Why are women born with all their eggs, but men make sperm throughout their lives?

Question

I think I may have asked the wrong question. What I really want to know is why don't women make new eggs throughout their lives like men make sperm?

Answer 1

The best explanation I can come up with is this: when the oocytes are suspended in the ovary, they can not repair the natural cellular degeneration that occurs to all cells. This is why the risk of birth defects goes up as women age.
Eggs stop maturing in menopause, preventing pregnancy.
If this wasn't the case, women would be pregnant at 80, and that doesn't seem like a good idea. My grandmother is 80 and can barely go to the bathroom on her own...pregnancy would probably kill her at this age.
I think it's nature's way of setting a time limit on pregnancy.

Answer 2

Actually we do not know for sure yet if a woman is indeed born with all the eggs she will ever possess. New research being done in the area suggests that women do continue to produce new eggs, just not as fast as men produce sperm.

Answer 3

After so many different answers, here's the simple true one!
Evolution (or God as you prefer) just put some limit for women about ovulation and pregnancy. Since the mother is WHO has to breastfeed and nurse babies during the first age mainly (just think of the past when prehistoric-men went to stalk and women were in the caverns), THEY haven't to be too old for that. Thus, during the old age (40-45) arrives the climacteric stopping the ovulations! Men don't get such a problem and vice versa independently from their age, they even could fecundate others younger women around!

Answer 4

Hmmmm??? Good question! I would have to say woman have their eggs for life, and men must keep making new sperm because Sperm only has a life span of 2-3 days. After that the sperm dies and must be renewed. Sounds odd, yet thats how it works :)

Answer 5

Because that is the way God designed us. Women need 2 release only one egg to make a baby and that egg isn't released every time we have sex so fewer are needed to ensure the survival of man. Men on the other hand need to release millions of sperm and do so nearly every time they have sex. Could you imagine the size of the body part that would carry that around if men were born with all their sperm?? Guess God knew what he was doing after all.

Answer 6

No idea but if we already know that women have all their eggs when they are born...
Why can't we count them divide that number by 12 to figure out how many years she is able to conceive (if only one egg were to drop every month). The be able to determine when the onset of menopause would begin, thus allowing plenty of time for estrogen treatments before they start to act crazy.

Sorry - I think I just had a hot flash!

Answer 7

Because women only ovulate once per month to conceive. It can take several sessions of sex to time conception perfectly, so men require much more sperm than women require eggs in order to for conception to be successful.

Answer 8

How would you like it if all your sperm was inside you at the time of your birth????? LOL that's ridiculous. Just think what your very first ejaculation would have been like.

Women's "eggs" as you call them, are microscopic so they don't take up alot of room in the ovaries.

Answer 9

There would not be room to store a lifetime supply of sperm in a person's body.

Answer 10

Cause women need to bear children in a specific age range. Men aren't carrying the pregnancy so it doesn't matter. And they can spread their DNA all over the place.