Ovarian Function Explained

How to access Ovarian Tissue Preservation services through ProFam?

Women are born with around 2 million eggs in their ovaries, which reduce in number to about 400,000 when they reach puberty. When a woman ovulates (releases an egg), usually one per month, many eggs develop along with the one that is ovulated but they deteriorate before ovulation (about 10,000 die every month).

Eventually, when a woman approaches her menopause, there are very few eggs left in the ovary, and this brings about the menopausal state. So during a woman’s fertile period all the eggs ovulated will have been in the ovary since before birth.

It is well established that as a woman ages not only do the number of the eggs decline but also their quality; and by ‘quality’ we usually mean the stability of their chromosomes. This is the reason why the chance of Down Syndrome increases with age, for example the chance of an egg carrying the extra chromosome for Down Syndrome at age 32 is 1/725, but at 40 this increases to 1/100. This is also the main reason miscarriage increases with age, from about 12% at 34 to 42% at age 40.

The younger the tissue is frozen the better in terms of egg quality and the longer the menopause can be delayed. Age 25-30 is optimal, but it can be done at any time with expected good results up to 37.

The older you are, especially past 35 but starting at 32, the quality of your eggs declines, with increasing risk of chromosomal abnormality in many of the eggs and that increases the risk of a chromosomal anomaly resulting in the baby; see table on this page.