How many eggs does a woman have? Understanding egg count and fertility by age

An illustration of ovaries representing how many eggs does a woman have.
  • Updated Nov 28, 2024
  • Published

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Created with Hector Chapa, MD, FACOG, Clinical Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, USA

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In a nutshell

Women are born with their complete set of eggs and can’t produce more. Females go from having 6–7 million eggs in their ovaries while in a mother’s womb to being born with 1-2 million oocytes and having only around 400,000 eggs left when they enter puberty. The in-born egg reserve naturally shrinks with age, complicating fertility and gradually leading to menopause by 50-52 years.

Egg maturation in ovaries and release during ovulation are crucial stages in a female reproductive system that define fertility. Every month, a woman ovulates and releases an egg (or, more rarely, a few eggs) to be fertilized and achieve pregnancy. But how many eggs do women have in total?

Since both the quality and count of your eggs are crucial factors in your fertility, understanding your ovarian reserve is crucial for family planning. In this article, we’ll tell you how many eggs you have at birth and at different age periods to help you understand your fertility better!

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Femia offers a plan to help you preserve your eggs

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Are women born with all their eggs?

Women of reproductive age release mature eggs on around day 14 of their menstrual cycle, which is known as the ovulation phase, for them to be fertilized. This happens every month unless there is pregnancy or any issues with one’s ovarian function. However, something many do not realize is that eggs aren’t produced specifically before maturation and release. They have been with you since birth.

Today, a growing body of knowledge indicates that women are born with a specific number of gametes. The average amount of eggs a woman has from birth is around 1-2 million.

Okay, but are females born with all their eggs? Or do they produce more in their lifetimes? 

The answer is females are born with their complete set of eggs, which gradually shrinks with age, with one of the most rapid decreases occurring before puberty. In other words, they cannot produce more than the 1-2 million oocytes that they’ve had since birth.

👉Find out more: Why am I not ovulating but still having periods? Understanding anovulation

How many eggs are women born with?

Oocytes, the eggs in your ovaries, develop in them far before birth. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG), a female fetus typically has a large set of 6–7 million oocytes at 20 weeks. By the time of birth, their number drops to around 1-2 million.

The process doesn’t stop there. After birth, the number of oocytes continues to decrease naturally. By the time a girl enters puberty, she typically has just around 25% of her entire lifetime supply of eggs, or around 400,000 eggs left.

This happens because prepubertal girls don’t yet produce the gonadal hormones required for the second phase of egg development and their further release, which is why eggs that started to mature simply wither away.

Factors that influence egg reserve

When trying to figure out the answer to the question “How many eggs do I have left?,” it’s important to understand that the numbers indicated earlier are approximate. The truth is that every woman’s egg reserve is different.

The number of eggs, as well as their quality, can be greatly affected by a variety of factors, such as:

  • Hormonal balance
  • Metabolites
  • Initial ovarian reserve
  • Diseases and the treatment/medications a female receives
  • Environmental problems

This combination of environmental, genetic, and lifestyle factors can affect your number of remaining eggs at different ages and, respectively, your fertility.

How many eggs does a woman have by each age?

How many eggs does a woman have at 20?

You can have from 150,000 to 300,000 eggs in your 20s, though it’s hard to answer “How many eggs does a woman have at 25?” or at another age in this period.

You still continue losing eggs during this period. However, the loss isn’t very rapid yet. In general, the time between the late teens and late twenties is when your fertility peaks, your eggs’ reserve is still large enough, and the chances of conception are typically the highest.

How many eggs does a woman have at 30?

By the time a woman enters her 30s, she typically loses 90% of her initial egg reserve. The exact number can vary greatly from one female to another but roughly you may have 100,000 to 150,000 eggs left.

It’s important to note that the number of eggs starts shrinking more rapidly later in your 30s. You can have around 50,000 eggs left by 35 and about 25,000 by 37. Such a drastic decrease is explained by natural aging and suppression of your reproductive system as you get closer to perimenopause. Getting pregnant naturally may get a bit complicated at this time, though there are numerous ways to naturally increase fertility.

How many eggs does a woman have at 40?

Most women enter their perimenopause at ages 40 to 44. This marks the preparation of your body to enter perimenopause. During this time your ovulation and periods may become less frequent and your estrogen levels will start declining, affecting your fertility. At this point, you may have 1,000 to 5,000 eggs remaining.

How many eggs does a woman have at 50?

Depending on the initial reserve, as well as external factors affecting the amount of eggs, women in their 50s can have from a few hundred to zero eggs left. On average, females run out of all eggs and enter menopause by 52.

👉Find out more: Odds of getting pregnant by age chart: Fertility and pregnancy chances explained

How many eggs are released during ovulation?

Typically, though you may have a larger number of mature eggs per cycle, your ovaries only release one during ovulation. Occasionally, you may release more than 1 egg during ovulation–it can be either multiple eggs released by one ovary or multiple eggs released by two ovaries. This phenomenon is called hyperovulation and it’s relatively uncommon. However, if this happens, it can lead to a multiple pregnancy (e.g. fraternal twins).

Naturally, ovulation also contributes to gradual egg depletion. Every month your body releases one mature egg that can be fertilized. However, apart from it, many other immature follicles begin to develop but never get released, which causes their loss. This process is called “atresia” and it also shrinks your egg reserve as with one ovulated egg, you can lose about 1,000 immature ones during every cycle.

Understanding egg reserve tests

For those of you concerned about the amount of available eggs in your reserve, there is a procedure known as ovarian reserve testing that can help you answer all your questions. This testing is meant to measure the remaining egg count and compare it to a typical range for your age to assess your fertility potential.

The testing involves a blood test that assesses your levels of:

  • Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)–A hormone responsible for the growth of eggs in your ovaries.
  • Anti-mullerian hormone (AMH)–A hormone specifically produced by the follicles in your ovaries, which means that higher levels of AMH indicate a larger egg reserve.
  • In addition to a blood test, ovarian reserve testing involves a transvaginal ultrasound to perform antral follicle count (AFC)–count the number of follicles in your ovaries to gauge your fertility.

When is ovarian reserve testing used to define how much eggs does a female have?

An ovarian reserve testing is a part of fertility evaluation typically conducted when:

  • You have a health condition or receive certain treatment that might be affecting your egg reserve or fertility (for example, cancer).
  • You are planning to use fertility treatment, such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to get pregnant.

In both cases, assessing your egg count can help the healthcare provider predict your current fertility and determine the next steps in your treatment or provide personalized lifestyle suggestions, for example, how to have a proper diet, to get pregnant naturally.

What happens when the egg count runs low?

The shrinking of your egg reserve is a natural part of aging, which gradually leads you to menopause–the natural conclusion of your reproductive years. As you now know, by the age of 50-52 your ovaries will typically run out of eggs and you will enter the menopausal stage of life, during which your menstruation cycle will cease and you will no longer be able to get pregnant.

While it will naturally happen with age to the majority of females, sometimes, diminished ovarian reserve can happen sooner than expected, making it harder to get pregnant. In a case of concern, a healthcare provider can run ovarian reserve testing to diagnose low ovarian reserve and suggest fertility-boosting lifestyle changes, such as exercise, diet, and other strategies, and offer potential options for family planning, such as IVF, that should simplify getting pregnant.

Maximize your fertility knowledge

Femia offers a plan to help you preserve your eggs

Try Femia now

Questions from the Femia community

  • Does egg quality decline with egg quantity?

    Both the count and quality of eggs are known to decrease naturally over the course of a woman’s lifetime, affecting her fertility. However, these terms shouldn’t be considered interchangeable. It’s important to understand that egg quality issues are not always related to the egg reserve shrinking and may affect everyone. According to estimations, women in their 20s to early 30s can have approximately 25-30% of the embryos with genetic errors.

  • Is there a way to preserve eggs before they’re lost?

    Yes. If you’re looking to preserve your fertility at a younger age, one possible way to do this is egg freezing. This method implies egg retrieval with their subsequent cryopreservation. It allows saving your eggs for the future to have them fertilized and transferred later to achieve pregnancy.

The bottom line

So how many eggs does a woman have? This question is directly linked to your fertility potential and, thus, finding the answer is crucial for effective family planning. As you now know, females are born with a complete lifetime reserve of eggs that naturally decreases with years.

Approximately, women have the following egg count at different stages in their lives:

  • At birth: 1-2 million
  • At the start of puberty: 400,000
  • In 20s: 150,000 to 300,000
  • In early 30s: 100,000 to 150,000
  • In late 30s: 50,000 to 25,000
  • In 40s: 1,000 to 5,000
  • In 50s: A few hundred to zero

Egg depletion happens naturally and gradually until the late thirties when a female body starts preparing for perimenopause. Then your natural egg reserve starts shrinking rapidly at the time of perimenopause and runs out completely by 50-52 when you enter menopause.

Since your egg reserve directly affects your fertility, keep in mind the possibility of assessing your remaining egg count with a healthcare provider and considering preservation options if you’re concerned about family planning.

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