Acupuncture provides hope for conceiving in women with premature ovarian failure
When women reach age 45, their ovaries may stop functioning. There is no egg supply and no ovulation. Hormone levels are changing. This is so called menopause. The signal for arrived menopause is stopped period which indicates the end of fertile life in a woman. This is a stage that every woman has to go through. For some women, their ovaries stop working before 40 years old. This is called premature ovarian failure (POF), or primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), or premature menopause or hypergonadotropic hypogonadism. POF is the result of premature exhaustion of the follicle pool or follicular dysfunction, such as due to mutations in the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) receptor. This is a common condition, affecting 1-2% women younger than 40 years of age and 0.1% of women younger than 30 years of age. The cause for POF could be genetic, because there is family history found in 10-20% women with POF. It also could be due to poor ovarian blood supply. Autoimmune damage could contrib