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Study: Women may ovulate more

TORONTO: Canadian researchers believe women may have the ability to ovulate more than once during their menstrual cycle, according to a new study published this week. 

The research by the University of Saskatchewan, published in this week's issue of scientific journal Fertility and Sterility, may shatter a long-standing belief that women could only release an egg once during their cycle. 

Previous studies showed that between 15 and 20 follicles grow in a woman's ovaries at the start of her menstrual cycle. One of them matures and is released to be fertilised, while the others died off. 

But the Canadian researchers, sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, found that women actually experience a wave of this activity, with at least two to three periods of follicular development each month. 

“This work is particularly exciting to us because of the impact it will have on women taking oral contraceptives and undergoing fertility treatment,” said Doctor Roger Pierson, director of the university's Reproductive Biology Research Unit. 

It also means “there is no 'safe' time to have intercourse during the cycle (because) there may always be a follicle capable of ovulating,” he added. 

Their study involved 63 women with normal menstrual cycles who underwent ultrasound testing every day for a month. 

“We are literally going to have to rewrite medical textbooks,” Pierson said. – AFP