Women’s fertility declines faster after 30: Study

For the first time, scientists have claimed to have discovered the reason why women find it difficult to conceive later in life — they lose 90 per cent of their eggs by the age of 30.

For the first time, scientists have claimed to have discovered the reason why women find it difficult to conceive later in life — they lose 90 per cent of their eggs by the age of 30.

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According to the research by the University of St Andrews and Edinburgh University, women continue to produce eggs throughout their 30s and 40s, but the ovarian reserve — the potential number of eggs they are born with — shrinks to almost nothing by the time they reach 30.

The study, the first to collate the actual decline of the ovarian reserve from conception to the menopause, shows that on an average women are born with 300,000 potential egg cells but this pool declines at a much faster rate than first thought.