The dreaded D word for the older infertile woman.

Most women know that their fertility declines as they get older because they run out of eggs. It's true that life is unfair - while men continue producing sperm all their life,  women are born with whatever eggs they're ever going to have, which means they never produce any new eggs after birth.Sometimes women find this confusing, because don't they produce an egg every month? Isn't that called ovulation? The truth is that the egg which you ovulate every month was actually manufactured when you were a baby fetus in your mother's womb. This egg is  recruited after years of dormancy , and it matures and is released when you ovulate during your cycle. Think of this like Prince Charming waking up Sleeping Beauty every month . The hormones which do this are called FSH and LH. Thus, there really are no new eggs being produced, and this is why, as a woman gets older, her eggs get depleted and she finally becomes menopausal. This is also the reason why a 35 year old has lower fertility as compared to a 25 year old. Her eggs are much older, which is why both their quality and quantity have taken a beating.  The egg pool is finite, and we cannot reverse ovarian aging.While women understand that the menopause represents a well-defined stop to their dreams of having a baby with their own DNA , they often don't realize the major impact this declining ovarian reserve has on their ability to have their own genetic baby after 35 . After all , even if your calendar age may be 4...
Source: Dr.Malpani's Blog - Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: blogs