Sexual reproduction in humans
Male reproductive system
- The male reproductive organs → testes, scrotum, sperm duct, prostate gland, seminal
vesicle, urethra and penis
- The testes are male sex organ, located inside scrotum.
- The scrotum hangs outside the body to keep the testes at cooler temperature.
- Sperm cells need cooler than 37 C to develop properly & be stored.
- After puberty, the testes produce sperm cell (male gametes, spermatozoa, sperm)
(The age will be 10-16 years)
- The sperms are stored & mature in in small tubules just outside the testes.
- The sperm duct (wider tube) connect these small tubes to urethra (center of penis).
- The prostate gland & other glands secrete fluid to swim the sperms.
- The prostate gland → secrete mucus
- The seminal vesicle → secrete sugary fluid for sperm to use in respiration
- Sperm cells + fluid → semen (seminal fluid)
- The 2 sperm duct join with urethra (which carries urine out from bladder)
- The urine & semen never pass down the urethra at same time because a ring of muscle
around the urethra contract to prevent.
- The sperms carry genetic information from male parent to the egg of female parent.
- The testes also produce male hormone (testosterone).
- The hormone stimulates changes in boy’s body into adult during puberty.
Figure. Male reproductive system (front view)
Figure. Male reproductive system (side view)
Female reproductive system
- It consists of the ovaries, oviduct, uterus, cervix & vagina.
- Ovaries are female sex organs that produce gametes called ova or eggs.
- The ovaries attach to inside of the abdomen just below the kidneys.
- After puberty, the egg is released from ovary about 28 days.
- The ovaries tend to release an egg (eggs) on alternate months.
- The egg passes out of ovary & into funnel shaped opening of oviduct is called ovulation.
Figure. Female egg cell
- If the sperm cell is present in oviduct, the egg will be fertilized.
- If not fertilized, the egg will die after about a day.
- The lower end of uterus has a ring of muscle (cervix) which leads to muscular tubes
(vagina) that open outside the body.
- The outer opening of vagina is called vulva.
- Above the vulva, there is the opening of urethra through which urine from bladder pass
out.
- Above the urethra, there is sensitive clitoris.
- The vagina is sometimes known as birth canal.
- The ovaries also make female hormones, estrogen & progesterone between 10 and 15
years of age during puberty.
Figure. Female reproductive system (side & front view)
Sexual intercourse
- During sexual intercourse, male & female stimulates each other.
- Blood is pumped into special spongy tissue in the penis, so that it become erect.
- The erect penis is placed into vagina during sexual intercourse.
- Fluid made by wall of vagina lubricates movements of penis within the vagina
- This movement stimulate the penis & start to contraction in sperm duct to move sperms
from the tubule around the testes toward the penis
- When the sperms flow, secretion from glands add to form semen.
- The contraction of urethra move semen (seminal fluid) through the penis into vagina.
- This is called ejaculation. At that time the man experiences feeling of pleasure called
orgasm.
- Repeated movements of erectile penis against clitoris or against the wall of vagina also
produce orgasm for women.
- Each ejaculation contains between 2-5 cm3 of semen with 500 million sperm cells.
Fertilization
- One of million sperm cells meet an egg by swimming from vagina to oviduct.
- Many sperm cells do not survive this difficult journey.
- If there is an egg in the oviduct, enzyme released by acrosome on the head of sperm
digest the jelly coat surrounding the egg.
- After the sperm membrane fuse with egg membrane, the nucleus enter egg’s cytoplasm
and tail is left outside.
- The sperm nucleus + egg nucleus → zygote nucleus which is diploid because it contain 2
sets of chromosomes (1 from mother & 1 from father).
- Now zygote nucleus contain 46 chromosomes
- A membrane form immediately around the zygote to stop from entering other sperm cells
- If there is no egg cell in oviduct → no fertilization
- The sperm cell can stay alive for 2-3 days
- So intercourse do just before ovulation, fertilization can occur.
Implantation
- Fertilization occur in oviduct → The zygote begins to divide → it forms 2 cells, then 4
cells, then 8 cells → some cell continue to divide & others stop → after few hours → ball
of cells move down oviduct by peristaltic contraction & beating of ciliated cells lining
oviduct.
- It take numbers of days (about 7 days) to reach uterus.
- The embryo settle in lining of uterus is called implantation.
