Fertility Basics: The Reproductive System

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"Each of us has a basic set of "fertility" parts.  Do you know what they are? If you don't, or aren't sure, here's a simple list.

If you are a woman:

A uterus

Ovaries (typically two)

Fallopian tubes (also typically two)

A cervix

A vagina

If you are a man:

A penis

Vas deferens

Testicles (typically two)

A scrotum

A prostate

How Basic Fertility Parts Function

Those are the basics. When you are trying to have a baby, all of these parts play an important role. They are not the only fertility parts. Let's focus on them today though. Intermediate fertility parts will be next week. (Subscribe to PathtoFertility and have the blog delivered to your email every business day. )

Our basic fertility parts each have an important function. If they are working perfectly, and you have properly timed sexual intercourse, the odds of a pregnancy occurring are about 30% before the age of 30 and about 15-20% after 35.

That's when everything is working exactly like it should. And sometimes that's not what happens..."

Learn more: 

http://fertility-news.rmact.com/path-to-fertility-blog/fertility-basics-101-parts-of-the-reproductive-system

'BPA-free' plastic accelerates embryonic development, disrupts reproductive system

Photo Credit: avax.news

"Companies advertise "BPA-free" as a safer version of plastic products ranging from water bottles to sippy cups to toys. Many manufacturers stopped used Bisphenol A to strengthen plastic after animal studies linked it to early puberty and a rise in breast and prostate cancers.

Yet new UCLA research demonstrates that BPS (Bisphenol S), a common replacement for BPA, speeds up embryonic development and disrupts the reproductive system. Reported in the Feb. 1 edition of the journal Endocrinology, the animal study is the first to examine the effects of BPA and BPS on key brain cells and genes that control the growth and function of organs involved in reproduction.

"Our study shows that making plastic products with BPA alternatives does not necessarily leave them safer," explained senior author Nancy Wayne, a reproductive endocrinologist and a professor of physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Using a zebrafish model, Wayne and her colleagues found that exposure to low levels of BPA and BPS—equivalent to the traces found in polluted river waters—altered the animals' physiology at the embryonic stage in as quickly as 25 hours..."

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