Name: Sara
Status: Other
Grade: Other
Location: CA
Country: United States
Date: March 2008
Question:
Do females continue making reproductive eggs
throughout their lifetime the way males make sperm every day?
Replies:
All of the eggs a woman will ever produce are present in her
ovaries at the time of birth. Once a month one of the eggs will
mature and ovulate.
Women stop ovulating these eggs around 40 -45 years of age which
is called menopause.
Ron Baker, Ph.D.
Sarah,
I was taught and it is still believed that all ova (eggs) of human females are
produced prior to birth and these ova are processed through most of Meiosis II.
Recent evidence in investigating stem cells in mice ovaries has indicated that
in mice, females may be producing ova through most of their reproductive years.
Further studies need to be preformed (2007) to verify this finding. In any case,
it has not been attributed to be the case in humans.
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