(lively upbeat music)
- This week, the groundwork is laid
for the big O: ovulation.
The all-important first
step toward the making
of the baby of your dreams.
And like those dreams,
the baby action is all
in your head right now,
where the hypothalamus,
the control center in your
brain, works with its partner
in reproduction, the pituitary gland,
to start releasing hormones.
These hormones, called FSH
and LH, prompt the ovaries
to get cracking on some eggs,
ripening one to maturity
within its follicle.
All this egg action causes the ovaries
to crank up production of
two other powerful hormones,
estrogen and progesterone.
These hormones, the dynamic
duo of the reproductive system,
get the reproductive party
in your uterus started,
telling the uterus to thicken its lining,
forming a blood-pumped
cushion in anticipation
of hosting a fertilized egg.
Midway through your menstrual
cycle, around day 14
if you have an average 28 day
cycle, the dominant follicle
in the ovary swells and
then ruptures, releasing
the mature egg of the month.
That egg, the one with
your baby's name on it,
bursts through the walls of
the ovary and is immediately
swept up into the fringed
opening of the fallopian tube,
where it will take a six day
odyssey down to the uterus.
Ovulation has just occurred.
Meanwhile, swimming along as fast as
their little tails can
flutter, millions of sperm
are making a beeline for that egg,
up through the cervix, into the uterus
and then on to the fallopian tube.
One especially persistent suitor survives
the grueling journey to intercept the egg
and burrow into its outer layers.
The victorious sperm plunges
into the egg's nucleus,
releases its own genetic
contribution and bingo.
The egg is officially fertilized.
That twinkle in your eye
is about to become a baby.
(lively upbeat music)
