Geek Out: Know More About The Cast Of “The Bachelor” Than You Do About Your “Pill”?
Reproductive lifetime:
typically scientists working in this field consider this to be 15 – 49 yrs.
Thirty-ish:
I spent a really long time searching for an answer to “how many different formulations of oral contraception” are there and I just couldn’t get a straight answer. This link (below) shows that in the US there are currently 17 different oral contraceptives re: how much of and which hormone(s) is/are in each tablet, and 29 brands – so that means there are at least two versions of several of these Pills just marketed under different names.
Journeying:
I would like to note here that traditional thinking has the sperm doing all the work, swimming like crazy to get to the fallopian tubes. Well, guess what? We now know that the uterus helps out more than a little bit, producing powerful contractions that help push the sperm in the right direction and without which it seems that most sperm would not manage to complete the journey!
Squeezes:
The walls of the Fallopian tubes are interesting for two reasons: firstly, they’re full of smooth muscle which contracts to help squeeze the gametes (ovum and sperm) towards each other. Secondly, the inside of the tubes is lined with cells with little hair-like projections on them, called cilia. The cilia waft backwards and forwards, helping to sweep the gametes and then potentially a fertilized ovum, through the tube.
Owner’s brain:
We could have a whole post on this but in brief – the hypothalamus releases something called GnRH (gonadotrophin releasing hormone) which in turn causes the release from another part of the brain (the anterior pituitary gland) of LH and FSH – Luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone.
These two hormones are critical for the maturation and release of an ovum (ovulation). The release of GnRH, LH and FSH is prevented by high levels of progesterone (and estrogen to a lesser extent).
So when a woman’s pregnant or using the Pill, the high levels of progesterone (and estrogen) prevent the release of LH and FSH which prevents the ripening and release of an ovum.
Placenta:
The placenta is a structure, vital for the success of a pregnancy, that’s produced during the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy. It’s anchors into the mothers uterine wall and is connected to the developing fetus by the umbilical cord. The placenta allows nutrients from the mother to pass to the fetus, via the umbilical cord, but also allows waste products from the fetus to be passed back to the mother (again via the umbilical cord) for the mother’s body to get rid of.
Extremely unlikely to survive:
This is called superfetation and does happen but very rarely.
Check out these links – in both cases the mothers gave birth to twins that appeared to have been conceived three weeks apart!
https://nypost.com/2021/04/04/uk-woman-gives-birth-to-twins-conceived-three-weeks-apart/
Progesterone:
Collectively, the synthetic progesterone molecules belong to a family called progestins. Different pharmaceutical companies then give them fancy names like norethindrone or desogestrel. If you’re an oral contraceptive user, turn over to the back of the packet and type in each chemical name you see there along with “estrogen or progesterone” and you should easily find resources which tell you which of your natural hormones each of those synthetic hormones is mimicking.
Mucus:
If you’re interested to know more and didn’t yet get chance to check out the “think you know how to get pregnant” post, click here.
Check out the geek notes for that post too, to learn about how to assess this mucus for both contraceptive and fertility purposes
Estrogen:
If you’ve headed over to geek notes pages before today (for the menopause post, click here) you’ll know what I’m about to say but weirdly, very weirdly, there isn’t actually a single thing called estrogen. Women produce hormones which are all members of the estrogen family and as they all act the same way (more or less), we refer to the hormone estrogen when really we should be saying “the hormones estradiol, estrone and estriol” – I guess that’s a bit of a mouthful!
Ethinyl estradiol is probably the most common synthetic estrogen-family hormone that you’ll encounter.
