just curious...

[either-or.livejournal.com]

hi! does anyone know about how many eggs we start off with? if you're on bcp and don't ovulate, what happens to the eggs? they just don't mature? also, if your father was a fraternal twin, does this increase your odds of having fraternal twins (releasing more than one egg per month), or is it only something inherited from your mother's side?

how big is an egg? could you see it w/o a microscope? i think it's very fascinating to think that they're all already in me!

Comments

Just hangin' out....

[cookiebeark10.livejournal.com]

When you are on birth control, your body is tricked into thinking it is pregnant, so therefore, no eggs are released. They just hang out until their time to be released comes.

And, yes, I believe if your dad was a twin, your chances of having twins are greater than, say I, who has never had ANY history of twins in my family.

This is what I was taught anyway. Who knows, I could have been lied to all these years!

Re: Just hangin' out....

[seren.livejournal.com]

What I don't get is.. say you take the BCP for ten years. When you start having regular periods again after giving up on pills, does that mean that you will still hit menopause at the "normal" age, or do you have to wait for the 10 years worth of eggs to be released, thus leaving you possibly still menstruating at 65?!!

[pfc-rat.livejournal.com]

You're born with a few thousand eggs. You have WAY more than you can ever use. When you're on BCP you may or may not ovulate, but if you don't it's not a big deal. If you don't ovulate, they just sit there.

And yes, if twins are in your family, your chances of having twins goes up. Also, certain ethnic origins are more likely to have multiple births than others.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Identical twinning is random chance, but fraternal twinning is inherited.

Re:

[pfc-rat.livejournal.com]

yes, but multiple births (fraternal and identical) in general are far more prevalent among people of certain ethnic orgins, and that can't be just pure chance.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Fraternal twinning is definitely more common among people of some ethnic backgrounds and less so among others. But when separated out, identical twinning is also more common? I haven't seen that statistic separated out anywhere. I don't deny it, I just haven't seen it -- can you point to an authoritative source?

Re:

[pfc-rat.livejournal.com]

not at the moment, but i'll keep my eye out...

Of course I could just be horribly mistaken :)

[ayodele.livejournal.com]

The Yoruba are supposed have the highest number of twin births, I thought, but I don't remember which kind.

[aliki.livejournal.com]

According to this website (http://www.kajuntwins.com/definetwins.htm) says, if you have a [fraternal] brother, his chances are not increased but it he has a daughter, her chances would be increased. So yes, your chances of having fraternal twins is increased because your father is a fraternal twin..

As for the size of a human egg: http://www.stanford.edu/group/Urchin/gam1.htm
It claims that a human egg is 100 microns, and thus I dont think you can see it without a microscope...!!!

[seren.livejournal.com]

Me too! As it happens, a friend just posted this (she is 20 weeks pregnant..)

"Here's proof that life is an endless cycle: less than half a year ago your baby was just an egg herself, but by now, if she's a girl, she's already developed the tiny follicles that hold all the eggs she'll ever have--as many as six million."

So we could have up to 6 million eggs! I cant even work out how many are released but wow! :)

[either-or.livejournal.com]

so the eggs develop while we are still developing in our mother? that means in addition to your own eggs, your yet-to-be-born daughter's eggs would also be inside of you if you were pregnant with a girl? it reminds me of those russian dolls, with one inside the other. it's crazy to think of all the places my eggs and i have been. all the things we've gone thru. hehe. they're keeping me company.

i think i'd like to see an egg. i mean, i've seen them in textbooks and stuff, but i'd like to see one of my own.

one more thing...some people feel when they ovulate? i've never felt it (i don't think so anyway), but what does it feel like? does it hurt?

[yruugrrl.livejournal.com]

I sometimes feel it when I ovulate...it's a little twinge of pain similar to cramps, that goes away fairly quickly. Of course, I don't KNOW that it's ovulation, but it happens at roughly the right time, and it doesn't happen any other time. I don't always feel it, though. It's weird...sometimes I'll just KNOW, like when you can tell you are going to start your period that day or something like that. Strange.

mittelschmertz

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Mittelschmertz is German and means "middle pain." It is a term to denote midcycle pain associated with ovulation, a very common phenomenon. (http://www.ivillagehealth.com/experts/womens/qas/0,11816,235372_737,00.html)

Mind you, this is not mittelschmertz.

[yruugrrl.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I had no idea it had an actual name, albeit in a different language. :) Thanks!

Re:

[seren.livejournal.com]

Yeah.. when the foetus is 5 months old it gets eggs it appears! Crazy eh?!

I haven't ovulated for ages, but I'm coming off the pill soon so I should be able to answer that before long! I remember I did sometimes get cramps, or a weird pain in an ovary, and I felt a bit pre menstrual from then til my period. It didn't hurt a huge amount, not like period pain. I hope it hurts in the future to be honest, because I'd feel better if I could feel it and know it was all happening! :)

OyVay-ulating

[cookiebeark10.livejournal.com]

I haven't ovulated for a very long time do to the hormonal substances I have been pumping through my body for the past few years, but when I did I think the pain was worse than my period cramps. It would only last for a day and it would be right where my ovary is (whichever side decided to pop out an egg that month). Once, I even bled. I, of course, went to the doctor and they did a pelvic exam to make sure everything was ok, and sure enough, ovulation was occuring. So, I can tell when I am ovulating, or near the time of.

The reason it can be painful is because every time the egg breaks through the ovary it leaves a tiny scar. If you "pass" another egg through that same scar tissue it will hurt more. I guess mine must just come out the same ovary hole...

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Your eggs were all already in you when you were born. :)

~~~~~
Average Ovum Size
1/175th of an inch (0.14 mm.), slightly smaller than the period ending this sentence. (http://www.sexualrecords.com/WSRaverages.html) Interestingly, this is the largest cell in the human body.


~~~~~
Human Ovum (egg) - The female reproductive cell
The human ovum is about the size of a pencil point. (http://www.aclife.org/education/development.html)
The ovum travels down the fallopian tube, which is 4 inches long and the diameter of a hair bristle.
All eggs necessary to populate entire world, as it is, fit into a cookie jar.


~~~~~
The woman ovulates and produces one ovum (egg cell) that travels down one of her fallopian tubes. It is about 1/100" in diameter, and is barely visible to the eye. (http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_fetu.htm)


~~~~~

[fifthconundrum.livejournal.com]

*wide-eyed stare* Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool...

Females are awesome. :-)

[katlynel.livejournal.com]

hee, mactavish beat me to all the fun factoids, but yeah, the ovum is the largest single human cell and supposedly the only cell big enough to see without a microscope.

And menopause doesn't occur when you run out of eggs, it simply occurs when your body reaches a certain age. You still have eggs left at that point. HOWEVER, eggs tend to deteriorate over the course of your life -- since, by the time you're 50, those eggs have been around for 50 years as well! This is part of why older women have more trouble conceiving and also why Down's syndrome is more common in babies born to older women.

[tigerfemme.livejournal.com]

So the Pill isn't a way for a female who might want to have a child past age 35 to "hold on" to her eggs? Damn. ;)

[flooding.livejournal.com]

i've been wondering the same thing about held up eggs for years. i just didn't bother to ask anyone. thank you for asking this! :)

[either-or.livejournal.com]

i wanna use a couple eggs now, while they're still relatively fresh.