Look closely: this is history in the making. These are the clearest pictures ever taken of what is the starting point of every human life: ovulation occurring inside a woman鈥檚 body.
鈥淭he release of the oocyte from the ovary is a crucial event in human reproduction,鈥� says at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Brussels, Belgium. 鈥淭hese pictures are clearly important to better understand the mechanism.鈥�
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Observing ovulation in humans is extremely rare, and have been fuzzy. Donnez captured the event by accident while preparing to carry out a partial hysterectomy on a 45-year-old woman. The release of an egg was considered a sudden, explosive event, but his pictures, to be published in , show it taking place over a period of at least 15 minutes.
Shortly before the egg is released, enzymes break down the tissue in the mature follicle, a fluid-filled sac on the surface of the ovary that contains the egg. This prompts the formation of a reddish protrusion, and after a while a hole appears, from which the egg emerges, surrounded by support cells. It then enters a Fallopian tube, which carries it to the uterus.
While there are no immediate medical implications from the pictures, , who researches reproductive health at the University of Adelaide in Australia, says they are remarkable: 鈥淚n animals, even when we control hormone levels 鈥� allowing us to predict the time at which ovulation will occur 鈥� it is very rare to see it in progress.鈥�
