Kashish Sharma
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Written By: Kashish Sharma | Published : March 10, 2023 6:49 PM IST
Studies have shown that as a woman gets older, her oocytes or eggs are more likely to show a drop in quality.
Women are born with a fertility clock which is ticking away each day. They have a limited birth window and hence the understanding of how her reproductive cycle works is crucial for family planning. Interestingly, a woman develops her eggs right in the womb. The number, however, dramatically falls when they are born. On average, a female is born with one to two million eggs and by the time she hits menopause, she might be left with fewer than 1000 eggs.
The conception of a child in a woman's body is dependent on both the quantity and quality of eggs. Unlike other cells in the body, eggs cannot regenerate. Also, many health conditions can affect the quantity and quality of eggs. Hence, fertility is also individualistic in some sense.
Fertility is clinically a race against time. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG), a female foetus has nearly six to seven million eggs at 20 weeks of pregnancy. The number of eggs dramatically falls and the infant girl is usually born with around one to two million eggs. The cause of this sudden loss is still unclear. Also, not all eggs mature, some oocytes degenerate. Reportedly, there is a loss of 11,000 immature eggs or oocytes each month before puberty.
Though a girl child is born with eggs, she isn't ready for reproduction till she hits puberty. The reason is that eggs alone can't activate her reproductive cycle. It is a hormone-mediated process and begins only when the girl begins her menstruation around 12 or 13 years of age. There could be variations as to when the reproductive cycle begins. Some girls might start with it as early as eight years of age. Girls also lose eggs before they reach puberty. They are left with 300,000-500,000 eggs at puberty.
A woman is most fertile in her mid-20s when they have a 25-30 per cent chance of becoming pregnant. Fertility takes a dip around age 32 when a woman might have a 20 per cent chance of conceiving. A woman has been observed to experience a dramatic loss of cells as she reaches 37 years of age. At this point, she might be left with 25,000 eggs. By the age of 40, a woman's chance of becoming pregnant might drop to as low as 5 per cent. Around menopause, a woman might be left with less than 1000 eggs. Also, as a woman advances in age, her eggs become increasingly resistant to reproductive hormones.
Studies have shown that as a woman gets older, her oocytes or eggs are more likely to show a drop in quality. Older age is also associated with genetic abnormalities in eggs. There are other factors that might affect the quality and quantity of eggs such as conditions like endometriosis, PCOS, obesity, immune disorders and others.
