David Mohr
Fertilization: The Journey of Cassandra and Euripides
One of the most awesome things that our bodies can do is produce another human being. This is a vital process in keeping our species alive. The steps to fertilization not only take place inside the body but outside the body as well. The internal and external sex organs of the male and female will be called upon to participate in the fertilization process. There are many steps in the dance of fertilization. The real hoe down begins with a lovely single gal named Cassandra who is a member of the ovum family and a little Olympic swimmer named Euripides who is part of a big band of brothers in the sperm family. Today is the one day Cassandra has been waiting for in the last 22 years. As Cassandra as been maturing in ovaries since the fetal stage the same cannot be said about Euripides, like most males he has only been mature for a few months. Cassandra starts off her day in one of the two ovaries that women have on each side of the uterus. During the” proliferative phase”, between ten and twenty of Cassandra’s friend will be with her waiting to see who gets to go on the train ride to the fertilization dance. Estrogen levels help increase the party atmosphere until it peaks and then Cassandra is released to begin her journey to the dance.
After this, the next phase occurs in which the corpus luteum produces large amounts of estrogen and progesterone this helps to build a chair in the uterus for Cassandra to rest and be nurtured in after fertilization takes place. While this is happening, Cassandra is making her short trip to the fallopian tube where the dance will take place, unlike Euripides who will be making a much longer trip. In the fallopian tube there is nourishment and signs guiding Cassandra’s way. Even though the fallopian is not very long, only about four inches, Cassandra moves slowly and must meet Euripides within a day