Anatomy

How many eggs does the ovary contain?

The ovaries are glands which produce female sex hormones and egg cells (ova). Each ovary is only the size of an almond, but it contains 150,000 to 200,000 eggs. When a woman is born, she has around 1 million to 2 million eggs. This changes in puberty, as only about 300,000 eggs remain. Around 500 of these eggs will be ovulated in a woman's reproductive lifetime. The eggs which remain will die in menopause.