — well before a positive test is even possible.
What happens to the egg in the three months before ovulation
An egg’s final maturation — from a developing follicle to one ready for ovulation — takes approximately 90 days. Whatever happens to a woman’s body during that window, from nutrition to sleep to stress levels, shapes the quality of the egg that is eventually released.
“This isn’t marketing language,” Dr. Agarwal says is too often dismissed as normal, when it can point to hormonal imbalances worth investigating before, rather than after, a couple begins trying to conceive. The reasoning is rooted in basic reproductive biology. Agarwal explains. “It’s reproductive physiology. The egg you ovulate this month reflects what your body was doing three months ago. Lifestyle factors matter just as much during this window. Poor sleep and chronic stress disrupt the same hormonal pathways that regulate ovulation, while physical activity has a more nuanced relationship with fertility than most people assume — moderate exercise supports hormonal balance, but excessive, high-intensity training can have the opposite effect, disrupting menstrual cycles rather than protecting them. Menstrual irregularity itself is another signal Dr.
