Abstract: The functional ovarian aging is in many years before other organs aging of female body. More and more women postpone their childbearing age in modern society. These facts made the ovarian aging be widely concerned in recent years. We hereby introduced the main manifestation of ovarian aging: loss of folliles, reduction in oocytes quality, and decreased level of ovarian hormones. We reviewed the mechanism of ovarian aging including: accumulation of reactive metabolic byproducts （ROS, RCS）, mutation of genome DNA and mtDNA, shortened telomere length and diminished telomerase activity. In recent years, many findings suggested that antioxidant and caloric restriction could exert significant effects in delaying ovarian aging, or even elongate the animal lifespan.

Key words: Ovary, Aging, Gonadal steroid hormones, Ovarian follicle, Ovum, Reactive oxygen species, Telomere