For most women menopause occurs between forty-eight and fifty-three, and it is usually preceded by a few years of changing ovarian function, including an end to the release of eggs (ova). Women may view it as ‘one of nature’s design faults’ or ‘a blessed relief from periods and pregnancies’. Each ovary of a newborn baby girl contains about a million immature eggs. Up to five hundred eggs develop to full maturity between puberty and menopause and are released from the ovary in the process of ovulation. No one is sure why the remainder degenerate, nor is it clear what triggers the sex hormone shifts and the stop-starts in ovarian function signalled in the years before menopause by altered bleeding patterns.
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