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WHY SO MANY SPERMS?
A man produces about two hundred million sperms in each ejaculate. Up to six may be used, very occasionally - one is more usual! Enormous numbers of sperms are produced by other animals too, and only a very small proportion are used for fertilisation. Why should this be? Are women so badly designed? Or are there only a few useful sperms among the many? There is theoretical and experimental evidence for that, but in general andrologists don’t ‘believe’. Why? We make systematic errors in our thinking, and in our teaching and learning, about sexual/reproductive structures and functions. Some examples of our failure to think clearly about reproduction, reproductive anatomy - and sunbeams - will be given. |