Talk:Human fertilization

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 11 January 2021 and 21 April 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jocelyn2019.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 23:58, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Untitled

" After the sperm enters the cytoplasm of the oocyte (also called ovocyte), the tail and the outer coating of the sperm disintegrate and the cortical reaction takes place, preventing other sperm from fertilizing the same egg. The oocyte now undergoes its second meiotic division producing the haploid ovum and releasing a polar body. The sperm nucleus then fuses with the ovum, enabling fusion of their genetic material. " — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.74.60.169 (talk) 08:05, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Want better reference

I think that the non-intercourse/non-Artificial insemination/non-IVF fertilization note is important but I haven't been able to find a better reference than this: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0116.html

If someone can find either a human or at least a mammalian research reference I would be most grateful. Thank you Donarnold (talk) 15:17, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Timeframe

I found this page very interesting and informative, but would be interested to know how long each phase takes (minutes/days/hours) etc. Istara (talk) 05:59, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Schedule

Am just one man who has been very busy sometime dont have time for making love to my wife. just need to know when is the rifgt time to make love for us to get a child. i know the dates of her periods. pls help. need to schedule my self. Cornelius

    about 2 weeks after the beginning of her period  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.202.223 (talk) 09:22, 22 October 2009 (UTC) 

Time Beforehand

This may be the wrong place for this, but how is the time between ejaculation and fertilization termed? Just another guy trying to be a Chemical Engineer, Nanobiotechnologist, and Mathematician (talk) 06:45, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

i think —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.87.208.226 (talk) 11:38, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

The "Great Race"!

I don't think there is a term, since just because the male ejaculates doesn't always mean fertilization will occur. I have heard that spermatozoon can survive for up to 72 hrs in the uterus and fallopian tubes so if it doesn't find an egg by then, then there won't be a pregnancy. that's the only reference i've heard to that timespan, but i could be wrong. Someone who simply took A&P in high school 21:57, 8 December 2008

This needs to be covered, though. I came looking up "impregnation", expecting an article on that which would detail the journey of sperm to egg. There isn't any such article, nor can I find that information anywhere on Wikipedia. That's a serious major defect! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.212.229.106 (talk) 07:41, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Penetration

I think that the egg pulls in the sperm, rather than the sperm pushing in/penetrating the egg. [1] I also think that the egg can choose which sperm to let in, but I have no reference for this.

Trobact (talk) 20:29, 20 January 2009 (UTC) Sarah, 20:27 20th January 2009

You are wrong on both. Sperm penetrates the egg. The egg makes no decision (nor cares) what sperm cell penetrates it. He who makes it first, wins. JeremyWJ (talk) 08:56, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

No. The egg coat 'serves as a sophisticated biological security system that screens incoming sperm, selects only those compatible with fertilization and development, prepares sperm for fusion with the egg and later protects the resulting embryo from polyspermy'(Wassarman, 1988, 78-79). Paul M. Wassarman, "Fertilization in Mammals," Scientific American 259, no. 6 (December 1988): 78-84. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.82.196.165 (talk) 20:48, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Removed Tags

I removed the following tags:

{{Technical (expert)}}

{{Expert-subject|biology}}

The article has to be technical to a certain degree to be factual. After reading it over, I don't think it is more technical than it needs/has to be. It also appears pretty well defined, therefor not in need of an expert to add to or correct it. JeremyWJ (talk) 09:01, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

What age does the ovum develop?

• Is the ovum created at a certain age, or is it there at birth? (What age is it first possible for females to get pregnant?) --Kid Sonic (talk) 17:35, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Three years too late, but in case anyone else had the same question; ova are not present at birth but their preceding stage/cell is. At birth females have a set number of predifferentiated cells called primary ooctyes (tmi but these cells are stuck in Prophase I). During her first menstrual cycle and for every cycle thereafter one (or more) primary oocytes will complete meiosis I in a follicle and produce a secondary oocyte which is now stuck in metapahse II. This secondary oocyte is the egg which is released into the oviduct. Once this egg is fertilized by a spermatozoa (but before a zygote is formed) the secondary oocyte completes meiosis II and becomes an ovum. When can a female first get pregnant? Whenever menarche occurs. -keyboardthegreater — Preceding unsigned comment added by Keyboardthegreater (talk • contribs) 00:02, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Hi!

Hi! I just made a minor edit to the subsection about cortical reactions; something I had to do for my developmental biology class! Sungta (talk) 17:01, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

Edit Suggestion

This page would be greatly improved if all of the different events mentioned (fusion, cortical reaction, acrosomal reaction, etc) were dealt with chronologically. Currently it is haphazard and clearly not in order. Rchriste (talk) 07:06, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Site of fertilization?

What is the exact place where fertilization occurs in the fallopian tubes? --Waqqashanafi (talk) 18:41, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Human fertilization. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111222043503/http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0116.html to http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0116.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 11:27, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

Article Evaluation

From my reading of this article, everything in this article is relevant to the topic. This article carried some solid points and information that is of great importance which have expanded my knowledge of this specific topic. There was one thing that was not so much of a distraction in the article, but more of an eye opener, the fact that there is actually some disease in fertilization, which occurs when an egg is being fertilized by several sperm forming a fraternal twin. This, i did not know about and therefore I found it very interesting.Traceychung (talk) 02:15, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Article Evaluation

Overall the article gives a thorough overview of human fertilization. It states how fertilization begins from a female egg and male sperm. However, it does not go into detail about the four stages of development. I felt that it lacked information about the zygotic stage, the blastocyst stage, the embryonic stage, and the fetal stage. Moreover, the "cell membranes" section has only one sentence about fertilization and I believe it deserves more than one sentence. It would be appropriate to have information on how fertilization changes the cell membrane. Overall, the article explains the "fusion" section, and "fertilization age" section appropriately. HadiahAb (talk) 20:27, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

Unsourced and factually wrong content

The article has potential issues of vandalization and unsourced (dubious/false) content, one example being the (just removed) unreferenced false claim that eigth sperm can successfully fertilize a single human zygote. As this sentence was kept in the article for about ten years despite a reference missing template, and even got praised by one of the article "evaluators" I can only reccommend that the article is put under scrutiny and an expert revises the whole content. 79.30.142.200 (talk) 17:01, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Gestational age (obstetrics)

An editor has requested for Gestational age (obstetrics) to be moved to another page. Since you had some involvement with Gestational age (obstetrics), you might want to participate in the move discussion (if you have not already done so). Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 08:53, 10 August 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Gender and Sexuality in World Civilizations I

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 September 2022 and 10 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): H2me (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by H2me (talk) 20:41, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Science

Human fertilization 27.63.20.111 (talk) 03:00, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

Cone of attraction and perivitelline membrane section

Hi! I have been editing this article and have done some reorganization to describe events chronologically. I'm having some issues with the subsection "Cone of attraction and perivitelline membrane" because I am unclear on when this fits in the timeline of fertilization and am unable to find reputable sources that discuss it. I also find the wording a bit unclear. Maybe someone could edit this section to add more clarity and ensure that it is in the right place chronologically (or delete it if the facts cannot be corroborated). H2me (talk) 21:25, 28 November 2022 (UTC)

Section on gender stereotypes

Hello, I added a section discussing how the language used to describe fertilization often adheres to socially contrived gender stereotypes. Unfortunately it was removed, but I think it is really important to talk about this form of gender discrimination in science. I've posted it here in case anyone finds it interesting and wants to add it into the article in another way.

Gender Stereotypes Used to Describe Fertilization

In 1991 Emily Martin wrote “The Egg and the Sperm,” arguing that the language used to describe fertilization relies on gender stereotypes. The egg is described to be passive while the sperm is active. One example of this is motion: the egg is said to move passively through the fallopian tube, while the sperm takes a “journey” or propels itself with a strong tail. Additionally, the sperm is often described as binding to the egg, which frames it as the active penetrator in accordance with gender roles. In reality, the ZP3 protein on the surface of the egg is the ligand and the sperm carries the receptor, making the egg’s protein the penetrator.

More recent studies have confirmed Emily Martin’s findings. A 2015 study on Youtube videos about conception found common themes among videos that showed how gender roles influence the portrayal of fertilization. The themes included that the videos were from the point of view of the sperm, the egg was shown to be waiting passively, the vagina was described to be dangerous, and the sperm’s behavior was described as warlike and violent. Another study from 2014 examined science textbooks ranging from middle school to medical school and similarly found that the egg was described to be passive while the sperm took an active journey, fertilization was described from the perspective of the sperm, and similes were commonly used that implied that the sperm was tough and masculine.

Sources:

Martin, Emily (1991). "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles". Signs. 16 (3): 485–501 – via JSTOR.

Nettleton, Pamela Hill (2015). "Brave Sperm and Demure Eggs: Fallopian Gender Politics on YouTube". Feminist Formations. 27 (1): 25–45. doi:10.1353/ff.2015.0006. ISSN 2151-7371.

Campo-Engelstein, Lisa; Johnson, Nadia L. (2014-03-01). "Revisiting "The fertilization fairytale:" an analysis of gendered language used to describe fertilization in science textbooks from middle school to medical school". Cultural Studies of Science Education. 9 (1): 201–220. doi:10.1007/s11422-013-9494-7. ISSN 1871-1510. H2me (talk) 18:14, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

Steven Andrew Jacobs

... is not a reliable source for anything related to this article. This is a guy whose current Twitter profile pic is an "I am the pro-life generation" sign. This relates to this edit and these ones. Issues in Law & Medicine is co-sponsored by an anti-abortion group and has previously published works promoting the scientifically discredited theory purporting a link between vaccines and autism. The SSRN is literally a self-published "working paper" draft. The misuse of sources to push this fringe statistic needs to stop, please. DanCherek (talk) 23:19, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

@DanCherek Many journals have published false info. That's not unique to Issues in law and Medicine. Also, how does someone's support of something matter to it's reliability. How is Jacobin and mother jones still a RS when they are clearly extremely biased. How does the fact that it is an SSRN make it not reliable? PalauanReich^🗣️ 01:02, 27 April 2023 (UTC)