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One of the many ways in which humans' evolved characteristics clash with a fast-changing post-industrial society can be seen in the female egg.
Even before a woman passes the age of 30, the quality of the oocytes she carries begins a downturn in quality, making conception more difficult and chromosomal abnormalities more likely. And her eggs take a steep dive in quality as she nears 40 -- whether or not she has found a suitable mate, achieved career goals or completed her pre-family to-do list.
That inconvenient truth has helped spawn an industry of fertility specialists who've found ways to erase or push back the expiration date on an aging woman's eggs. They can freeze a young woman's eggs for later use in baby-making; they can boost an older woman's chance of producing a good egg by stimulating the release of many; and they can use the egg -- and the nuclear DNA -- of a younger woman, fertilize it with sperm and implant the resulting embryo into the uterus of a prospective mother who's run out the clock.
But...
Even before a woman passes the age of 30, the quality of the oocytes she carries begins a downturn in quality, making conception more difficult and chromosomal abnormalities more likely. And her eggs take a steep dive in quality as she nears 40 -- whether or not she has found a suitable mate, achieved career goals or completed her pre-family to-do list.
That inconvenient truth has helped spawn an industry of fertility specialists who've found ways to erase or push back the expiration date on an aging woman's eggs. They can freeze a young woman's eggs for later use in baby-making; they can boost an older woman's chance of producing a good egg by stimulating the release of many; and they can use the egg -- and the nuclear DNA -- of a younger woman, fertilize it with sperm and implant the resulting embryo into the uterus of a prospective mother who's run out the clock.
But...