ABSTRACT
In 1998, te Velde and colleagues proposed a ver important theory regarding ovarian aging1. According to this theory, all major reproductive milestones preceding the menopause show a similar age variation to that of the menopause itself, and the time intervals between them and the menopause are more or less fixed. The reproductive milestones are the age of onset of reduced fertility (30 years on average), age of rapid decline of fertility (37 years on average), age of total loss of fertility (41 years on average) and age of loss of menstrual regularity (45 years on average). Furthermore, the same, mainly genetic, factors2 that affect the time of the menopause also determine the time of all reproductive milestones that precede the menopause (Figure 1).
