# Egg Count

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egg-count/112362>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 4, 2002, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egg-count/112362 "2002-06-04T20:26:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egg-count/112362/1 "2002-06-04T20:26:28Z")

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Women are born with all the eggs they’re ever gonna have ~ anyone know approx. how many?

If you knew how many eggs you had, you could count down with each period you have, then you’d know when your fertility is coming to an end.

Is that possible?

😕

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**Author:** ![DonJorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/47e85d/32.png) [@DonJorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonJorge)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egg-count/112362/2 "2002-06-04T20:49:05Z")

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IANAD but…

Women are born with aprox 500000 ovule, but they will use less than a thousand during their life. The menopause will come not by lack of eggs, but from an hormonal change.

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**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egg-count/112362/3 "2002-06-04T20:52:18Z")

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Egg-cellent!

Thanks for the clarification.

🙂

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**Author:** ![DonJorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/47e85d/32.png) [@DonJorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonJorge)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egg-count/112362/4 "2002-06-04T21:07:59Z")

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To further clarify… women are born with several million ovules, but by puberty they have the 1/2 million I was talking about. In each ovulation, only one is released, but several hundred are wasted in the process… by menopause, there are very few left, and probably all of them incapable of being fertilized…  
In any case, the ‘counting’ is not viable.