Early ovarian ageing: a hypothesis. Detection and clinical relevance

An important scientific breakthrough of the 20th century, IVF helped open new horizons in medicine, such as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and embryonic stem-cell therapy. A further contribution of assisted reproduction technology has been the better understanding of reproductive ageing. Data from IVF cycles suggest that there is a fixed time-interval between accelerated decline of fertility and the menopause. This leads to the hypothesis that a significant proportion of asymptomatic women in the early thirties may be at risk of early onset of subfertility. IVF provides a model for the development of ovarian reserve tests, some of which appear promising as potential screening tools for early ovarian ageing in the general population.