How many eggs do women have?

Female babies are born with all the eggs they are ever going to have and the numbers decline rapidly at different stages of life.

Below is an estimate of the number of female eggs by age:

1. At birth, you will have around 1 million eggs
2. At puberty the ovaries hold around 300,000 eggs
3. By 37 years, the number of eggs decreases further to around 25,000, and there’s a 20% chance of getting pregnant in any given month
4. After 37, the number declines more rapidly and at 40 years there’s only around 5% chance of getting pregnant in one cycle
5. By the time you hit menopause only 1,000 eggs remain and these are usually poor quality

There are 2 tests that can provide valuable insight about your ovarian reserve:

1. AMH test: Anti-Mullerian Hormone or AMH test is commonly done to check a woman’s ovarian reserve. It can be done by taking a small amount of blood. Read more about the AMH test.
2. Antral follicle count: The doctor uses an ultrasound to count the follicles visible in your ovaries during the early phase of your menstrual cycle.

The number of eggs with age are not fixed for every woman; there are variations because of race, genetics, diet, stress, exposure to environmental factors, etc.

Women are actually born with all the eggs they’ll ever have, which surprised me when I first learned it.

The numbers drop a lot over time:

1. before birth: around 6 to 7 million eggs
2. at birth: about 1 to 2 million
3. by puberty: roughly 300,000 to 500,000 left
4. over a lifetime: only a few hundred actually ovulate

What shocked me is how quickly egg quantity and quality decline with age, especially after the mid 30s. A lot of women assume fertility drops suddenly at 40, but apparently the changes start much earlier than most people realize.

I remember reading a doctor describe it like this:

“Women are born with a finite ovarian reserve.”

Which honestly explains why fertility conversations become so age-focused. It’s not just about the number of eggs left, but also how egg quality changes over time.

And apparently having “more eggs” doesn’t automatically guarantee pregnancy either. Egg quality, sperm quality, embryo development, implantation, all of those still matter too.