Female Fertility

Women are fertile for only one day each cycle, at ovulation; that is, when an ovum (egg) is released from one of her two ovaries. A woman is born with some two million immature ova in her ovaries. Most of these ova never fully mature but gradually disintegrate throughout the woman’s reproductive life.

By the time a woman becomes reproductively mature following puberty, approximately 400,000 ova remain in her ovaries. Only 400-500 of these ova will be stimulated to full maturity by the woman’s hormones and about once a month, one will rupture from either the left or right ovary at ovulation. This ovum will live for a mere 12 – 24 hours after which it dies if it has not been fertilised by a sperm cell. The woman continues to release approximately one ovum per month until menopause.