I remember when I was young, I was in primary 3 then in 2005 when I came back from school and I found nobody at home, I was troubled and I don’t know where to go because our house is fenced. In the next 10 minutes I heard a walking sound and to God be the glory it was my dad, I asked of my mum and he said she has traveled, to where I exclaimed, then she was pregnant and that is one of the reason why I am worried, I wonder why will someone with that kind big belly traveled, The person that couldn’t walk very well because the belly is too fat. Then he moves closer to me and said your mum is in the hospital that she has gave birth to a bouncing baby girl, wow; I was excited and I felt like seeing her in the hospital but my dad said she will soon be discharged, OK, no problem I said.
At exactly 6:34pm, I saw the church bus in our compound, since my dad is a Baptist pastor, I already know she’s back from the hospital, I ran near the bus and I found the baby been wrapped with cloth in a church member hand, I observed that my mum’s tummy is now flat so I ran back to the sitting room and ask daddy if mum is no more giving birth because we are just two, his reply is that she will but he don’t really know why I asked the question.
Then, my thought was that it’s God that decides how many children a family is going to have, I think whenever a woman reach a maturity stage the belly will just come forward not knowing that there are some steps a man and woman should take before pregnancy.
(we will be talking about reproduction and we are basing on male reproductive system today, next time on reproduction will be female reproductive system).
REPRODUCTION
Reproduction is the act or process of giving birth to babies, young animals or plants (Offspring). Before reproduction can take place, some things must happen;
- Mating between a male and a female: During mating the following will happen;
a. Release of sperm and ovum
b. Vagina must be patent
c. Vagina must enable the deposition of sperm
d. Movement of egg produced by the female into the fallopian tube
e. Movement of sperm from the vagina to the fallopian tube - Fertilization of the egg by the sperm
- Movement of zygote from the fallopian tube to the uterus
- Development of the zygote to fetus
- Development of the fetus for a required period of time
Note: - Human being or animal are either definite male or definite female.
- In some organism like earthworms and snail, they might posses both sexes i.e. they can have both the female and the male reproductive organs and this condition is called hermaphroditsm.
- Reproduction occurs sexually in human being, animals and some insect.
- There are some insect that can produce without sexual intercourse.
MALE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM
The reproductive system in male is made up of male reproductive organs.
Male reproductive organs
The male reproductive organs is divided into two;
i. Primary sex organ
- Testes
ii. Secondary sex oragns
- Reproductive ducts
- Seminal vesicles
- Prostate gland
- Urethra
- Penis
Testes
The testes are the two organs that are suspended in a sac like structure called the scrotum, it’s main function is the production if sperm; they are the main/primary sex organ in males. Testes are ovoid in shape and are made up of seminiferous tubules which produces sperm, each testis weigh up to 17g and measures up to 5 by 3cm
Layers of the testis
- Tunica vasculosa: It is the innermost covering of the testis and it is made up of connective tissues.
- Tunica albuginea: It is the middle covering of the testis.
- Tunica vaginalis: It is the outermost covering of the testis and it’s formed from mesothelial cell
Division of the reproductive organs
a. External genitalia
b. Internal genitalia
SPERMATOGENESIS
This is the process by which male gametes which is the sperm are formed from the spermatogenic cellin the testis. The formation takes up to 74 days
Spermatogenesis
Stages of spermatogenesis
- Proliferation stage(Multiplication phase)
- Growth stage
- Maturation stage
- Transformation stage
Testosterone
Testosterone is mostly talked about whenever we speak about male reproduction. Testosterone is one of the androgen i,e. the hormones that are secreted by the testes
function:
- It play important role in sex determination in fetus
- It also helps in the development of accessory sex organs
- It helps in descent of the testes.
Spermination
This is the process by which mature sperm are released from the sertoli cells into the lumen of the seminiferous tubules
Factors affecting spermatogenesis
- Sertoli cells
- Hormones
- Some other factors
Pathway of passage of sperm
The following are the order of how sperm moves from seminiferous tubules to the urethra.
- Semiiferous tubules
- Rete testes
- Vas efferens
- Head of epididymis
- Duct of epididymis
- Vas deferens
- Ampulla
- Ejaculatory duct
- Urethra
Conclusion:
In human being reproduction is by sexual means. And the male reproductive organs plays important roles in reproduction
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