Understanding My Fertility

Study Notes

Females are born with thousands of eggs in their ovaries.
Eggs are so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye.
Once a girl reaches puberty, an egg matures in one of her ovaries and travels down the fallopian tube to the uterus.
The release of an egg from the ovary is called ovulation.
If an egg cell unites with a sperm, fertilization takes place.
The fertilized egg travels to the uterus and attaches to the lining, growing into a baby over nine months.
If the egg is not fertilized, the uterus sheds its lining along with blood, body fluids, and the unfertilized egg. This is called menstruation or period.
From puberty onwards, males produce sperm in their testicles.
The testicles are found inside the scrotum.
As sperm matures, it moves from the testicles to the epididymis where it remains for two weeks.
The epididymis connects to the vas deferens, which carries the sperm through the seminal vesicles and prostate gland.
Fluids released by the seminal vesicles and prostate gland mix with sperm to form semen.

Sexually transmitted infections are infections spread through sexual activity.
Many types of STIs exist, including HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomonas, and herpes.
STIs are preventable.
In the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (1984-1990), 62% of diagnosed cases were female.
From 1991 to present, males comprised 94% of diagnoses.
However, the number of diagnosed HIV infections among females has increased in recent years.
Between 2001 and 2005, the predominant age group among those diagnosed was 35-49 years old, shifting to 25-34 years old in more recent years.
The number of females diagnosed in the first half of 2018 was nearly triple the number of diagnoses in the same time period in 2013.
93% of all female cases were in the reproductive age group (15-49 years old).