Female Infertility – Conditions and Limits

The fertility potential of women is reduced as age increases and is terminated when entering menopause. Other determining factors are life style, certain health problems, inheritance and stress. Smoking, menstrual cycle irregularities, pelvis infections, surgeries on the ovaries, multiple partners and other factors can negatively affect female fertility. The most fertile age is 19 to 30. After the age of 35 the fertility potential of a woman gradually decreases and by the age of 40 it reaches the lowest pregnancy rate of 5-10%.

Nowadays women live in a modern society where for career or financial reasons postpone their family planning as far as late thirties. Such a planning offers in the best of cases 1-3 children. Women that have: a) family history of mother or grandmother with early menopause, b) ovarian problems, c) small ovarian volume and d) low follicular count, should be aware of early menopause risk. Medical advice must be sought by those women who for social or health or career reasons have late age family planning beyond the age of 35 since they may require oocyte or embryo and /or ovarian tissue cryo-preservation. Women with lymphoma and other oncological cases that need chemotherapy endangering their future ovarian functionality can also be benefited by oocyte and /or ovarian tissue freezing. Later on in life they can have autologous and autotopic transplantation with a high chance for spontaneous conception. The ovarian tissue collection can be done by laparoscopy, it only takes 20 minutes and after 2-3 hours the patient can be discharged home. However the laboratory treatment and preservation of the ovarian tissue is important. This has to be performed in a well-equipped laboratory with all the necessary facilities that are staffed with scientists with the appropriate knowledge and experience. The cryopreserved tissue must undergo the best preparation possible in order to preserve the cell structure and future functionality.