Читать книгу Getting Pregnant For Dummies - Sharon Perkins - Страница 40

You should have two fallopian tubes, one near each ovary. Tubes are kind of like a pickup bar — a place where sperm and egg should meet and, it is hoped, go on to create something bigger and better: a baby! When an egg is released from the ovary, little projections called fimbriae on the end of the tube move back and forth to “entice” the egg into the tube. Once in the fallopian tube, the egg needs a few days to shimmy down to the uterus. One hopes along the way it meets Mr. Sperm and fertilizes, thereby transforming into an embryo by the time it reaches the uterus. Damaged tubes, usually damaged from infection but sometimes from endometriosis or surgery, are a very common cause of infertility. We talk about this in depth in Chapter 11.

The egg does not have to be picked up by the fallopian tube nearest the ovary. As much as 15-20 percent of the time, the opposite tube can do the job. So if you only have one open tube, and you ovulate from the opposite ovary, pregnancy can still occur.