Help for childless couples / issued by the National Marriage Guidance Council.

Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Help for childless couples / issued by the National Marriage Guidance Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/28 page 5
    lie inside her body guarded deep between the hip bones, one to the right, and the other to the left of the womb. Like the male glands they have two separate tasks. First, beginning before birth, they produce a special substance, the female hormone, which is absorbed at once into the blood stream and makes the body grow feminine. Second, they contain the female seeds or ova, corresponding to the man’s sperms. There is this great difference, however. Whereas the male gland goes on producing fresh sperms till the man is very old, the female gland is packed with ova from birth, and produces no more later. Like the spermatozoa, when ripe each ovum contains half the usual number of chromosomes and carries hereditary characteristics. Some of these ova possibly grow at a slow rate through- out the later years of childhood, but at about the age of 12 or so, the growth is gradually quickened until one of them ripens completely and starts the rhythm of menstrual cycles. . Thereafter, one ovum or egg ripens fully each month. This process goes on until the ova are all used up at the age of 45 to 50, when as a result the “‘ change of life’ occurs. Till then each ovum when fully ripe bursts its covering and lies free on the surface of the ovary. There it is usually found by the little fringes, like those of a sea anemone, which form the open end of a special trumpet-shaped tub; called the Fallopian tube. These fringes waft it into the channel of the tube which leads into the cavity of the womb.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3