Premenopause: the endocrinology of reproductive decline.

Address for correspondence: Menelaos L. Batrinos, 8 Evripidou Str., 14563 PoliteiaKifissia, Greece, Tel.: +30 210 6204041, e-mail: [email protected] Received 03-10-2012, Accepted 11-02-2013 The ovaries follow a different course of aging from the other endocrine glands and organs. Instead of an inevitable progressive deterioration with advancing age, like all other structures and functions of the organism, including the male gonad, the testis, in the late thirties the ovaries undergo an abrupt diminution of their functional units, the follicles, that leads to their extinction 10 to 14 years later marking the end of ovarian reproductive and endocrine function. It has been estimated by mathematical models that the ovaries would be functioning until the age of 71 years if this rapid exhaustion of the follicles did not occur. The phenomenon of this major biological change, dividing the life of women into a preand postmenopausal period, is universal among all human females.