The Sperm Meets Egg Plan: Getting Pregnant Faster

Product Information

An opening between the uterus and vagina called the cervix, allow sperm in and menstrual blood out. The vagina, or birth canal, connects the cervix to the outside of the body. Hirsch IH. 2019. Overview of male sexual function. www.msdmanuals.com Opens a new window [Accessed May 2020] NICE. 2017. Fertility problems: assessment and treatment. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. CG156. London: NICE. www.nice.org.uk Opens a new window [Accessed May 2020]

You’ll probably release fewer than 500 eggs during your fertile years, between your first period and menopause. In countries such as the UK, the average age of menopause is about 51, but it can happen much earlier or later than this.Cox E, Takov V. 2019. Embryology, ovarian follicle development. StatPearls. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Opens a new window [Accessed May 2020] Levin RJ. 2011. Can the controversy about the putative role of the human female orgasm in sperm transport be settled with our current physiological knowledge of coitus? J Sex Med 8(6): 1566-78. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Opens a new window [Accessed May 2020] The placenta is an organ that grows into the wall of the uterus and is joined to the fetus by the umbilical cord.

Each ovary is connected to the uterus by an oviduct. . The oviduct is lined with cilia, which are tiny hairs on cells. As part of the menstrual cycle, an ovum develops, becomes mature and is released from an ovary. The cilia move the ovum along the oviduct and into the uterus. Primakoff P, Myles DG. Primakoff P, et al. Science. 2002 Jun 21;296(5576):2183-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1072029. Science. 2002. PMID: 12077404 Review. Komondor KM, Bainbridge RE, Sharp KG, Iyer AR, Rosenbaum JC, Carlson AE. Komondor KM, et al. J Gen Physiol. 2023 Oct 2;155(10):e202213258. doi: 10.1085/jgp.202213258. Epub 2023 Aug 10. J Gen Physiol. 2023. PMID: 37561060 Humans typically reproduce by sexual fertilisation and produce offspring that are genetically unique. Fertilisation is the process in which the nucleus of a sperm cell fuses with the nucleus of an egg cell to produce a zygote which will eventually grow into offspring.Bianchi E, Wright GJ. Bianchi E, et al. PLoS Biol. 2020 Nov 13;18(11):e3000953. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000953. eCollection 2020 Nov. PLoS Biol. 2020. PMID: 33186358 Free PMC article. Review. The sperm that survive still have a long road ahead. In all, they need to travel about 18cm from the cervix through the womb to the fallopian tubes. That’s the equivalent of a human being swimming 100 lengths of an Olympic swimming pool! The fastest swimmers may find the egg in as little as 45 minutes. It can take the slowest up to 12 hours. If the sperm don’t find an egg in the fallopian tubes at the time of intercourse, they can survive inside you for up to seven days. This means that if you ovulate within this time window you could still conceive. Part of the tip of the head of the sperm releases enzymes to digest the egg membrane to allow fertilisation to take place.