Facts about eggs
Will I or Did I Run Out Of Eggs?
At birth a young girl has 2 million egg cells and by her early teens only approximately 400,000 to 500,000 remain. During her life she will ovulate 400 of these eggs, about one a month. Each month many more egg cells will die off, yet she still will not “run out of eggs.”
The eggs get too old and by mid-forties it is near impossible to fall pregnant naturally and most women use an egg donor by age 42. An IVF procedure will stress the eggs and only young, viable eggs survive the process of being removed from the ovaries, fertilized and grown to embryos, then transferred back into a prepared womb after 5 days.
Get an Egg Test
Check your fertility to make sure that your ovarian egg reserve is okay. If it is, you are fine to wait a few more years. If it is getting low, consider freezing eggs now for use in the future or getting pregnant soon.
Every month many egg cells mature but only one, rarely two, mature fully and are released to travel down the fallopian tubes to menstruate out, or get fertilized. These 3 tests will show how many eggs start to mature every month.
It is a combination of 3 tests which should be then interpreted by your fertility doctor to assess whether your reserve is good or not.
- Day 2 or 3 of menses test for FSH/LH/Estradiol (blood test).
- AMH test (anti-mullerian hormone) any time of month (blood test).
- Ultrasound before day 7 of your cycle (day 1 = first day of menses) an office visit must be scheduled at your gynecologist/fertility doctor.
-Robin Newman
