Eggsquisite Facts About Ovum (aka eggs)

1) An egg is the largest cell in the female body. It’s about the size of a needle point and could even be seen with the human eye. Even more fascinating, it’d take about 15,000 sperm to make the size of one egg!

2) I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “You’re born with all the eggs you’ll ever have,” which is true, however the average woman will only ovulate about 400 – 500 times in her life between puberty and menopause. That means hundreds of thousands of eggs are naturally absorbed into the body.

3) The lifespan of a matured egg is only about 12-24 hours. If it is not fertilized during that timeframe then it is flushed out of the body. Although the egg’s lifespan short a sperm can live in a woman’s fallopian tubes for 1 to 5 days, so it’s possible to get pregnant within a 5 day period after unprotected sex if the egg ovulates while sperm is still present in the reproductive tract.

4) When vitrified (frozen), female eggs have a much longer lifespan. The oldest egg used to produce healthy baby was frozen for nearly 25 years.