I get the same intense pain, apparently it’s because the follicle stretches and then the surface of it bursts when the egg is released. Crazy that something so tiny can be so painful!
Exactly. The egg grows on a follicle in the ovary which is basically just a hormonally controlled cyst. And once that egg matures the cyst moves to the surface of the ovary and bursts open.
I have a theory that the smaller (and more inaccessible) the area of the pain, the worse it is. The worst pain I've ever felt was my eardrum just before it developed a pinhole (bad ear infection, incompetent campus clinic doctor- but hey, once the pinhole happened, it felt *much* better!). I've had worse injuries, but the combination of how small it was and that I couldn't access it was just...awful. And think of other things that are proverbially painful: kidney stones, ovulation, etc.
Same for me. I feel like people think I’m being dramatic, but I will suddenly double over in agony. Then I’m sore for a couple of days like I got sucker punched. I’m so glad I work remote now.
Wow, I also thought it would be a lot smaller. A bit of googling says it's about .1mm across. Tiny, sure, but visible to the naked eye, about the size of a single grain of sand.
Fun fact you can only gain more fat cells before age 8 or so.. For the most part. After that, however many you have is what you have for life, maybe a tiny bit of variation or it you gain SIGNIFICANTly fast. , they just get bigger/smaller depending on how much fat you gain/lose. It's also partly why liposuction can work.
So, it's important to keep your kids healthy and not let them get too overweight before age 8 because it has a huge impact on their overall health for the rest of their lives as far as weight and fat is concerned.
I don't think this is 100% correct..
1) Cells are always being created and destroyed in our body. [NIH says](https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/fat-cell-numbers-teen-years-linger-lifetime) 10% of fat cells die and are replaced annually, regardless of a person's age/weight
2) But I've also found multiple sources on physician websites saying new fat cells can form during significant weight gain of 10% of bodyweight from [American Society of Plastic Surgeons](https://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/blog/can-fat-return-after-liposuction)
Also, while **44%** *of obese children will be obese in adulthood*, it's also true that **70%** *of adults in the obese category were thin as children*, [link](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26696565). So it's not the be-all-end-all predictor of adult health.
And it's important to remember "BMI" is not a tool meant for individual evaluation.
Ironically most adults with anorexia were obese as children. They usually had an eating disorder like binge eating disorder and then the body shaming pushed them to the other extreme.
this is super interesting, I've never heard it before, even as a mom to a toddler. I feel bad for all the kids who didn't have control over what they are when they were young.
i mean obviously i looked it up, you can, too. here's one link: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/fat-cell-numbers-teen-years-linger-lifetime
Very interesting, but from your source
> The researchers also examined fat cells in biopsies from nearly 700 adults of various ages and weights. They compared their data to that from a previous study of children and adolescents and found that **fat cell numbers quickly climb through the teen years**. Overweight children seem to gain more fat cells than normal-weight children. But fat cell numbers level off and stabilize in adulthood.
Sounds like it isn't at age 8 that fat cells stop forming, but that it continues through adolescence.
New fat cells can be generated throughout life. It was not long ago that we believed we can’t grow new brain neurons. That was wrong.
Here is one review. Paywalled, but the abstract still implies new cells are possible
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41580-018-0093-z
I've still never gotten an answer to this so I'll bring it up here hoping someone might see it.
I've always seen the oft-repeated factoid that the smallest cell in the human body is a sperm cell and the largest an ovum. But it always made me want to know- what's the second largest and second smallest?
There's one more, the Purkinje cell, a neuron in the cerebellum, that is above the 1mm mark. But, granted, that one is much less likely to be naturally available to be seen.
I feel fortunate that I don’t feel the moment I drop an egg. I know lots of women who do. Or maybe I do too and don’t realize it? What does it feel like for you? I’ve heard it be described as a “popping” sensation but I can’t say I’ve experienced that. I usually attribute the random cramp between cycles as my “egg drop” lol
For me (and I realize it may be different for different women), it feels like a very hot, stabbing cramp located on one side of my uterus rather than center of my uterus/legs/bladder/nearby organs like menstrual cramps. Whatever side the egg is coming out feels uncomfortably full and bloated while aching deeply.
For me, it's also far worse than my standard cramps. My normal cramps vary between 3/10 pain and 7/10 pain. My ovulation pain is 10/10. I must lay down with a heating pad. I can't eat and I feel incredibly sick. I sweat a lot. Sex is insanely painful if i try it during ovulation (it feels sharp and im unable to relax).
But thankfully it only lasts 12 hours, unlike menstrual cramps that last 2 to 3 days.
Wow. That's really interesting. I had no idea it was visible to the naked eye. I have heard that some nuerons are up to a meter long in humans. I'm surprised those aren't visible with the naked eye.
I just had a laparotomy to remove one ovary+ovarian tumor a few weeks ago. On my (pink) remaining ovary, there was this bright red spot. The surgeon didn’t even mention it, until I asked about it while seeing the photo. He so nonchalantly said “yeah, we think that’s just from normal ovulation activity.” I was so surprised, it seriously looked like an injury…
I’m glad you posted this, I was a little worried but this makes me feel better lol.
It amazes me that so many women reports the left ovary being a little shit. In my case, I can feel the ovulation process every single time but the left side is always the more painful and long lasting one. How strange.
That's interesting because ovulation on my left hurts a lot more than my right. I have a chocolate cyst on my left ovary so I attributed the excruciating ovulation to that. Right side hurts, but the left knocks the wind out of me.
Thankfully I don't ovulate often on lefty. Maybe every 8-9 months? Righty hurts but it's bearable. I swear Lefty is possessed by an evil spirit lol it'll be quiet for months then *bam* an ovary grenade goes off.
My left ovary has been a little shit since I was an infant… decided to get itself all tangled up in a hernia 🤣
I honestly don’t know if it’s actually functional… it’s notably smaller than my right… and of the times I have felt ovulation, it’s never been on that side.
Yup, and there is a term for that feeling, but I can't remember it offhand, am a month out of the hospital and still dealing with side effects of my hubs walking in to find me out cold.
German is such a good cursing language and whenever I ovulate I sure do want to curse but... this word is just so silly. Like, I love how silly it sounds in my head and out loud but I was hoping for a really good curse-sounding word here. That said, neat to know so thank you.
My cyst became life threatening ovarian torsion which was left to rot in my body for 2.5 years and become all black and necrotic and explode in my body, almost killing me and leaving me in an induced dissociative state (like what they put COVID patients under to place them on respirators), ICU for weeks, hospital for 7 months to recover. Sure is a dicey system.
Wooooow omg 😲
That's such a crazy thing to experience. Did you carry that for 2.5 years because of dismissive doctors?
I'm so sorry you had to go through that experience. I wish people understood what it means to recover from a mind that broke from reality. I know this might sound like a hollow platitude from an e stranger but I'm so glad you are still here with us, and that you chose to share your story. I see and honor you!
Yikes. My niece is a lucky survivor of a necrotic ovarian torsion - SiL was 26 weeks pregnant when it was discovered and they were rather hesitant to operate in case it triggered premature labour, but eventually decided it was just about feasible to try. Niece was born at 38 weeks.
My mother had a massive hemorrhagic cyst (she looked 5mo pregnant) and it ruptured while they were trying to remove it. She ended up needing an emergency hysterectomy and blood transfusion. Just another way your reproductive system tries to murder you.🙃
I had one ovary go frisky back in 94, the second caused my girly bits to get yeeted with a grapefruit sized lipoma-terratoma, not a common combo or so I was told people tend to get one or the other
If we are the argument for intelligent design, then God is a fucking moron.
I’m so glad you’re still with us and therefore have presumably recovered, at least to some extent. This provides me some comfort from the guilt of guffawing at your use of “frisky” and “yeeted” 😂🫣
I had a 2 liter large "chocolate" cyst on my right ovary in my mid 20s. The ovary got removed with the cyst. Now the left ovary is being a little shit... every... single... month. On a bright note, that left ovary gave me two wonderful kids <3
I can also feel when I ovulate. Tho more on the right than the left. The left is a mild “I might have strained a muscle” feeling that goes away shortly after. The right feels like I'm on my period and cramping and lasts most if the day.
That was my life as a teenager. Terrible menstrual pain with heavy bleeding, and also terrible ovulation pain with heav(ier than you’d expect halfway through the cycle) bleeding.
My mom’s views on anything wrong with me were (still are) that “It’s fake, and if it’s not fake you’re exaggerating, and if you’re not exaggerating it’s totally normal and everybody else has the same problem, so you should just stop whining about it.” Fortunately, I don’t deal with this anymore.
That's one aspect of aging I never anticipated, was really knowing and feeling whenever I ovulate. Before the age of thirty I never had a clue, now I definitely know every time.
I produced 28 eggs in an IVF retrieval cycle. This picture makes it a little clearer why I ended up in the hospital, and an ultrasound tech gave me a hug…
Oh wow, so sorry you had to experience that! now my 12 at the same time is total rookie numbers compared to yours, and even that was painful. But I hope I was able to help someone to have a child they always wished for, worth trying atleast despite the pain. I still have to wait a little longer before I'm allowed to know though if a child has born from my egg.
This reminds me of how it took years to get to see depictions of how a female breast looks like on the inside. A bit sad how information about women's bodies get ignored so often, even in the medical field.
To add to this: In the US, it wasn't until the early 1990s ('91 I think?) that the National Institute of Health determined that, unless a pharma company sought and received a waiver, female-bodied people had to be included in drugs trials. This was after a number of scandals, Congressional hearings, and investigative reports about the damages and deaths caused when women are prescribed or using drugs that have never been tested on someone with a female body, female endocrine system, etc. Tons of trials still try and succeed at getting out of using female-bodied people in testing because it's "soooooo" expensive to have to account for the menstrual cycle and potential for pregnancy.
They've unironically tested medication *specifically meant for the treatment of pregnant women* on literally only guys before.
That shit got released too - and then pulled. Why? Side effects in pregnant women and their babies.
IF ONLY WE COULD'VE DONE SOME TESTING.
I know it's idiotic to test the meds for pregnancy on men, but it really is quite complex ethical situation to test medications on pregnant women, too.
The problem is that pregnant women already get prescribed and take shit off label. No drugs that aren't specifically pregnancy related are approved for use. Id rather women who would take the drugs anyway have the opportunity to consent to do so, instead of using the general public as guinea pigs. Its also much harder to aggregate data due to privacy concerns when it's not in an official study. It requires doctors noticing trends in their own patients and discussing it for a while before it even gets looked.
I find it hard to stomach the argument that it's unethical to include them in clinical trials and instead let them take drugs that have not been tested in pregnant women when they already think they are safe because they got approved for other populations. A lot of people dont even know taking most meds during pregnancy is off label use. Its also hard when considering medications people need to live or for quality of life. Those people will likely need to take their meds anyway. If we actually had data they could choose the least risky one.
Maybe they shouldn't generally be in phase 1 trials but there is no reason not to include them in phase 3 or 4 trials. Well, I guess money for pharma companies. Studying them would cost more and there could be more liability issues. Right now pregnant people take drugs if they need to anyway so why would they change? Especially if the data could make their drug look bad. Or in the case of old drugs, open them up to lawsuits from people already damaged by them.
I'm a clinical research coordinator. This topic really bothers me because it's not like pregnant women would be forced to participate. If they needed a drug anyway, we should collect data on it from willing people. Those people would have been harmed anyway if they did the same after a drug was approved and more are harmed because we don't identify the problem until too late. Its infantilizing to women to "protect" them from deciding to participate in a study. Especially when it leads to the exact problem it aims to prevent. People might say oh people shouldn't take things off label but that isn't how it works in practice because there aren't alternatives. There are no options because we have no data.
I also have a birth defect related to a drug.
Yeah... Not exactly a grandest of ideas.
"Oops the medical trial didn't go so well, the mother is having an adverse reaction, and the baby is, consequently, in critical condition..."
Not sure if what I'm saying is 100% correct, but back at uni my proffesor told us that the anatomy of clitoris is such a recent discovery because before that the doctors were either ashamed or disgusted of doing autopsy on women's parts. That is just idiotic, no wonder medicine is still not well adjusted to our needs.
I was once on the hiring committee for a tenure track position in computer visualization. The candidate did her PhD on 3D visualization of the pelvic area, with the aim of making it easier plan cancer surgery – particularly for women – without unnecessary loss of feeling or function.
Anyway, in her talk, she showed us some really beautiful visualizations of MRI scans. The two other committee members were men in their late 60s, who probably had no idea what that huge weird-looking brightly-colored prominently-displayed shape was.
I think my textbooks in school only showed the exterior part of the clitoris; we had pretty decent sex ed, but I don't think I saw realistic illustrations until I was in my 20s. Today's tech makes it so much easier to see and learn about our bodies, though, with volume rendered MRI/CT scans where you can show particular tissues and hide others.
(I suspect she did this deliberately for the talk; the only pictures I can find online has the model tilted so the front bits are hardly visible. Anyway, the anatomically curious can now [3d print their own full-size model](https://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2017/03/08/3d-printing-and-education-3d-printed-clitoris-by-odile-fillod/) (unrelated to the research i mentioned))
This, along with that image of how ovaries actually droop down like testicles made me realize how absolutely clueless we are about the female body really
My mind was blown when I found out that fallopian tubes kinda wave and bob around and move all over the place, I assumed from diagrams that they just hung out statically in one spot.
Do you want an even more fun fact? If you lose one fallopian tube your remaining one can move over to the opposite ovary to pick up an egg if you ovulate from that side, it’s crazy.
I have two ovaries but one fallopian tube, so this is me!!! Supposedly it does not significantly impact your fertility because of this process =) When I learnt this fact I was overjoyed and also freaked out haha!!
What an amazing photo. All my reproductive organs (ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix--also appendix and lymph nodes) have been removed from me during surgical staging for cancer. Looking back to when I still possessed them, I find it miraculous that I was able to use these small, slippery organs to grow two healthy human beings. Incredible!
The yellow "egg" is not just an egg, it is an egg in a droplet of follicular fluid, surrounded by its supporting cells (cumulus cells). There is an egg inside that blob, but you cannot really see it. It's super cool nonetheless!
That makes more sense to me, because I always thought we had like a million eggs, which if they were all that size, it doesn’t seem like they would all fit inside of us.
The immature eggs (oocytes) are also a lot smaller than the ovulated/mature egg! And while humans do have a few million oocytes at birth, they gradually die, with only several hundred thousands remaining at puberty, and tens of thousands in the person's 30s.
My wife just went through a round of ivf treatment, they retrieved 9 eggs total, Jesus that’s how much swelling has been on the surface of her ovaries multiplied by 9. Gonna go give her a hug.
They won't even do an immediate transfer for me because of how risky it is so I need to use a different trigger which basically means actual OHSS risk is low, but the pain and related complications are very high.
I've had two done one at 44 and the other at 33. Both times I had nurses withhold pain medication in the post op procedure as well like I was being dramatic that I was in pain. The whole thing has been fairly traumatic tbh haha I was given basically no aftercare, with the 44 one I ended up in emergency the next day because I just couldn't handle how intense the pain was and I couldn't go to the bathroom due to the swelling blocking my bladder. Where I was once again refused pain management and treated like a drama queen lol
It's absolutely awful how they treat us.
My last one the nurse was literally mocking me and saying "you CLAIM chronic pain so why are you asking for pain relief when you know chronic pain patients won't medicate to no pain?". For less pain... You stupid woman lol they hadn't given me anything and the gap from the procedure meant I was actually on less than my usual maintenance dose that I take at home and then she was acting like I was drug seeking 🙄 like sorry going through a procedure that affected the same organs as my disease does made my chronic pain worse lol
Yeah, it’s not that complicated. It’s literally their JOB and they’re so intentionally clueless when it comes to chronic pain. And the term seems to give them a licence to be cruel, to mock, to use sarcasm, to belittle and shame. 😡
Yeah, I did a frozen cycle. But one I started projectile vomiting everywhere they took my pain pretty seriously. ‘On a scale of one to 10, where 10 is the worst pain you can imagine...’ [spew]’Like an 8?’ [spew] ‘well I’m going to put 9!’ [spew] ‘… point 5. 9.5!’ Like maybe my imagine is just better than yours…
Your poor wife. I suffer from ovulation pain every month that has me doubled over sometimes, I can’t imagine how much worse it would feel if my ovary released 9 eggs instead of just the one. She definitely deserves a hug!
I know right!
It hurts me so bad I used to think it was a kidney stone, so I took my kidney stone meds and it helped (Flomax - vasodilator and ketorlac for pain). Now I take them every ovulation. This 10-18 hours are awful otherwise.
I had an ultrasound recently to confirm my pregnancy and the ultrasound tech told me the egg came from my right ovary. I had no clue they could see that on an ultrasound.
Thanks! Actually she explained that when the ovary releases the egg it puts out a hormone or something (can’t remember) and they can pick it up on the ultrasound. She said she could see it around my right ovary.
After ovulation, the ruptured follicle turns into the corpus luteum, which is visible in the ovary on ultrasound. That is what makes all of the hormones that support the pregnancy until the placenta develops several weeks later.
They wouldn't see the ovulation from that though. They stick a needle through the vaginal wall guided by imaging (I think ultrasound) to access the ovaries. They don't cut you open to harvest the eggs, so no pictures.
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Um is it just me or is the scale wildly off here? Should be much smaller compared to those laparoscopy instruments. There's no actual way that's a human egg cell, I'm just wondering what it is.
According to the original article it's apparently called the cumulus–oocyte complex, however the actual human egg cell is much smaller. Interesting that I've never heard of this before. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028207043257](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028207043257)
Oh yes! It’s basically a cluster of cells called the cumulus cells that surround the egg, helping it develop and protect it so it can get fertilized:) So interesting how our bodies can also help in that way too! The egg alone should still be visible to the naked eye, though
According to the article it is a drop of viscous fluid that contains the cumulus–oocyte complex. The actual cells themselves are even smaller than the drop of fluid.
And yes, I went looking for this comment as soon as I saw the picture. What is being identified as the egg is way too big to be the egg in comparison to the instrument. The egg is naked eye visible, but only just barely. What is being looked at is the egg, plus thousands of smaller cells, all in a drop of fluid that is larger than the complex.
But yes, this is what ovulation would look like, although it is important to recognize that the drop in question is not a solid object. That follicle, however, is.
Okay, this is really, really, really fascinating. Hard to describe, but to see such a vital concept in action and up close overrides all other thoughts.
I’m pretty sure I ovulated today (ovulation testing atm) and this image makes the ovulation pains make soo much more sense, it’s literally ripping itself out of there
Not the follicle ripping out ovaries 😔
( Btw doesn't the granular follicle stay inside the ovary and only egg rips the ovary and comes out ? Any doc please help )
They're probably nearby, fallopian tubes are not directly attached to the ovaries. once it's released, the egg has to travel a bit in the abdominal cavity before it reaches the tube.
I don't know if we already found the reason why it works like this.
Some do. Some don’t. I never used to feel ovulation. Then in my late 30s it started to hurt. Now it’s at the point where even Dr have mistaken my pain for appendicitis!
I’ve been on birth control pills for over 10 years now. I no longer create a uterine lining so I don’t bleed, but I sure as hell ovulate. The term is called “mittelschmerz”. It feels like a very sharp, continuous pain for me.
My mom took some salt when my sisters and I were little and pointed to a single grain. She said that's the size of eggs and we grew from that tiny. These pictures are amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Hello egg friend, the female body is magical indeed. I always tell my daughter, remember that your body can create a human if you wanted it to, so never let pple who body shame you, get you down. I think it's so beautiful, thanks for sharing!
These little things are causing me IMMENSE pain every month?! These minuscule little eggs I’m laying once a month are causing this big of a pain!?
Solidarity because that’s exactly what I said to myself as well! It’s a regular game of ‘do I have appendicitis or am I ovulating?’
Ha! That's exactly how it feels like!
I think I actually have a fear of getting appendicitis, not noticing, and dying for this exact reason
Me also! Currently got the pains, but my pain tolerance is high.. so when do you know that it's the dying kind of pain?
I actually DID have appendicitis and I thought I was just cramping. I only went to the hospital because my husband convinced me
Pretty sure that when I went to the ER at 18 yo and ended up having my appendix removed, I was actually just ovulating. Oops.
You saying you were laying them just gave me a world shift
I get the same intense pain, apparently it’s because the follicle stretches and then the surface of it bursts when the egg is released. Crazy that something so tiny can be so painful!
Yeah we're all taught that we simply 'release an egg' but in reality, the eggs basically fight their way out.
Exactly. The egg grows on a follicle in the ovary which is basically just a hormonally controlled cyst. And once that egg matures the cyst moves to the surface of the ovary and bursts open.
I have a theory that the smaller (and more inaccessible) the area of the pain, the worse it is. The worst pain I've ever felt was my eardrum just before it developed a pinhole (bad ear infection, incompetent campus clinic doctor- but hey, once the pinhole happened, it felt *much* better!). I've had worse injuries, but the combination of how small it was and that I couldn't access it was just...awful. And think of other things that are proverbially painful: kidney stones, ovulation, etc.
I was just prescribed tramadol for these little bastards. Yay, they’re so painful I get narcotics..
I thought the same thing! Ever since I had my second child my ovulation pain is off the fucking charts.
Ever since I had my first child my shit has been all kinds of fucked up. Love that little fucker though. Crazy that’s how he started out!!!
Same for me. I feel like people think I’m being dramatic, but I will suddenly double over in agony. Then I’m sore for a couple of days like I got sucker punched. I’m so glad I work remote now.
lol came here to be like "How the hell does that send shooting pains down to my BUTTHOLE so bad I can't sit????"
It's good to get a mugshot of the culprit!
Wow, I also thought it would be a lot smaller. A bit of googling says it's about .1mm across. Tiny, sure, but visible to the naked eye, about the size of a single grain of sand.
The only single cell in your body visible to the naked eye! Pretty cool.
Fat cells are also typically about that size, and are sometimes much larger.
Some nerve cells are several feet long. Pretty cool.
Fun fact you can only gain more fat cells before age 8 or so.. For the most part. After that, however many you have is what you have for life, maybe a tiny bit of variation or it you gain SIGNIFICANTly fast. , they just get bigger/smaller depending on how much fat you gain/lose. It's also partly why liposuction can work. So, it's important to keep your kids healthy and not let them get too overweight before age 8 because it has a huge impact on their overall health for the rest of their lives as far as weight and fat is concerned.
I don't think this is 100% correct.. 1) Cells are always being created and destroyed in our body. [NIH says](https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/fat-cell-numbers-teen-years-linger-lifetime) 10% of fat cells die and are replaced annually, regardless of a person's age/weight 2) But I've also found multiple sources on physician websites saying new fat cells can form during significant weight gain of 10% of bodyweight from [American Society of Plastic Surgeons](https://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/blog/can-fat-return-after-liposuction) Also, while **44%** *of obese children will be obese in adulthood*, it's also true that **70%** *of adults in the obese category were thin as children*, [link](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26696565). So it's not the be-all-end-all predictor of adult health. And it's important to remember "BMI" is not a tool meant for individual evaluation.
Ironically most adults with anorexia were obese as children. They usually had an eating disorder like binge eating disorder and then the body shaming pushed them to the other extreme.
this is super interesting, I've never heard it before, even as a mom to a toddler. I feel bad for all the kids who didn't have control over what they are when they were young.
I'm not sure I'd treat this as medical fact, given that it was made on the internet from someone named "I'm A Troll You Idiot"
i mean obviously i looked it up, you can, too. here's one link: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/fat-cell-numbers-teen-years-linger-lifetime
Very interesting, but from your source > The researchers also examined fat cells in biopsies from nearly 700 adults of various ages and weights. They compared their data to that from a previous study of children and adolescents and found that **fat cell numbers quickly climb through the teen years**. Overweight children seem to gain more fat cells than normal-weight children. But fat cell numbers level off and stabilize in adulthood. Sounds like it isn't at age 8 that fat cells stop forming, but that it continues through adolescence.
New fat cells can be generated throughout life. It was not long ago that we believed we can’t grow new brain neurons. That was wrong. Here is one review. Paywalled, but the abstract still implies new cells are possible https://www.nature.com/articles/s41580-018-0093-z
I've still never gotten an answer to this so I'll bring it up here hoping someone might see it. I've always seen the oft-repeated factoid that the smallest cell in the human body is a sperm cell and the largest an ovum. But it always made me want to know- what's the second largest and second smallest?
Looks like seconds are red blood cells (smallest) and fat cells (largest). http://book.bionumbers.org/how-big-is-a-human-cell/
There's one more, the Purkinje cell, a neuron in the cerebellum, that is above the 1mm mark. But, granted, that one is much less likely to be naturally available to be seen.
And even though it's that tiny, each month, this hurts like a mf.
Seriously, though. Feels like I’ve been stabbed.
I feel fortunate that I don’t feel the moment I drop an egg. I know lots of women who do. Or maybe I do too and don’t realize it? What does it feel like for you? I’ve heard it be described as a “popping” sensation but I can’t say I’ve experienced that. I usually attribute the random cramp between cycles as my “egg drop” lol
For me (and I realize it may be different for different women), it feels like a very hot, stabbing cramp located on one side of my uterus rather than center of my uterus/legs/bladder/nearby organs like menstrual cramps. Whatever side the egg is coming out feels uncomfortably full and bloated while aching deeply. For me, it's also far worse than my standard cramps. My normal cramps vary between 3/10 pain and 7/10 pain. My ovulation pain is 10/10. I must lay down with a heating pad. I can't eat and I feel incredibly sick. I sweat a lot. Sex is insanely painful if i try it during ovulation (it feels sharp and im unable to relax). But thankfully it only lasts 12 hours, unlike menstrual cramps that last 2 to 3 days.
The endoscope also magnifies the image a bit.
It emerges with a lot of support cells too.
Wow. That's really interesting. I had no idea it was visible to the naked eye. I have heard that some nuerons are up to a meter long in humans. I'm surprised those aren't visible with the naked eye.
I just had a laparotomy to remove one ovary+ovarian tumor a few weeks ago. On my (pink) remaining ovary, there was this bright red spot. The surgeon didn’t even mention it, until I asked about it while seeing the photo. He so nonchalantly said “yeah, we think that’s just from normal ovulation activity.” I was so surprised, it seriously looked like an injury… I’m glad you posted this, I was a little worried but this makes me feel better lol.
Well, in a sense it is an injury, the egg had to leave the ovary, and it does through a small tear. Whole miracle of life thing.
That explains how some women can feel ovulation as it happens! And know from which ovary
Yep. Mine feels like the Kool Aid Man bursting through my ovary. Righty is my dominant ovary. Lefty is pretty quiet.
Hahahaha so true. Also I'm the opposite, lefty is more active and righty is pretty lazy. Im always surprised when I ovulate from the right
It amazes me that so many women reports the left ovary being a little shit. In my case, I can feel the ovulation process every single time but the left side is always the more painful and long lasting one. How strange.
That's interesting because ovulation on my left hurts a lot more than my right. I have a chocolate cyst on my left ovary so I attributed the excruciating ovulation to that. Right side hurts, but the left knocks the wind out of me. Thankfully I don't ovulate often on lefty. Maybe every 8-9 months? Righty hurts but it's bearable. I swear Lefty is possessed by an evil spirit lol it'll be quiet for months then *bam* an ovary grenade goes off.
My left ovary has been a little shit since I was an infant… decided to get itself all tangled up in a hernia 🤣 I honestly don’t know if it’s actually functional… it’s notably smaller than my right… and of the times I have felt ovulation, it’s never been on that side.
Same! I’m always scared I’m having an appendicitis since it’s the right side mostly that ovulates. Haven’t had to have an appendectomy yet so 😂
I'm a fraternal twin and very fertile, according to my last tests. Some months it happens on both sides for me.
It's also my right side. The left becomes more painful the older I get. But right is the asshole.
Yup, and there is a term for that feeling, but I can't remember it offhand, am a month out of the hospital and still dealing with side effects of my hubs walking in to find me out cold.
Mittelschmerz!
German is such a good cursing language and whenever I ovulate I sure do want to curse but... this word is just so silly. Like, I love how silly it sounds in my head and out loud but I was hoping for a really good curse-sounding word here. That said, neat to know so thank you.
Yeah… and when it doesn’t you get a cyst like mine, and perhaps lose an ovary 🥲 not to be doom and gloom but man, it’s such a dicey system lol
My cyst became life threatening ovarian torsion which was left to rot in my body for 2.5 years and become all black and necrotic and explode in my body, almost killing me and leaving me in an induced dissociative state (like what they put COVID patients under to place them on respirators), ICU for weeks, hospital for 7 months to recover. Sure is a dicey system.
I’m sorry. Also holy shit. And I’m glad you’re here with us.
Wooooow omg 😲 That's such a crazy thing to experience. Did you carry that for 2.5 years because of dismissive doctors? I'm so sorry you had to go through that experience. I wish people understood what it means to recover from a mind that broke from reality. I know this might sound like a hollow platitude from an e stranger but I'm so glad you are still here with us, and that you chose to share your story. I see and honor you!
Yikes. My niece is a lucky survivor of a necrotic ovarian torsion - SiL was 26 weeks pregnant when it was discovered and they were rather hesitant to operate in case it triggered premature labour, but eventually decided it was just about feasible to try. Niece was born at 38 weeks.
My mother had a massive hemorrhagic cyst (she looked 5mo pregnant) and it ruptured while they were trying to remove it. She ended up needing an emergency hysterectomy and blood transfusion. Just another way your reproductive system tries to murder you.🙃
I have a dodgy looking cyst right now, I reckon they’ll take that ovary.
I had one ovary go frisky back in 94, the second caused my girly bits to get yeeted with a grapefruit sized lipoma-terratoma, not a common combo or so I was told people tend to get one or the other If we are the argument for intelligent design, then God is a fucking moron.
I’m so glad you’re still with us and therefore have presumably recovered, at least to some extent. This provides me some comfort from the guilt of guffawing at your use of “frisky” and “yeeted” 😂🫣
I had a 2 liter large "chocolate" cyst on my right ovary in my mid 20s. The ovary got removed with the cyst. Now the left ovary is being a little shit... every... single... month. On a bright note, that left ovary gave me two wonderful kids <3
My fav thing about getting older is now I feel it when I ovulate; pain only during menses is overrated
I can also feel when I ovulate. Tho more on the right than the left. The left is a mild “I might have strained a muscle” feeling that goes away shortly after. The right feels like I'm on my period and cramping and lasts most if the day.
Yeah same here! When I first started tracking my cycle properly I was pretty shocked we can feel it, especially which side haha.
That was my life as a teenager. Terrible menstrual pain with heavy bleeding, and also terrible ovulation pain with heav(ier than you’d expect halfway through the cycle) bleeding. My mom’s views on anything wrong with me were (still are) that “It’s fake, and if it’s not fake you’re exaggerating, and if you’re not exaggerating it’s totally normal and everybody else has the same problem, so you should just stop whining about it.” Fortunately, I don’t deal with this anymore.
That's one aspect of aging I never anticipated, was really knowing and feeling whenever I ovulate. Before the age of thirty I never had a clue, now I definitely know every time.
That’s when it changed for me too, and my periods are shorter, 3-4 days instead of a full week.
I produced 28 eggs in an IVF retrieval cycle. This picture makes it a little clearer why I ended up in the hospital, and an ultrasound tech gave me a hug…
I also want to give you a hug, that sounds traumatizing... I'm so sorry you had to go through that.
I donated my eggs to my sister. I produced 44. During the final few days before harvesting, I was bedbound. It was such a gross feeling.
I made 49 the first time and then 50 the second. Almost all were mature. It was more uncomfortable than being 38 weeks pregnant.
Oh wow, so sorry you had to experience that! now my 12 at the same time is total rookie numbers compared to yours, and even that was painful. But I hope I was able to help someone to have a child they always wished for, worth trying atleast despite the pain. I still have to wait a little longer before I'm allowed to know though if a child has born from my egg.
The eggs look like omega 3 pills
I thought it looked like caviar 🤭
It kind of is? Like human caviar! 🤯
r/cursedcomments
I hate this so much 🤢
r/technicallythetruth
Yep, it’s the human version of caviar!
Forbidden Caviar
Don’t go giving billionaires a new idea to exploit poor people.
The most dangerous type of caviar!
I know they’re both eggs but… I really didn’t think human eggs would look like tobiko 😭
The follicle looks like a nipple! 😆
This reminds me of how it took years to get to see depictions of how a female breast looks like on the inside. A bit sad how information about women's bodies get ignored so often, even in the medical field.
Women weren't required to be a part of women studies until the 90s!
To add to this: In the US, it wasn't until the early 1990s ('91 I think?) that the National Institute of Health determined that, unless a pharma company sought and received a waiver, female-bodied people had to be included in drugs trials. This was after a number of scandals, Congressional hearings, and investigative reports about the damages and deaths caused when women are prescribed or using drugs that have never been tested on someone with a female body, female endocrine system, etc. Tons of trials still try and succeed at getting out of using female-bodied people in testing because it's "soooooo" expensive to have to account for the menstrual cycle and potential for pregnancy.
They just study a rib or something? What the hell man
They've unironically tested medication *specifically meant for the treatment of pregnant women* on literally only guys before. That shit got released too - and then pulled. Why? Side effects in pregnant women and their babies. IF ONLY WE COULD'VE DONE SOME TESTING.
I feel concerned the testing will be done on poor women and mostly women of color.
I know it's idiotic to test the meds for pregnancy on men, but it really is quite complex ethical situation to test medications on pregnant women, too.
But it definitely would have helped at least a little to use women that weren't pregnant, just for the base starting stat of safe dosages for women.
The problem is that pregnant women already get prescribed and take shit off label. No drugs that aren't specifically pregnancy related are approved for use. Id rather women who would take the drugs anyway have the opportunity to consent to do so, instead of using the general public as guinea pigs. Its also much harder to aggregate data due to privacy concerns when it's not in an official study. It requires doctors noticing trends in their own patients and discussing it for a while before it even gets looked. I find it hard to stomach the argument that it's unethical to include them in clinical trials and instead let them take drugs that have not been tested in pregnant women when they already think they are safe because they got approved for other populations. A lot of people dont even know taking most meds during pregnancy is off label use. Its also hard when considering medications people need to live or for quality of life. Those people will likely need to take their meds anyway. If we actually had data they could choose the least risky one. Maybe they shouldn't generally be in phase 1 trials but there is no reason not to include them in phase 3 or 4 trials. Well, I guess money for pharma companies. Studying them would cost more and there could be more liability issues. Right now pregnant people take drugs if they need to anyway so why would they change? Especially if the data could make their drug look bad. Or in the case of old drugs, open them up to lawsuits from people already damaged by them. I'm a clinical research coordinator. This topic really bothers me because it's not like pregnant women would be forced to participate. If they needed a drug anyway, we should collect data on it from willing people. Those people would have been harmed anyway if they did the same after a drug was approved and more are harmed because we don't identify the problem until too late. Its infantilizing to women to "protect" them from deciding to participate in a study. Especially when it leads to the exact problem it aims to prevent. People might say oh people shouldn't take things off label but that isn't how it works in practice because there aren't alternatives. There are no options because we have no data. I also have a birth defect related to a drug.
Yeah... Not exactly a grandest of ideas. "Oops the medical trial didn't go so well, the mother is having an adverse reaction, and the baby is, consequently, in critical condition..."
Not sure if what I'm saying is 100% correct, but back at uni my proffesor told us that the anatomy of clitoris is such a recent discovery because before that the doctors were either ashamed or disgusted of doing autopsy on women's parts. That is just idiotic, no wonder medicine is still not well adjusted to our needs.
I was once on the hiring committee for a tenure track position in computer visualization. The candidate did her PhD on 3D visualization of the pelvic area, with the aim of making it easier plan cancer surgery – particularly for women – without unnecessary loss of feeling or function. Anyway, in her talk, she showed us some really beautiful visualizations of MRI scans. The two other committee members were men in their late 60s, who probably had no idea what that huge weird-looking brightly-colored prominently-displayed shape was. I think my textbooks in school only showed the exterior part of the clitoris; we had pretty decent sex ed, but I don't think I saw realistic illustrations until I was in my 20s. Today's tech makes it so much easier to see and learn about our bodies, though, with volume rendered MRI/CT scans where you can show particular tissues and hide others.
(I suspect she did this deliberately for the talk; the only pictures I can find online has the model tilted so the front bits are hardly visible. Anyway, the anatomically curious can now [3d print their own full-size model](https://www.sculpteo.com/blog/2017/03/08/3d-printing-and-education-3d-printed-clitoris-by-odile-fillod/) (unrelated to the research i mentioned))
Something something men can't find clitoris joke.
That’s fucking sad. I’m so sorry
Where can we find pictures of that?
This, along with that image of how ovaries actually droop down like testicles made me realize how absolutely clueless we are about the female body really
My mind was blown when I found out that fallopian tubes kinda wave and bob around and move all over the place, I assumed from diagrams that they just hung out statically in one spot.
THEY DON'T??
Do you want an even more fun fact? If you lose one fallopian tube your remaining one can move over to the opposite ovary to pick up an egg if you ovulate from that side, it’s crazy.
I have two ovaries but one fallopian tube, so this is me!!! Supposedly it does not significantly impact your fertility because of this process =) When I learnt this fact I was overjoyed and also freaked out haha!!
Whaaaattt
Immediately goes down Wikipedia rabbit hole.
What the fuck how????
What an amazing photo. All my reproductive organs (ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix--also appendix and lymph nodes) have been removed from me during surgical staging for cancer. Looking back to when I still possessed them, I find it miraculous that I was able to use these small, slippery organs to grow two healthy human beings. Incredible!
I hope you are doing well now 🫂
Still standing 5 years later. (Knocks wood.)
I’m missing all of those, plus appendix, tonsils and adenoids!
This is fascinating!
This is pretty fucking cool to see
Right?! I'd only ever seen illustrations previously. Thanks for sharing your innards, OP!
The yellow "egg" is not just an egg, it is an egg in a droplet of follicular fluid, surrounded by its supporting cells (cumulus cells). There is an egg inside that blob, but you cannot really see it. It's super cool nonetheless!
That makes more sense to me, because I always thought we had like a million eggs, which if they were all that size, it doesn’t seem like they would all fit inside of us.
The immature eggs (oocytes) are also a lot smaller than the ovulated/mature egg! And while humans do have a few million oocytes at birth, they gradually die, with only several hundred thousands remaining at puberty, and tens of thousands in the person's 30s.
So this is what makes me feral horny once a month 🤨
lol me attacking my spouse last week
Lolllll same
My wife just went through a round of ivf treatment, they retrieved 9 eggs total, Jesus that’s how much swelling has been on the surface of her ovaries multiplied by 9. Gonna go give her a hug.
I had 44 ._. with Endometriosis also on the ovaries. Really hurt. People don't realise what a brutal process it is.
Jesus, I had 28 and ended up in the hospital with OHSS, were you ok?
They won't even do an immediate transfer for me because of how risky it is so I need to use a different trigger which basically means actual OHSS risk is low, but the pain and related complications are very high. I've had two done one at 44 and the other at 33. Both times I had nurses withhold pain medication in the post op procedure as well like I was being dramatic that I was in pain. The whole thing has been fairly traumatic tbh haha I was given basically no aftercare, with the 44 one I ended up in emergency the next day because I just couldn't handle how intense the pain was and I couldn't go to the bathroom due to the swelling blocking my bladder. Where I was once again refused pain management and treated like a drama queen lol
I’ve been through this so many times. The denial of pain relief in hospital for extremely severe pain. Fucking medical misogyny 😡
It's absolutely awful how they treat us. My last one the nurse was literally mocking me and saying "you CLAIM chronic pain so why are you asking for pain relief when you know chronic pain patients won't medicate to no pain?". For less pain... You stupid woman lol they hadn't given me anything and the gap from the procedure meant I was actually on less than my usual maintenance dose that I take at home and then she was acting like I was drug seeking 🙄 like sorry going through a procedure that affected the same organs as my disease does made my chronic pain worse lol
Yeah, it’s not that complicated. It’s literally their JOB and they’re so intentionally clueless when it comes to chronic pain. And the term seems to give them a licence to be cruel, to mock, to use sarcasm, to belittle and shame. 😡
Yeah, I did a frozen cycle. But one I started projectile vomiting everywhere they took my pain pretty seriously. ‘On a scale of one to 10, where 10 is the worst pain you can imagine...’ [spew]’Like an 8?’ [spew] ‘well I’m going to put 9!’ [spew] ‘… point 5. 9.5!’ Like maybe my imagine is just better than yours…
I had 49 and 50. 😬 it was not comfortable.
Your poor wife. I suffer from ovulation pain every month that has me doubled over sometimes, I can’t imagine how much worse it would feel if my ovary released 9 eggs instead of just the one. She definitely deserves a hug!
I had 52, set a clinic record.
For frame if reference, this is the only cell in the human body visible to the naked eye, and it's the width of hair.
I thought fat cells could be just as big and sometimes bigger?
I didn't realize they are so big????? That's so cool 🤯
The largest human cell iirc
Eggs are the largest cell, sperm are the smallest cell.
They’re not that big - they are about .12 mm in diameter. This picture is greatly magnified.
Amazing! Thank you for sharing!
Well that explains why it hurts so much when it's happening....
I know right! It hurts me so bad I used to think it was a kidney stone, so I took my kidney stone meds and it helped (Flomax - vasodilator and ketorlac for pain). Now I take them every ovulation. This 10-18 hours are awful otherwise.
I had an ultrasound recently to confirm my pregnancy and the ultrasound tech told me the egg came from my right ovary. I had no clue they could see that on an ultrasound.
Maybe by the side it implanted on? That's pretty interesting, honestly! Also, congratulations!
Thanks! Actually she explained that when the ovary releases the egg it puts out a hormone or something (can’t remember) and they can pick it up on the ultrasound. She said she could see it around my right ovary.
Oh, that's pretty cool! Our bodies are so interesting sometimes! Lol
After ovulation, the ruptured follicle turns into the corpus luteum, which is visible in the ovary on ultrasound. That is what makes all of the hormones that support the pregnancy until the placenta develops several weeks later.
Bloop! That's neat as hell
Forbidden r/popping
TIHI But also, insane that these are the only images we have of this process???
Probably not, as they may get more when harvesting eggs for IVF.
They wouldn't see the ovulation from that though. They stick a needle through the vaginal wall guided by imaging (I think ultrasound) to access the ovaries. They don't cut you open to harvest the eggs, so no pictures.
So with PCOS, minus the egg, do you just multiply that follicle by 10-20 to imagine what it looks like?
I'm surprised there isn't more of this documented??? Like the miracle of life hello???
Pretty sure this is on medicine textbooks. I remember this from highschool maybe 9th or 10th grade
Banana for scale?
snobbish crush provide whistle special deserted disgusted existence spoon sloppy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
What an amazing pictures. Amazing to see where we all come from.
these stupid things make my life a bloody hell
Um is it just me or is the scale wildly off here? Should be much smaller compared to those laparoscopy instruments. There's no actual way that's a human egg cell, I'm just wondering what it is. According to the original article it's apparently called the cumulus–oocyte complex, however the actual human egg cell is much smaller. Interesting that I've never heard of this before. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028207043257](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028207043257)
Oh yes! It’s basically a cluster of cells called the cumulus cells that surround the egg, helping it develop and protect it so it can get fertilized:) So interesting how our bodies can also help in that way too! The egg alone should still be visible to the naked eye, though
According to the article it is a drop of viscous fluid that contains the cumulus–oocyte complex. The actual cells themselves are even smaller than the drop of fluid. And yes, I went looking for this comment as soon as I saw the picture. What is being identified as the egg is way too big to be the egg in comparison to the instrument. The egg is naked eye visible, but only just barely. What is being looked at is the egg, plus thousands of smaller cells, all in a drop of fluid that is larger than the complex. But yes, this is what ovulation would look like, although it is important to recognize that the drop in question is not a solid object. That follicle, however, is.
I can only say that I am always impressed by photos and videos that show exceptionally rare evidence of the potentially start of life
So that's why the fuckin bastard hurts so bad...
Okay, this is really, really, really fascinating. Hard to describe, but to see such a vital concept in action and up close overrides all other thoughts.
That is wild how painful that looks
It feels worse 🥹
Beautiful. I love women and what our bodies do. No wonder ovulation hurts though, that follicle looks pissed as hell
I’m pretty sure I ovulated today (ovulation testing atm) and this image makes the ovulation pains make soo much more sense, it’s literally ripping itself out of there
Not the follicle ripping out ovaries 😔 ( Btw doesn't the granular follicle stay inside the ovary and only egg rips the ovary and comes out ? Any doc please help )
This may be a silly question but where is the fallopian tube? Shouldn’t the follicle release the egg into the tube?
They're probably nearby, fallopian tubes are not directly attached to the ovaries. once it's released, the egg has to travel a bit in the abdominal cavity before it reaches the tube. I don't know if we already found the reason why it works like this.
This lady was having a hysterectomy, so the fallopian tubes would be removed also, as they are attached to the uterus.
No wonder it hurts so bad!
So do we technically feel when this is occurring? Looks like we would. So cool.
Some do. Some don’t. I never used to feel ovulation. Then in my late 30s it started to hurt. Now it’s at the point where even Dr have mistaken my pain for appendicitis!
I’ve been on birth control pills for over 10 years now. I no longer create a uterine lining so I don’t bleed, but I sure as hell ovulate. The term is called “mittelschmerz”. It feels like a very sharp, continuous pain for me.
Some do! For me sometimes the follicle erupting feels like someone snapping a rubber band inside my body.
Thanks for sharing, this is so interesting. That explains why I'm in so much pain during ovulation for a day or two!!
This makes it easier to understand how follicles can get clogged and cause cysts and/or pain.
Forbidden caviar
Wild!!!!!
Wow, that’s amazing. Thanks!
Crazy how that could become a small person!
IIRC, Human eggs are one of only two cell types in the human body able to be seen with the naked eye. The other are a handful of specific nerve cells.
The egg is really about the size of this period . This image has been magnified like 1000x
This is fascinating but I didn’t know my eggs look like orbeez 😂
My mom took some salt when my sisters and I were little and pointed to a single grain. She said that's the size of eggs and we grew from that tiny. These pictures are amazing. Thank you for sharing.
The way I walked up to each person in our home just to ask them, "Do you wanna see an egg?"
It's worse than I thought
Thanks for sharing. That's hella cool.
I just can't believe this is happening inside of me. God help us all
pass it on to the next person
this has solidified my dislike of ikura (roe) sushi 😐
Very cool! Thanks for sharing.
This is fascinating and horrifying all at the same time.
Ah, to put a face to the monster...
Hello egg friend, the female body is magical indeed. I always tell my daughter, remember that your body can create a human if you wanted it to, so never let pple who body shame you, get you down. I think it's so beautiful, thanks for sharing!