A couple of very strange questions I need answered.

[gridlore]

I'm working on a story. Don't mind me.

1. How many eggs would you normally find in the ovaries of a health woman ih er twenties?

2. After death, how long do you have to harvest those eggs before they become unusable? The death in question comes from the failure of the long-sleep system on a slower-than-light colony vessel. So assume a fairly sterile environment with no insects or scavengers getting at the body.

Don't worry, this is not the main focus of the plot, I just need the right numbers to plug in when the time comes.

Comments

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

The eggs in the ovary are stored in follicles (from folliculus, meaning sack in Latin). These cellular sacks contain the eggs; as well as granulosa cells and theca cells which nurture the egg , and produce the female hormones. The ovary has about 2 million eggs during fetal life. From that point onwards, the number of eggs progressively decreases, till only about 300,000 eggs are left at the time of birth - a lifetime's stock. During the fertile years fewer than 500 of these eggs will be released into the fallopian tubes - once in each menstrual cycle. Unlike the testis which is continually churning out billions of new sperm, the ovary never produces any new eggs. One of the existing eggs is matured for ovulation each month.(/i>.

No idea how long after death, but these links might give you a starting point for some investigation.

http://www.clevelandclinic.org/reproductiveresearchcenter/info/patientinfo4.html

http://www.infertilityspecialist.com/ovarian_cryopreservation.html

http://www.rbej.com/content/6/1/47