Journal of Reproductive Health and Contraception

Ovulation suppression prevents the increase in egg aneuploidy with maternal age

The frequency of egg aneuploidy and trisomic pregnancies increases with maternal age. Since multiple causes contribute to egg aneuploidy, it is likely challenging to prevent the “maternal age effect” using a single approach. To test our hypothesis that ovulations contribute to oocyte ageing and chromosome missegregation, we used genetics, hormonal contraception and successive pregnancies to reduce ovulations. We observed that ovulation reduction is sufficient to prevent egg aneuploidy and age associated errors during meiosis I division of the oocyte, in aged mice. By interrupting ovulations with successive pregnancies, we discovered that eggs from aged mated females display lower aneuploidy and reduced precociously separated sister centromeres compared to those from aged virgin females.

Emmanouella Chatzidaki