To answer the question “why does the menstrual cycle stop at menopause?’, we need to consider the fact that a woman’s egg cells are numbered.
While men can produce sperm cells all their lives, with their quality and quantity decreasing with age, women are different.
At birth, there are about 1-2 million egg cells. When a woman reaches puberty, only about 300,000-400,000 remain. However, not all of them will be ovulated. The follicles are depleted at a rate of around 1000 follicles per month until age 35.
In fact, in a woman’s reproductive lifetime, only 300 to 400 eggs cells will mature and be released.
The limited number of egg cells along with the decreased production of the hormone estrogen cause menopause to set in.
Menopause marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years.
Each month, a woman’s body prepares for pregnancy. To accommodate the fertilized egg, the lining of the uterus thickens.
However, when fertilization doesn’t happen, the body no longer needs the thickened lining. And so, they are expelled out as blood and other tissues.
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