"The
Sperm and the Egg
Through
time and space, dark paths and unknown destinations, the egg and
sperm make their way to find true love. Battling each other, mucus
and hoping to bump into each other in the end. Eggs and sperm
lifespan are totally separate from each other, until, obviously, they
meet and get to know each other a bit. The eggs of a woman are
produced in the ovaries, lets say that this is their “home”. A
female is born with about 2 million eggs (also known as ova), this is
the most she will ever have in her life and only about 400,000 eggs
will survive puberty and have the chance to meet “the one”. On
the other hand, men constantly produce sperm throughout the man's
life though the quality dissipates with age or even frequency of how
often the man ejaculates.
Now,
lets go back to the egg, about once a month, due to a woman's
menstrual cycle, a single egg is evicted from her home cycle, she
travels from her home (one of the ovaries) and goes through the
tunnel – the adjoining fallopian tube- to the female's uterus. It
is in the fallopian tube where the egg decides to hang out for a
little bit, rest. Here she waits, in hopes that soon her dream sperm
will come and break down her walls. After a day or two, she starts to
feel stood up and gets a little annoyed, so she then decides to
finish traveling to the uterus and then escapes out of the uterus by
the cervix. She doesn't have forever, you know.
Looking
back to see what the sperm has in store for this long journey ahead.
Unlike the independent egg, these guys tend to travel in groups
seeing as a man can ejaculate about one and a half to one teaspoon
every time. Smart to travel in a pack, since once they are out of
their home ship, the waters are unknown, dark and a bit of a tough
journey, little do they know they'll be fighting each other in the
end. The sperm's man cave is in a coiled tube called the epididymis
and from there they travel the vas deferens while mixing with other
fluids that are made by the prostate gland and seminal vesicle. The
sperm then goes along the urethra and ends at the tip of the man's
penis, though if there is sexual intercourse happening when these
guys decide to make their trip, they are then passed into the
female's vagina in hopes to swoon and win over the lady egg, who has
been (possibly, if the timing is write) in the uterus. Only one of
the semen, that is making up the sperm, is needed to win over the
egg, fertilize her and then make a baby.
When the
sperm leave the man's penis and enter the woman's vagina, each of
them knows that it's a hit or miss situation. Either the wanted lady
egg will be there, or they missed their chance. If she is waiting
there, its a battle to the death and only one will win.
With
that in mind, the sperm work their way through the cervical canal,
into the uterine cavity and on to the fallopian tubes. Only five
hundred sperm reach this destination of their journey, others give up
and dissipate, obviously not strong enough for the journey and battle
that awaited them. Then its the fight to be the one sperm that is
able to sweep the egg off her feet and fertilize her. Hundreds
compete, only one will win.
Once
fertilization of the egg starts, the egg beings to grow by dividing
into two cells, then four, and so on and so forth. As this new couple
divides and conquers, it travels along the woman's fallopian tube to
the uterus where it makes a comfortable home in the uterine lining as
an embryo, which will then grow into a child.
The
first meeting between the victorious sperm and the lonely egg occur
in the outer part of the female's fallopian tube. Once the sperm wins
over the egg, the sperm releases a substance that allows him to break
through the egg's outer layers that keep her protected. Once the two
get close enough, each provide have of the genetic information and
code that is needed to make up a new child."
