# women start their reproductive years with 300,000-500,000 follicles > Women start their reproductive years with approximately five hundred thousand follicles containing oocytes, of which only around five hundred will be released during ovulation.[[(Vigil et al., 2017)#^f86l4]] > In the next twenty weeks of wombing, 4 million of those eggs will die, and by puberty all but 400,000 will have taken to the wing, without a squabble, without a peep.[[Woman by Natalie Angier#^2f5w5]] > During childhood, this number reaches the amount of approximately 300,000 at the time of menarche ([Faddy *et al*., 1992](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8769179/#r39)).[[(Moghadam et al., 2022)#^5ectd]]