What You Need to Know About Your Ovaries 

How much do you think about your ovaries daily? If you said, very seldom, you’re in good company! The ovaries are very much “out of sight, out of mind” organs – that is until it becomes necessary to think about them. 

Let’s learn more about these very important organs in every woman’s life. 

Hormonal powerhouse

The ovaries are as big as walnuts and oval, yet powerfully instrumental in producing hormones, namely oestrogen and progesterone. These hormones are known as the “sex hormones” and are important players during puberty, contributing to a young girl’s healthy development into womanhood. These two hormones are also, of course, vital for pregnancy. Women who struggle to fall pregnant may not be producing enough of these hormones. 

Sizes vary 

As with many bodily fluctuations, as we grow older, the size of the ovaries changes as well. The average size for most women is approximately three centimetres in length and just over two and a half centimetres in height. The ovaries can become bigger during ovulation and menstruation and shrink smaller after menopause. 

Stress matters

We know that stress can trigger many lifestyle (literal) and figurative headaches, pains, illnesses and side effects and this includes stress on the ovaries. A serious trauma or life event can affect the ovaries’ ability to release eggs, causing a knock-on effect for ovulation. Therefore, doctors will always do a thorough physical check when you’re trying to get pregnant – and pose many questions about your life, stress and worrying health issues that may affect your ovaries. 

Egg release

You may have heard that every woman is born with a fixed number of eggs. This is true. This means that there isn’t anything you can do to produce more eggs. Every month, during ovulation, one of your ovaries releases an egg. If this egg is fertilised by a sperm, you become pregnant. Right up until menopause, the ovaries will continue to release an egg each menstrual cycle.

Healthy lifestyle

While you can’t take a certain medication or use a magic cure to make more eggs, you can take steps to live a healthy lifestyle to keep your ovaries healthy. This means no smoking, especially if you want to get pregnant. The chemicals in cigarette smoke can damage the DNA in your eggs, speeding up egg loss. Healthy foods are always a win for improving your overall health and wellbeing, and that goes for your ovaries and fertility too. Eat vegetables every day, avoid refined carbs and trans-fats, excess salt and sugar and of course, too much alcohol. 

Good to know

Many women are opting for later-in-life pregnancies as they focus first on their career and other personal choices. If you’re planning on delaying motherhood, investigate freezing your eggs. As women age, fertility naturally declines, but frozen eggs remain the same biological age. An option to consider if you’re not ready for a baby yet but you want to have viable options later in life.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only. Always check with your doctor or medical practitioner about any health concerns, before embarking on any fitness or nutrition programme, and usage of any medication.