Premature ovarian failure (POF), also known as premature ovarian insufficiency, occurs when a woman’s ovaries stop functioning properly before the age of 40. This condition affects both the production of eggs and the synthesis of sex hormones.
Women diagnosed with POF typically experience the cessation of menstrual periods, which is often the symptom that prompts them to seek medical advice. However, it’s important to note that this condition is quite rare, affecting only 1% of women under 40 and 1 in 1,000 women under 30.
Most women discover the problem due to amenorrhoea, the absence of menstrual periods, which results from the ovaries no longer producing eggs.
Other symptoms, typically associated with menopause, may also appear. Since POF is linked to a decline in oestrogen production, some women may experience hot flushes, irritability, vaginal dryness, or a decrease in libido.
The causes of premature ovarian failure (POF) are unknown in most cases. Some possible causes include:
It is often associated with certain treatments a woman may have undergone, such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
The most common genetic causes include Turner syndrome, a chromosomal disorder involving the absence of one X chromosome, and Fragile X syndrome, associated with a premutation in the FMR1 gene.
Premature ovarian failure may be caused by certain types of surgery or diseases that can affect the number of ovarian follicles.
It is especially important to detect premature ovarian failure early when a woman intends to have children, as there are fertility preservation options such as egg freezing.
This technique allows the preservation of eggs—before the ovarian reserve significantly diminishes or even disappears—for use in future assisted reproduction processes.
Furthermore, early diagnosis allows for the management of symptoms and the prevention of potential complications, such as osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases, associated with low oestrogen production.
Premature ovarian failure (POF) is typically not detected until a woman tries to conceive, as its symptoms are not always obvious. The following techniques are used for diagnosis:
The transvaginal ultrasound allows visualisation of the ovaries and an antral follicle count. A low count often indicates POF.
In some cases, POF may result from genetic conditions such as Turner syndrome or Fragile X syndrome. Genetic tests can identify chromosomal abnormalities or mutations.
POF can sometimes be linked to autoimmune diseases where the immune system attacks the ovaries. Specific antibody tests can help diagnose these cases.
There is no treatment to reactivate ovarian function, but there are treatments for some of the symptoms associated with premature ovarian insufficiency. The most common one is hormone replacement therapy, which usually includes a combination of oestrogen and a progestogen, and can restore the menstrual cycle regularly.
This therapy could improve pregnancy rates in women with this condition. It is a safe treatment with very few side effects. Additionally, doctors often recommend calcium and vitamin D supplements as well as regular physical activity to reduce the risk of heart disease associated with this condition.
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The chances of achieving a natural pregnancy in women diagnosed with premature ovarian failure are between 5% and 10%, according to the Spanish Society of Fertility (SEF).
Therefore, in these cases, fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) with the woman's own eggs (if quality embryos can be obtained) or through egg donation are necessary.
Privacy Policy
IVF-LIFE, hereby informs you of its privacy policy applied to personal data. The use of the website does not imply that the user must provide any information regarding their identity, and cannot be associated with a specific user by the company. In the event that personal data is provided, this data will be collected and used in accordance with the limitations and rights set out in the aforementioned regulation.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PROCESSING OF YOUR DATA?
DATA CONTROLLER: IVF SPAIN ALICANTE S.L.U (hereinafter IVF-Life)
CIF: B-54973227
Postal Address: Avenida de Ansaldo, no. 13, 03540, Alicante (Alicante)
Contact with the Data Protection Officer: dpo@ivf-life-group.com
DATA CONTROLLER: Instituto Vasco de Fertilidad (hereinafter IVF-Life)
CIF: B95575874
Postal Address: Avenida de Tolosa, 71-73, 20018 Donostia / San Sebastián (Spain)
Contact with the Data Protection Officer: dpo@ivf-life-group.com
DATA CONTROLLER: IVF Spain Madrid (hereinafter IVF-Life)
CIF: B 85138113
Postal Address: C/ de Manuel de Falla, 6-8, 28036 Madrid (Spain)
Contact with the Data Protection Officer: dpo@ivf-life-group.com
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Depending on the products, services, or functionalities that you wish to enjoy, we may need to process different types of data. In general, this data will be, depending on the case, the following:
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- Connection, geolocation and navigation data.
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The use of certain services or requests addressed to IVF-LIFE are subject to the prior completion of the corresponding form. All the information provided by the User through the forms on the Portal for the above purposes or any other must be truthful.
To this end, the User guarantees the authenticity of all the data provided and will keep the information provided to IVF-LIFE perfectly up to date so that it corresponds at all times to the User's real situation. In any case, the User will be solely responsible for any false or inaccurate statements made and for any damage caused to IVF-LIFE or third parties because of the information provided.
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Users who provide personal data of other natural persons are obliged to comply, in relation to said data, with all obligations deriving from the data protection regulations in force, and in particular the duty to inform and obtain the consent of the owner of the personal data.
When we request your personal data to provide access to certain website functionalities, we will mark the required fields to ensure the service can be delivered.
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For the processing of data, IVF-LIFE adopts the security levels required by current European and national legislation on the Protection of Personal Data. Notwithstanding the above, technical security in a medium such as the Internet is not impregnable and there may be leaks due to the malicious actions of third parties.
Our services are aimed at people of legal age, in the event that some of our services are specifically aimed at minors, IVF-LIFE will request the consent of parents or guardians for the collection of personal data or, where appropriate, for the automated processing of data as set out in current legislation. If the User is a minor, they are required to have the prior consent of their parents or guardians before proceeding to the inclusion of their personal data in the forms on the Website.
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We only process the personal data that is strictly necessary to manage or resolve your request or application.
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To the extent that you subscribe to our newsletter, your personal data will be used for the periodic sending of company newsletters.
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Usability and quality analysis to improve our services (cookies).
If you access our platform, we inform you that we will process your browsing data for analytical and statistical purposes, i.e. to understand how users interact with our platform and thus be able to make improvements to it. Likewise, we sometimes carry out quality actions and surveys aimed at finding out the degree of satisfaction of our customers and users and detecting those areas in which we can improve.
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The legal basis that allows us to process your personal data also depends on the purpose for which we process them, so we will find different legal bases under the following purposes:
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Marketing
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Social networking
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Usability and quality analysis (cookies)
User consent to the use of cookies.
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Request for information. We will process your data for as long as it is necessary to deal with your request or request and thereafter 1 year.
Marketing
We will process your data until you unsubscribe or cancel your subscription to the newsletter.
Social media
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Personal data will not be transferred or communicated to third parties, except: legal obligation, we obtain your express consent, or we understand that there is a legitimate interest on our part, which will be duly communicated to you.
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You can access these social networks voluntarily and through the links available on the website itself or by accessing directly and on your own from your browser or installed app.
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In order to consent to our transfer from this website and the processing of your data, you should carefully read the privacy policy of the social network you wish to access:
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In this way, before clicking on the logos of the SS. RR. present on our website, you can inform yourself and make a redirection with prior knowledge of the processing of your data and on a voluntary basis.
Other technological services:
- WhatsApp: WhatsApp Privacy Policy
- Companies of the "IVF LIFE Group" on the legal basis of consent or legitimate interest: Instituto Vasco de Fertilidad S.L.U., with NIF B95575874 and address at Avda Tolosa, 71-73 Donostia (Gipuzkoa), and IVF Spain Madrid S.L., with NIF B85138113 and address at Calle Manuel de Falla, 6-8, 28036 Madrid.
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Ask us for access to the data we hold about you.
Ask us to rectify the data we already hold about you. Please note that by actively providing us with your personal information in any way, you warrant that it is true and accurate and you undertake to notify us of any changes or modifications to it.
Ask us to delete your data to the extent that they are no longer necessary for the purpose for which we need to process them as we have previously informed you, or to the extent that we no longer have the legitimacy to do so.
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To receive the personal data concerning you that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable form and to transfer it to another data controller.
Moreover, where the processing of your data is based on our legitimate interest, you also have the right to object to the processing of your data.
Finally, we inform you of your right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection supervisory authority, with the Spanish Data Protection Agency.
CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY
We may change the information contained in this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we do so, we will notify you by various means through the Platform, or we will notify you at your email address when the change in question is significant to your privacy, so that you can review the changes, assess them and, where appropriate, object to or unsubscribe from any service or functionality.
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