Читать книгу Sex For Dummies - Pierre Lehu A., Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer - Страница 68

Leading into the ovaries are the fallopian tubes, each about 4 inches long (see Figure 3-4). The entrance to these tubes, near the ovary, is fairly large and lined with tiny “fingers,” called fimbria, which help to guide the eggs released by the ovary into one of the tubes.

Illustration by Kathryn Born

FIGURE 3-4: The ovaries and fallopian tubes: Where it all starts.

A woman has two ovaries, each about ¹⁄2 to 1 inch long. The woman’s eggs are stored within the ovaries and then released, usually one at a time each month, at a signal given by the pituitary gland. A woman is born with 200,000 eggs, but by the time she reaches puberty, that number has dwindled to 400 or so.

The ovaries also release the female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone. These hormones trigger the processes needed to create a baby.

I describe baby-making processes in Chapter 1. If you skipped that chapter, or maybe even if you didn’t, I suggest you go back and read it now. At its biological core, sex is about making babies, and that’s something you can never know too much about.

As far as the role that estrogen and progesterone play in a woman’s sexual desire, the evidence seems to tilt away from their having much of a role. Women also produce the male sex hormone, testosterone, and this may play somewhat of a role, but the evidence is not conclusive.