Woman

The ducts and lobules do not fully mature until pregnancy, when they proliferate

truth, any time a woman visits a doctor she risks intervention. Which brings us to the intriguing question of why European women have far fewer hysterectomies than Americans do. The

The incidence of the surgery is highest in the South and higher in rural areas than in major cities. However the geographical particulars shake out, the United States ranks as a world leader in hysterectomies, surpassing by anywhere from two- to sixfold the rates seen in Europe and the developing world. Only Australia and Japan manage to keep pace with us in womb-shucking

It makes anandamide, a molecule almost identical to the active ingredient in marijuana.

There is more to the womb’s inventory. The organ fabricates drugs that in other contexts would be illegal. It synthesizes and secretes beta-endorphins and dynorphins, two of the body’s natural opiates and chemical cousins to morphine and heroin

During the last three months of pregnancy, the growth of the fetal brain is so explosive that stoking it demands nearly three quarters of all the energy entering the baby through the umbilical cord. No

the Shiva approach to reproduction, the perpetual death and rebirth of the uterine lining, is cheaper than maintaining the uterus in fertile form would be

The womb may have nothing to do with the intellect of the woman who bears it, but it has everything to do with the brain of the fetus it bears

Another cause of vaginosis is sleeping around with men who don’t use condoms. Even a single shot of semen will temporarily disturb the ecosystem of the vagina. Sperm can’t swim in the biting climate of a healthy vagina, so they’re buffered in a solution of acid’s biochemical yang, alkaline. Semen is highly alkaline, with a pH of 8. It is more alkaline than any other body fluid, including blood, sweat, spit, and tears. For several hours after intercourse, the overall pH of the vagina rises, momentarily giving unsavory bacteria the edge

But some lizards—and fish, and a few other types of vertebrates—breed through self-replication, almost always producing daughters only, no sons. Parthenogenesis is not a terribly common strategy, but it occurs. In fact, it tends to appear and disappear over evolutionary time.