How many eggs do you have anyway? By guest blogger Sharon LaMothe

I attended a fascinating session lead by Dr. David Adamson, MD at this years SMART ART XI. His topic was Careers, Babies and Biological Clocks. I wanted to share one particular tid-bit that I don't think is in your typical woman's magazine or doctors office reading material.

Just how many eggs do we women have anyway? Have you ever wondered? I never have. I just figured that I had what I needed and left it at that. I never gave my husbands sperm a thought either...it seemed to be there when it was needed (and sometimes even when it was not! BTW male fertility drops to 70% in their 50's) But I never had a sit down with girl friends and chatted over how many eggs we had left or where they all came from. We might have talked about their expiration date but we used the word 'menopause' to describe those topics!
        
Dr. Adamson showed a slide that said this: In Utero (aprox at 5 months) an unborn baby girl has about 4 Million Eggs. At birth that same baby girl will have about 700,000 eggs and at puberty a young girl would have approximately 350,000! And just so you know...at menopause the number is about 1000 eggs and they are not doing well! Most of these eggs are lost to artesia, not ovulation which means that they are lost to the cells dying.

As you can see, we are born with all the eggs we will ever have. Amazing to know but now the question is just what will we do with those eggs?


Sharon LaMothe Infertility Answers, Inc. http://infertilityanswers.org/ LaMothe Services, LLC http://lamotheservices.com/ *Please note: Sharon LaMothe is not a MD, is not an attorney nor does she hold a mental health degree. All advice given is solely the experienced opinion of Ms. LaMothe. If you have any medical, legal or psychological questions or concerns, please contact your own Doctor, Attorney or Mental Health Professional.

Mindy Berkson of Lotus Blossom Consulting Speaks About Egg Banking: A Great Option for Biological Birth

On January 18th, WSFL-TV's THE MORNING SHOW (Ft. Lauderdale) turned to Mindy Berkson of Lotus Blossom Consulting for insights into fertility treatments for those who may have delayed childbearing. Her insights about when fertility naturally decreases gives great pause to those who may think that 35 is the ultimate time to have a child. With sharp fertility declines from the mid 30's, Mindy provides information on one of the best new options, Egg Banking. Click on the link to see the interview with WSFL TV. 

I appreciate Mindy's positive approach to fertility alternatives. As mentioned in a past post, this option may be cost prohibitive to many young woman, although with continued success, education and awareness this option is priceless.
 

Educational Piece - Young Women Open Your Eyes, You Are Not Fertile Forever!

Thank you to Pamela Madsen for bringing her appearance on Oprah 2002 to my attention. I leave you this week with this posting and video and hope that young women ponder the message and digest every single word of it. Don't be "blind sided by nature", open your eyes to the reality of fertility. Be fully aware that the ability to have children becomes more challenging in your late twenties and even more so in your early to mid thirties.

Countless couples and women I help need an egg donor to help them conceive because they waited too long to try to have a family and their fertility naturally declined to the point they weren't able to have children. Thank goodness egg donation is an option and there are younger women willing to help these women have children. Many of the egg donors I speak with tell me that they want to donate their eggs because they imagine themselves not being able to have children and they hope that if they are ever in the same situation someone would be willing to help them. Thank goodness for the kindness of human nature.

Crystal balls are hard to come by and the future cannot be predicted so I ask young women to educate themselves when it comes to their bodies and fertility and to be aware of the challenges that they may face if they do not have children sooner rather than later. 

Siblings of a Sort

I love this article from Good Housekeeping regarding embryo donation. I've been approached by parents who have frozen embryos who would like to place them up for adoption although they do not know exactly where to turn. The parents who have approached me have all said the same thing; they want to select the family their embryos will go to and they want to have an "open" relationship with the family selected. They do not want to play a parent role; they just want to know that their embryos and the resulting child/children are loved and parented and if they need to communicate with each other for any reason they can.

This story, although long, shows the emotions and reasoning associated with the prospect of embryo donation .

Read this along with a nice hot beverage.

Siblings of a Sort

Posted using ShareThis

An Egg Donor Helped Them to Grow Their Family

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy