IVF review with Doc - Poor egg quality

I had expected a quick 5-minute session with my IVF doctor, which was the usual length of our visits with him.  It isn't that he doesn't care, it is just that time is a very rare gem that he can only sparingly provide to his patients.  As it was a Saturday and his appointments for the morning had overrun past the usual working hours, I was already prepared that it was going to be a 2-minute session.

But we had a surprisingly long session.  Humans are, by nature, a very instinctive breed of creatures - we can never guess when happiness will fall upon us, but we can always sense when sadness is round the corner.

And when your doctor speaks in a nice and cautious tone, it usually bodes bad news.  So here it goes: I had just experienced a biochemical pregnancy during my 1st IVF where the embryo had implanted but did not grow or implant further.  This is usually a result of poor egg quality. And so my questions starts:

• Can we improve egg quality? - Medically, no.  Poor egg quality is a common medical condition in patients with PCOS and there is nothing scientifically proven to help egg quality.  Doc suggested including growth hormones in the next IVF cycle, but the results vary according to individuals.  At best, growth hormones would offer us a ray of hope; something we could try but with no guarantees. 
• Can royal jelly and coq10 help? - Medically, no. There is no evidence to support claims that these health supplements improve egg quality.  It is the same case as having brazil nuts to aid implantation.  But people do try them because there is no harm in trying.
• I had early bleeding (from day 9).  Can this be prevented? - No.  The progesterone support provided is usually sufficient.  Any additional support will not help the embryo to grow better or faster.  If bleeding occurs, the body is showing signs that the embryo is not of good quality and is trying to expel it from the body.
• Can I prevent OHSS? - No.  If I had OHSS in my first cycle, it is very likely that I will have OHSS during the next cycle.  If I really want to avoid OHSS, I could consider reducing my dosage (which is already quite low), but it results in less eggs.  With lesser eggs and my poor egg quality, I may end up with no good embryos.
• Would having isotonic drinks and eating egg whites reduce the OHSS symptoms? - No.  OHSS cannot be treated, neither can the symptoms be reduced.  The only treatment is time - the body will eventually flush the fluids out of the body.  Drinking isotonic drinks or increasing protein level are not meant to help the symptoms, rather they are needed to replace the electrolytes and protein lost because of the OHSS.   
• So there is nothing I can do about OHSS? - Itsy bitsy yes (FINALLY!).  With the experience from the first IVF that I had gastric attacks, gastric medicine or panadol could be provided to relieve the pain.  But nothing can be done about feeling bloated, pukey, giddy etc.  

So what is next?  Well, don't be stressed and rest more, relax and have an open mind.  The body needs to recuperate, so there is no need to rush into the next cycle.  Doc says he has seen enough cases where couples do conceive naturally.  He has prescribed me with 3 months of clomid at maximum dose of 3 tablets/day with the next appointment in 3 months' time.  In the meantime, I am going to research on egg quality so keep a look out for more posts on it.