Ovarian reserve refers to a woman’s supply of eggs. Ovarian reserve is tied directly with a woman’s potential for reproduction. As a woman ages, her supply of eggs declines over time. By the time a woman reaches menopause, her ovarian reserve is depleted. This is why it can be more difficult for a woman to conceive as she becomes older. In fact, age seems to be the single biggest factor in whether a woman will have some difficulty with fertility or not. As a woman gets older, there are fewer and fewer eggs that could reliably be fertilized. As you can see, then, ovarian reserve greatly will affect a woman’s fertility.

Ovarian reserve can be measured, but generally only in an indirect manner. Health care providers don’t generally take a look inside of the ovaries and count the number of eggs. Rather, a health care provider may measure hormones such as FSH, LH, estradiol, and inhibin-B. Generally, a woman would not expect to take all of these tests, but generally just one or two, depending on the results of the first test and the experience of the health care provider.

Another test for ovarian reserve would be the clomiphene citrate challenge test. This test measures FSH, but then measures it several days later after the woman takes the clomiphene citrate (also called Clomid or Serophene). This will also give the health care provider information about whether it is likely that a woman’s ovarian reserve will affect her fertility.

In some more rare cases, a health care provider may actually use a type of test to actually count eggs. In these cases, they ovaries will generally be stimulated for the purpose of producing more than one egg that could be fertilized per cycle. The health care provider will then measure what are known as the antral follicles, which are small follicles that are available to be stimulated. This may help know whether a woman will respond positively to fertility medications.

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