The goal in assisted reproduction has always been to achieve pregnancy with the safest most efficient protocols provided by science.  
 Despite the advances in ART, the persistently low pregnancy rates in women over the age of 40 has perhaps been the most frustrating issue to most reproductive endocrinologists. The oocyte is believed to be the major determinant of reproductive aging. Currently research is under way to determine factors that are responsible for cellular aging and programmed cell death or apoptosis. Furthermore, it is believed that the production of oxygen free radicals in the mitochondria of the senescent oocytes may play an important role in apoptosis in human embryos.