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Since a human woman is born with a set number of eggs, and meiosis is the process by which sex cells are produced, would meiosis in a woman happen before she is born or soon after she was born?

If meiosis creates sex cells and women are born with a set number of sex cells, when in the development of a woman are her sex cells created?

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  • $\begingroup$ I can't understand your question. $\endgroup$
    – WYSIWYG
    Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 13:57
  • $\begingroup$ @WYSIWYG If meiosis creates sex cells and women are born with a set number of sex cells, when in the development of a woman, are her sex cells created? $\endgroup$
    – Jax
    Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 14:01

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Oocytes, or immature female eggs, develop in the fetus's ovaries during pregnancy. This graph (U. New South Wales) shows the oocyte population over time in a human female:

graph of oocytes in human body

Although the x-scale is kind of confusing (months when negative, years when positive), you can see that the fetus has all the oocytes it will ever have at the peak 18-22 weeks after conception. Since age 0 is birth, meiosis in a woman happens long before she is born.

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  • $\begingroup$ Meiosis starts before birth but finishes after. $\endgroup$
    – canadianer
    Commented Jan 5, 2015 at 19:05

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