BACKGROUND Serum AMH is declining with age and is highly associated with ovarian follicular reserve and disordered folliculogenesis. However, the precise role of AMH in the process of human follicular aging has still to be determined. AIM This study investigates AMH level in the follicular fluid (FF) and mRNA expression pattern in cumulus and mural granulosa cells of human ovarian follicles i...

Female reproductive capacity declines dramatically in the fourth decade of life as a result of an age-related decrease in oocyte quality and quantity. The primary causes of reproductive aging and the molecular factors responsible for decreased oocyte quality remain elusive. Here, we show that aging of the female germ line is accompanied by mitochondrial dysfunction associated with decreased oxi...

Age-related ovarian failure in women heralds the transition into postmenopausal life, which is characterized by a loss of fertility and increased risk for cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and cognitive dysfunction. Unfortunately, there are no options available for delaying loss of ovarian function with age in humans. Rodent studies have shown that caloric restriction (CR) can extend female ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to examine psychological factors in relation to antral follicle count (AFC), a marker of ovarian reserve, in a multiethnic sample of 683 premenopausal women in the Ovarian Aging (OVA) Study. METHODS In cross-sectional analyses, linear regression was performed to determine whether AFC decline across women varied over levels of depression as well as depressio...

Mild clinical signs of hyperandrogenism such as hirsutism may appear during the menopausal transition as part of the normal aging process, but the development of frank virilization suggests a specific source of androgen excess. We report a case of a 68-year-old woman with signs of virilization that had started 6 months before. Clinical analyses revealed high levels of serum testosterone for a p...

We recently associated ovarian FMR1genotypes and sub-genotypes with distinct ovarian aging patterns. How they impact older females is, however, unknown. We, therefore, investigated 217 consecutive first in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles in women >40 assessing oocyte yields, stratified for better (anti-Müllerian hormone, AMH >1.05 ng/mL) or poorer (AMH ≤ 1.05 ng/mL) functional reserve (FOR)). ...

Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is a homodimeric glycoprotein, a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily. Over the last decade, a large number of studies examining the multiple roles of AMH have been published. AMH levels accurately reflect the ovarian follicular reserve and could, therefore, be considered as an extremely sensitive marker of ovarian aging and a valuable tool in the ...

BACKGROUND The fragile X premutation is characterized by a large CGG repeat track (55-199 repeats) in the 5' UTR of the FMR1 gene. This X-linked mutation leads to an increased risk for premature ovarian failure; interestingly, the association of repeat size with risk is non-linear. We hypothesize that the premutation-associated ovarian insufficiency is due to a diminished oocyte pool and examin...

Serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels are regarded as an age-specific marker for predicting the ovarian reserve in women of reproductive age. Some studies have shown that the luteinizing hormone (LH)/follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) ratio can be used as a predictor of ovarian reserve. The purpose of this study was to assess the variation of LH/FSH ratio with aging and to evaluate the corr...

BACKGROUND Ovarian aging and cytotoxic treatments are the most common causes for fertility loss in women. With increasing numbers of young female survivors following cytotoxic cancer treatments, the issue of fertility preservation has assumed greater importance. METHODS We review the literature on the causes of female fertility loss as well as the recent advances in fertility preservation opt...