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When it comes to the reproductive system, most women just want to know, “Am I pregnant or not?” But if you knew some of the crazy processes involved in getting you pregnant (or not) you might be very impressed by that body of yours. Here are 15 shocking facts about the reproductive system.
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How many children can a woman have?
Did you ever wonder just how many children one woman’s body could possibly make in a lifetime? It’s around 35.
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Your eggs have yolks
Yup: just like chicken eggs have yolks, so do yours! They’re called the Ooplasms. But while in a chicken egg the yolk to white ratio is large, the human yolk is very small compared to the rest of the egg.
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Fallopian tubes are tiny
When you think of these tubes, you might think of tubes about the size of your intestines but in fact, they are about as wide as the head of a pin!
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The life of an umbilical cord
That little cord that delivers nutrients to the fetus—the umbilical cord—starts to grow in a pregnant woman’s body just about a week after fertilization.
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Even newborn girls have eggs
A newborn baby girl already has hundreds of thousands of immature eggs in her tiny ovaries.
But boys take a while
Males, however, do not start making sperm until puberty. They are not born with it.
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How many eggs will “work?”
Of the hundreds of thousands of eggs a woman is born with, only about 300 to 500 will become mature in her reproductive life.
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The human egg is the largest cell
The human egg, also called the ovum, is actually a single cell and the largest in the human body.
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The sperm is the smallest cell
Oddly enough, while the egg in the woman’s womb is the largest single cell in a human body, what the man provides—the sperm—is the smallest single cell!
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The pre-born baby has body hair
Before a baby is born it is actually covered in a layer of hair that goes away once the baby is delivered.
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The life of a sperm
Around 500 million sperm in the male body become ready to go to battle (impregnate an egg) each day.
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The death of a sperm
Each of those tiny sperm will only live for about 36 hours.
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We can’t look at eggs
Sperm can be observed inside the male body, but female eggs can only be seen once they’re removed from the body (like in the case of external fertilization.
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Just how acidic is the vagina?
It has a pH level similar to a tomato. This acidity helps fight off bacteria.
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The placenta is an organ
And it is the only organ that is temporary. It leaves the body with the baby.
