5 Female egg cell facts: How many eggs does a woman have?
Written by Lauren McKay
Lauren McKay
Lauren McKay is a writer and journalist with more than ten years of experience writing across a variety of topics. She is a passionate advocate for driving women’s health knowledge and is a trained yoga teacher. She earned a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow and currently lives in Scotland.
Fact checked by Jack Pearson, Medical Affairs Manager at Natural Cycles
Jack Pearson
Dr. Jack Pearson is a previously HCPC registered Embryologist with a PhD in reproductive medicine. Prior to joining Natural Cycles leading Medical Affairs, he worked for more than 10 years in a clinical setting working at some of the busiest fertility clinics in the UK. Today he spends most of his time working with experts at the world’s leading institutions to carry out important research with the vision to further the field of female health. He earned his PhD from the University of Sheffield specializing in Sperm Metabolism and currently lives in London.
Key takeaways:
- Females have six to seven million eggs when they’re a fetus at 20 weeks gestation.
- Females are born with between one and two million eggs.
- The number decreases until a person stops ovulating and reaches menopause, at which point fewer than 1,000 remain.
Get ready to learn some surprising facts about the female egg cell! In this article, we’ll dive deep inside the workings of the menstrual cycle and explore the small and fragile cell that’s crucially important when it comes to fertility. Read on to find out why human eggs are so special and how the life of the egg cell is closely tied to planning or preventing pregnancy.
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