Overview
The ovaries contain thousands of immature eggs, with one egg maturing each month throughout your cycle. This maturing egg is held within a dominant ‘follicle’ (imagine a small sac). After about 14 days this follicle has grown in size and the matured egg is ‘released’ – this is ovulation. Once released, the egg survives for around 24 hours during which time it moves in the fallopian tube and awaits fertilisation by sperm – this is your fertile time.
All women are born with a finite number of eggs. Before she is even born, a woman will have developed 4,000,000 eggs by six months gestation, after which she will lose around 20 eggs per month. By puberty she will have around 400,000 eggs remaining. As she grows older, she will gradually lose more eggs during each ‘period’ until menopause.
The number one factor affecting a couple’s chances of conceiving is the woman’s age. As she grows older, particularly after 35 years, the number and the quality of the eggs decreases. This makes creating and maintaining a pregnancy more difficult.
