the great sperm race essay

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The Great Sperm Race Short Summary

This documentary retraces the journey of conception scaled up to human size, from the sperm production to the fertilization of the egg. There are over 250 million human sperm cells in the testicles waiting for the muscle contractions to expel them through the urethra (ejaculation), but only a few thousands will enter the fallopian tubes, and only one will get to fertilize the egg in the woman’s body. In the documentary, Dr.

Allan Pacey compares the excursion of sperm as a war, because they have to go through lots of obstacles in the female reproductive system, like the acidity of the vagina, the mucus of the cervix, the narrowness of the entrance of the cervix, and the white blood cells of the immune system. While the sperm try to find a way through the uterus, over 99% of them would be dead or dying. We learn from the documentary that X and Y sperm are produced in almost equal number. However, there is a difference in their motility.

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X sperm tend to be faster, but Y sperm live longer. Once created, each sperm ends up in a structure on top of the testicle, called the epididymis. This is where over a billion sperm mature and most wait. When ejaculation occurs, the sperm go from the epididymis to the vas deferens, which is a sperm duct extending from the scrotum through the inguinal canal and into the pelvic cavity. After they have made their way through these ducts, the sperm are being released into the ejaculatory ducts, which pass through the prostate gland and leads to the urethra.

Finally, the sperm is being conducted through the penis to the outside of the male body. After the sperm have entered the vagina, their objective is to reach a tight opening high above the vagina: the cervix. The cervix constitutes a physical obstacle because of its mucus, called the cervical mucus. It is like a barrier for the sperm, because it selects only sperm with normal motility. Only 20% maximum of these sperm have an appropriate size and shape and will be able to continue the journey, but for the remaining sperm (about 80%), they will not get anywhere at all.

For those who get the chance to pass through the cervix, they will then reach the uterus. This is possible with the uterine contractions, because it helps sperm to reach the uterine cavity faster. The next destination of the sperm is the fallopian tubes. In these tubes, there are the right pH, the right ion concentration, and lots of nutrients for the sperm. Capacitation occurs there, which means that sperm become motile and capable of undergoing an acrosome reaction. Therefore, sperm become ready to fertilize the egg.

These sperm also become hyperactivated, which means their flagellar beating changes and increases in amplitude. Hyperactivated sperm have the ability to swim and reach the egg faster. Sperm then meet another selective point: the oocytes. The oocytes stop the abnormal sperm, the non-capacitated and the non-acrosome-reacted sperm from continuing the journey towards the egg. The mammalian egg is enclosed by the zona pellicula, which is composed of granulosa cells and facilitates the fertilization.

Sperm that have successfully made it through all the obstacles will be able to enter in contact with the zona around the egg, but only one will get to penetrate into the egg and fertilizes it. Fertilization occurs when the head of the sperm bursts to let its inside full of enzymes fuse with the plasma membrane of the egg. In contrast of the billions of sperm produced continuously in a man’s body, a woman would produce just one egg per month. One egg has a limited lifetime and only lasts for 24 hours.

This is why timing is so important for the sperm, as arriving at the egg too late or too early would lead them to death. After the sperm has fertilized the egg, the male chromosomes are going to melt with the female chromosomes. It is the sign that the creation of a new individual is about to start. I think this documentary is very interesting in the way that it helps to comprehend how fertilization occurs. With the human scale that the producers have used, it is easy to understand all the processes from the sexual reproduction to the birth of the embryo.

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The Sperm that Fertilizes: Champion Swimmer or Lucky Winner?

Images of racing sperms are overblown — passive transport is also crucial.

Posted March 28, 2019

Picture a horde of sperms frantically racing towards the egg. The recent British documentary The Great Sperm Race dramatically underscores this notion, which is deeply ingrained in the public imagination as well as in scientific reports. Yet, as my 2018 essay, The Macho Sperm Myth in Aeon magazine shows, the idea of racing sperms is deceptive. People often assume that the sperm that fertilizes the egg is some kind of champion, like a victorious swimming competitor. But why assume that the most rapid swimmer must be best for fertilization? While the 250 million sperms in the average human ejaculate admittedly include many duds, there is no convincing evidence — for healthy, active sperms of normal shape — that success in fertilization has any connection with overall genetic quality.

Long-neglected evidence that sperms are stored in the human womb (see What Dogs Can Tell Us About Sex and Conception , posted on March 3, 2016) strikingly illustrates the shortcomings of sperm race thinking. When sperms pass up the neck of the womb (cervix), some migrate directly into the womb cavity, but others wander into blind side-chambers (crypts), where they can remain for over a week. Several authors see such sperms as losers that strayed in the wrong direction and missed their chance to win the prize of fertilization. However, it is highly likely that sperms in crypts are protected and held in reserve for gradual release. Regrettably, because of researchers’ preoccupation with sperms racing towards the egg, only one paper — published by Vaclav Insler and others in 1980 — has seriously examined sperms stored in the crypts of the human womb.

Hitching a ride

In fact, without direct examination, we can easily ditch the idea that sperms race all the way to the egg in mammals. Consider this: Do bigger bodies have more cells, larger cells or something in between? Surprisingly, cell size is remarkably uniform across mammals; bigger mammals simply have more cells. As Carl Hartman noted in 1962, this also applies to eggs and sperms, which have approximately similar sizes in small mammals such as mice, medium-sized mammals like humans, and blue whales (the largest mammals alive today). Sperms might just be able to swim all the way up the female tract in mice, but this is physically impossible for blue whales, which weigh around 10 million times more. To reach the egg in a blue whale, a sperm must travel some 400 times farther than a mouse sperm of similar size! For large mammals at least, sperms clearly need assistance to reach the egg.

As medium-sized mammals, women likewise need mechanisms to assist sperm transit. To reach the egg after semen deposition deep in the vagina, sperms must travel more than eight inches — through the cervix, across the womb cavity, and up an oviduct to reach the fertilization site at its upper end ( ampulla ). Top swimming speed of unaided human sperms is about seven inches per hour. So, even assuming it carries enough “fuel” for such a feat, a sperm would need over an hour to swim to the egg. Yet many studies of women and other mammals have revealed that some sperms arrive in the ampulla within minutes of insemination.

Contraction waves in the womb and oviducts

In fact, involuntary muscular contractions in a woman’s womb have been known since 1889. Various experiments have clearly revealed wave-like contractions, resembling the peristalsis that propels food from the mouth down the food pipe ( oesophagus ) to the stomach. In 1991, Edward Lyons and colleagues reported results of ultrasound scanning using a vaginal probe to record contractions in the wombs of 18 women volunteers. This study was particularly informative because it examined changes across the menstrual cycle. Around mid-cycle, most contraction waves passed from the cervix to the top of the womb, but the main direction was reversed before and after menstruation. This indicates that close to ovulation the womb pumps sperms into the oviducts and towards the ovaries.

Far less information is available regarding a pumping action of the oviducts. However, in 1970 Hugo Maia and Elsimar Coutinho reported direct recordings of muscular activity along the oviduct in seven patients, using pressure-sensitive probes. Intriguingly, here too contractions occurred in both directions, passing mainly down the oviduct towards the womb but sometimes in the opposite direction. Contractions passing up the oviduct were more frequent at mid-cycle.

Migration of inert particles

Some investigators used inert particles, rather than actual sperms, to study transport mechanisms. Early findings from cows indicated that some sperms enter the oviduct less than three minutes after insemination, and comparable reports emerged from human medicine. In 1972, Charles de Boer published findings from a large sample of almost 200 patients scheduled for either hysterectomy or oviduct tying. Before surgery, he injected small quantities of India ink (carbon particles suspended in water) at various sites in the vagina or womb. Ink migrated from the vagina to the oviduct in only 6% of patients. By contrast, transfer from the cervix to oviduct ensued in almost a third, while transit from the womb chamber occurred in over half. In some patients, substantial amounts of ink spilled into the abdominal cavity after passing along an oviduct.

X-ray images of pumping wombs and oviducts

In 1991, Thomas Steck and colleagues reported results from a novel approach to studying sperm transport. They combined deposition of inert particles with hysterosalpingography (HSSG), a procedure that uses X-ray imaging to examine the womb and oviducts. Sperm-sized albumin spheres labeled with technetium (a radioactive tracer with a very short half-life) were deposited deep in the vagina near the cervix, and their migration was subsequently followed with a detector. Spheres entered oviducts rapidly, as early as one minute after deposition at the entrance of the cervix, clearly revealing a pump-like action of the womb.

HSSG subsequently became a standard technique in fertility clinics for direct study of passive transport of albumin spheres through the womb and oviducts, as notably described in a series of papers by Georg Kunz, Ludwig Wildt, and others. In 1996, they reported findings from 64 women using HSSG. Contraction waves ensured rapid and sustained transport from the cervix to the oviducts, especially near ovulation time.

HSSG also yielded a striking finding regarding the trajectory of albumin spheres through the female reproductive tract. A woman typically releases only one egg per cycle, from either the left or right ovary. To fertilize the egg efficiently, a sperm must travel up the appropriate oviduct. Kunz and colleagues confirmed that spheres were mainly carried along the oviduct on the side of egg release.

But sperms do need to swim

Sperms evidently benefit from passive transport, especially in large-bodied mammals. Pumping actions of the womb propel them into the oviducts and contractions of the oviducts then convey them towards the fertilization site. It is essentially up to chance which one ends up fertilizing the egg. Nonetheless, normal sperms most definitely do have impressive swimming capacities. These are particularly important during passage from the vagina into the cervix, from the womb into an oviduct, and in the final lead-up to fertilization of the egg.

Remarkably, an unusual method of artificial insemination involves injection of sperms into the abdominal cavity rather than the womb, exploiting their persistent swimming capacities. Yves Rumpler and colleagues first reported this method of direct intraperitoneal insemination (DIPI) in 1986. A decade later, Caroline Tiemessen and others reported that DIPI was surprisingly successful compared with routine insemination into the womb (16% pregnancy rate per cycle versus 24%). It is amazing that fertilization occurred at all!

An even more unusual finding confirms that sperms can swim very effectively if necessary. Some women have a blocked oviduct, often following infection. If the blockage is on the same side as the ovary releasing the egg, fertilization is unlikely. But several reports show that fertilization can nevertheless occur in such cases. The only explanation is that the fertilizing sperm migrates up the unblocked oviduct and then swims across the abdominal cavity to reach the egg released from the ovary on the opposite side. The embryo implants and develops in the upper end of the blocked oviduct, so surgery is unfortunately obligatory. But this does bear eloquent testimony to the dogged swimming capacities of sperms heading towards the egg.

Ansari, A.H. & Miller, E.S. (1994) Sperm transmigration as a cause of ectopic pregnancy. Archives of Andrology 32 :1-4.

Brannigan, R.E. & Lipshultz, L.I. (2008) Sperm transport and capacitation. Global Library of Women's Medicine 1-13. DOI:10.3843/GLOWM.10316

Channel 4 TV & Wellcome Trust (2009) The Great Sperm Race (Human Anatomy Documentary). Narrated by Richard Armitage.

https://trakt.tv/shows/channel-4-uk-documentaries/seasons/2009/episodes…

de Boer, C.H. (1972) Transport of particulate matter through the female genital tract. Journal of Reproduction & Fertility 28 :295-297.

Forrler, A., Dellenbach, P., Nisand, I., Moreau, L., Cranz, C., Clavert, A. & Rumpler, Y. (1986) Direct intraperitoneal insemination in unexplained and cervical infertility . Lancet 327 :916-917.

Insler, V., Glezerman, M., Zeidel, L., Bernstein, D. & Misgav, N. (1980) Sperm storage in the human cervix: a quantitative study. Fertility & Sterility 33 :288-293.

Hartman, C.G. (1962) Science and the Safe Period: A Compendium of Human Reproduction. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Co.

Kunz, G., Beil, D., Deininger, H., Wildt, L. & Leyendecker, G. (1996) The dynamics of rapid sperm transport through the female genital tract: evidence from vaginal sonography of uterine peristalsis and hysterosalpingoscintigraphy. Human Reproduction 11 :627-632.

Maia, H.S. & Coutinho, E.M. (1970) Peristalsis and antiperistalsis of the human Fallopian tube during the menstrual cycle. Biology of Reproduction 2 :305-314.

Steck, T., Wurfel, W., Becker, W. & Albert, P.J. (1991) Serial scintigraphic imaging for visualization of passive transport processes in the human Fallopian tube. Human Reproduction 6 :1186-1191.

Suarez, S.S. & Pacey, A.A. (2006) Sperm transport in the female reproductive tract. Human Reproduction Update 12 :23-37.

Tiemessen, C.H.J., Bots, R.S., Peeters, M.F. & Evers, J.L. (1997) Direct intraperitoneal insemination compared to intrauterine insemination in superovulated cycles: a randomized cross-over study. Gynecologic & Obstetric Investigation 44 :149-152.

Robert Martin, Ph.D., is Emeritus Curator of Biological Anthropology at the Field Museum in Chicago, as well as a member of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago.

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The great sperm race

A sperm's job is to fight it out with other sperm and take the ultimate prize, the egg. but competition in the mating game goes much further than that, says simon hadlington, article bookmarked.

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Prudent ejaculation. Now there's a phrase to ponder. It would appear something of a contradiction, but scientists are discovering that both male and female animals are capable of subtle tricks in the mating game to increase the chances that only the fittest will thrive. And yes, prudent ejaculation is one such strategy.

The key to this particular aspect of Darwinian evolution is sperm competition: how the sex cells of several males slug it out within the reproductive tract of the female with whom all have mated. The winner takes the ultimate prize - fusion of sperm with egg and propagation of his genes for another generation.

Dr Matthew Gage, a Royal Society research fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia, is an expert in the rapidly advancing field of evolutionary biology. "Sperm competition is an area where all the forces that Darwin recognised are acting at a level that we did not previously appreciate," he says. "It had always been assumed that once a male had succeeded in mating with a female, the battle had largely been won. In fact, it is becoming clear that what goes on after mating has a big influence if females mate with more than one male."

Evolutionary biologists want to understand the mechanisms that underlie sperm competition: what makes a sperm more likely to succeed, how males allocate precious resources to producing sperm, and how females influence sperm competition. "These are areas of fundamental evolution and adaptation that have largely gone unrecognised in the past," Gage says.

First, it is necessary to understand how organisms evolved sexual reproduction in the first place. The current thinking runs along these lines. Asexual reproduction - where the mother cell produces daughter cells without any exchange of genetic material - is efficient but has pitfalls. Any genetic mutation in the mother will be passed straight to the daughter, and given that most mutations are deleterious, this could have poor consequences for future generations.

The beauty of sexual reproduction is that when the male and female sex cells - or gametes - fuse (creating a zygote), each brings something to the party. If one set of genes carries a disadvantageous mutation, it can be masked by the other set; there is more mixing of genetic material, increasing the chance of producing a new generation whose genetic make-up is more suited to its environment. Organisms taking genes from a wider pool through sexual reproduction can out-evolvesimpler clones.

So, in the primeval soup where life evolved, natural selection in theory should have favoured sexual reproduction. But how did the two sexes with two different gametes (a phenomenon called anisogamy) evolve? Why do males produce numerous tiny sperm and females produce a smaller number of large eggs?

"Before anisogamy, organisms would probably have produced 'proto-gametes' of a similar size," Gage says. "For sexual reproduction to occur, two gametes need to meet and fuse together to form the zygote. So there is a pressure to make as many gametes as possible to increase the chances of an encounter." But the zygote must be equipped with sufficient energy resources to enable it to grow after fertilisation. It must, fundamentally, be large.

So there are two opposing pressures: numerous gametes to maximise fusions, and large gametes to maximise zygote survival. These pressures led to the evolution of anisogamy, or sperm and eggs. On this principle, all males should produce as many sperm as possible, which would be as small as possible.

Up to a point. It is here that sperm competition begins to affect things. Many females receive the sperm of several males, and these sperm need to compete to fertilise the egg. And it is becoming clear that sperm competition is not discouraged by females. In several species, females have evolved mating patterns that receive sperm from more males than necessary simply for fertilisation. She is, in effect, saying: "May the best sperm win." Not only must the male win the right to mate with her, but its representatives in the reproductive tract, its sperm cells, must continue the competition.

Males are then forced to adapt their own reproductive apparatus. "Across mammals, birds, fishes and insects, we know that the level of sperm competition generated by females affects the size of the male testis and the volume of ejaculate," Gage says. "Like an arms race, sperm competition drives males to invest more in the tissue of their gonads and in the production of sperm." So the male must adapt to ensure that he invests wisely to ensure a maximum chance of success in the great sperm race.

It is here that prudent ejaculation makes an appearance. Gage's laboratory has examined how insects and other organisms modulate the amount of sperm they produce during mating, depending on whether they are competing with another male or not. "You mate males either in the presence or absence of a rival male, and after mating, count how many sperm have been deposited," he says. "When a rival is present, males produce about twice as much sperm as when they are alone. It looks as though males are sensitive to sperm competition and allocate sperm prudently."

One of Gage's colleagues, Nick Pound, has shown that lab rats allocate sperm depending on whether a rival is present. When a male is with a female and another male, and both males are allowed to mate, the males produces 40 per cent more sperm. Also, there is evidence that some invertebrates will ejaculate more sperm into larger - presumably more fertile - females.

Gage is currently interested in why sperm size varies so much across species. According to the anisogamy theory, it might be predicted that smaller, more numerous sperm are the way to successful sperm competition. Gage and his colleague Ted Morrow showed that a population of male crickets could be divided into those that produced shorter sperm cells and those that produced longer cells. Each population was allowed to mate with females to see which sperm would win the competition.

"On the face of it, you might expect the bigger, more powerful sperm to win, but we found completely the opposite," Gage says. "Males producing both more numerous and smaller sperm were more successful in mating. This provides quite nice evidence that sperm competition in this species selects for numerous, tiny sperm, rather than fewer larger sperm, and that sperm competition was partly responsible for the evolution of anisogamy, which is fundamental to all sexual species."

However, things are not quite so simple. Sperm size varies hugely across species. One type of fruit fly, for example, has sperm that are almost six centimetres long when uncoiled, sacrificing quantity for quality. Precisely why some animals produce very large sperm is a mystery. The most likely explanation is that it is a question of horses for courses: the competition the sperm encounters dictates the evolution of its form and function. In salmon, for example, sperm competition follows the scenario of a race where the fastest sperm win fertilisations. "Which is probably why salmon sperm swim very fast for a very short period and the whole thing is over in a matter of seconds," Gage says.

"In butterflies, by contrast, we know that the length of the female reproductive tract correlates with sperm size, so it looks as though females are setting out the playing field in which the males' sperm have to compete. If the female can use sperm competition success as a useful indicator of male quality, then it pays females to make the playing field very testing - to sort out the men from the boys, as it were."

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Is The Sperm Race A Fairy Tale?

Ariela Zebede

Emily Kwong

Brit Hanson

Human egg cell, computer illustration. Kateryna Kon/Getty Images/Science Photo Libra hide caption

Human egg cell, computer illustration.

A lot of us were taught that conception happens with a survivor-style sperm race — the fastest and strongest sperm fight to make it to the egg first. In this Back To School episode, we revisit this misleading narrative and learn just how active the egg and reproductive tract are in this process. You can find Ariela @arielazebede , Lisa @CampoEngelstein , and Kristin @kristin_hook on Twitter. Email us at [email protected] .

Editorial Note - The introduction of this episode has been updated to reflect anthropologist Emily Martin's crucial role in first making this issue widely known.

REFERENCES:

• The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles , Emily Martin (1991)
• Revisiting "The fertilization fairytale:" an analysis of gendered language used to describe fertilization in science textbooks from middle school to medical school , Lisa Campo-Engelstein & Nadia Johnson (2014)
• Misconceptions about Conception and Other Fallacies: Historical Bias in Reproductive Biology , Virginia Hayssen (2020)

This episode was produced by Brit Hanson, edited by Viet Le, and fact-checked by Rasha Aridi. The audio engineer for this episode was Ted Mebane.

Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of healthy spermatozoa emerging from a cavity in the rete testis of the testes. Photo by Innerspace Imaging/Science Photo Library

The macho sperm myth

The idea that millions of sperm are on an olympian race to reach the egg is yet another male fantasy of human reproduction.

by Robert D Martin   + BIO

Before science was able to shed light on human reproduction, most people thought new life arose through spontaneous generation from non-living matter. That changed a smidgen in the middle of the 17th century, when natural philosophers were able (barely) to see the female ovum, or egg, with the naked eye. They theorised that all life was spawned at the moment of divine creation; one person existed inside the other within a woman’s eggs, like Russian nesting dolls. This view of reproduction, called preformation , suited the ruling class well. ‘By putting lineages inside each other,’ notes the Portuguese developmental biologist and writer Clara Pinto-Correia in The Ovary of Eve (1997), ‘preformation could function as a “politically correct” antidemocratic doctrine, implicitly legitimising the dynastic system – and of course, the leading natural philosophers of the Scientific Revolution certainly were not servants.’

One might think that, as science progressed, it would crush the Russian-doll theory through its lucid biological lens. But that’s not precisely what occurred – instead, when the microscope finally enabled researchers to see not just eggs but sperm, the preformation theory morphed into a new, even more patriarchal political conceit: now, held philosophers and some students of reproduction, the egg was merely a passive receptacle waiting for vigorous sperm to arrive to trigger development. And sperm? The head of each contained a tiny preformed human being – a homunculus, to be exact. The Dutch mathematician and physicist Nicolaas Hartsoeker, inventor of the screw-barrel microscope, drew his image of the homunculus when sperm became visible for the first time in 1695. He did not actually see a homunculus in the sperm head, Hartsoeker conceded at the time, but he convinced himself that it was there.

More powerful microscopes eventually relegated the homunculus to the dustbin of history – but in some ways not much has changed. Most notably, the legacy of the homunculus survives in the stubbornly persistent notion of the egg as a passive participant in fertilisation, awaiting the active sperm to swim through a hailstorm of challenges to perpetuate life. It’s understandable – though unfortunate – that a lay public might adopt these erroneous, sexist paradigms and metaphors. But biologists and physicians are guilty as well.

It was in the relatively recent year of 1991, long after much of the real science had been set in stone, that the American anthropologist Emily Martin, now at New York University, described what she called a ‘scientific fairy tale’ – a picture of egg and sperm that suggests that ‘female biological processes are less worthy than their male counter-parts’ and that ‘women are less worthy than men’. The ovary, for instance, is depicted with a limited stock of starter eggs depleted over a lifetime whereas the testes are said to produce new sperm throughout life. Human egg production is commonly described as ‘wasteful’ because, from 300,000 egg starter cells present at puberty, only 400 mature eggs will ever be released; yet that adjective is rarely used to describe a man’s lifetime production of more than 2 trillion sperm. Whether in the popular or scientific press, human mating is commonly portrayed as a gigantic marathon swimming event in which the fastest, fittest sperm wins the prize of fertilising the egg. If this narrative was just a prejudicial holdover from our sexist past – an offensive male fantasy based on incorrect science – that would be bad enough, but continued buy-in to biased information impedes crucial fertility treatments for men and women alike.

T o grasp how we got here, a tour through history can help. Scientific understanding of sex cells and the process of human conception is a comparatively recent development. An egg, the largest cell in a human body, is barely visible to the naked eye, and about as big as the period ending this sentence. So the smallest human body cell, a sperm, is utterly invisible for the unaided eye.

Sperm were unknown to science until 1677, when the Dutch amateur scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek first observed human sperm under a microscope. Around the same time, it was realised that the human ovary produced eggs, although it was not until 1827 that the German biologist Karl Ernst von Baer first reported actual observations of human and other mammalian eggs.

After van Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of sperm, it took another century before anyone realised that they were needed to fertilise eggs. That revelation came in the 1760s, when the Italian priest and natural scientist Lazzaro Spallanzani, experimenting on male frogs wearing tight-fitting taffeta pants, demonstrated that eggs would not develop into tadpoles unless sperm was shed into the surrounding water. Bizarrely, until Spallanzani announced his findings, it was widely thought – even by van Leeuwenhoek for some years – that sperm were tiny parasites living in human semen. It was only in 1876 that the German zoologist Oscar Hertwig demonstrated the fusion of sperm and egg in sea urchins.

Eventually, powerful microscopes revealed that an average human ejaculate, with a volume of about half a teaspoon, contains some 250 million sperm. But a key question remains unanswered: ‘Why so many?’ In fact, studies show that pregnancy rates tend to decline once a man’s ejaculate contains less than 100 million sperm.

Clearly, then, almost half the sperm in an average human ejaculate are needed for normal fertility. A favoured explanation for this is sperm competition , stemming from that macho-male notion of sperm racing to fertilise – often with the added contention that more than one male might be involved. As in a lottery, the more tickets you buy, the likelier you are to win. Natural selection, the thinking goes, drives sperm numbers sky-high in a kind of arms race for the fertilisation prize.

Striking examples of sperm competition do indeed abound in the animal kingdom. Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, live in social units containing several adult males that regularly engage in promiscuous mating; females in turn are mated by multiple males. Numerous features, such as conspicuously large testes, reflect a particularly high level of sperm production in such mammal species. In addition to large testes, they have fast sperm production, high sperm counts, large sperm midpieces (containing numerous energy-generating mitochondria for propulsion), notably muscular sperm-conducting ducts, large seminal vesicles and prostate glands, and high counts of white blood cells (to neutralise sexually transmitted pathogens). The vesicles and the prostate gland together produce seminal fluid, which can coagulate to form a plug in the vagina, temporarily blocking access by other males.

Popular opinion and even many scientists perpetuate the same sperm scenario for humans, but evidence points in a different direction. In fact, despite various lurid claims to the contrary, there’s no convincing evidence that men are biologically adapted for sperm competition. The story of sperm abundance in promiscuously mating chimpanzees contrasts with what we see in various other primates, including humans. Many primates live in groups with just a single breeding male, lack direct competition and have notably small testes. In all relevant comparisons, humans emerge as akin to primates living in single-male groups – including the typical nuclear family. Walnut-sized human testes are just a third of the size of chimpanzee testes, which are about as large chickens’ eggs. Moreover, while chimpanzee ejaculate contains remarkably few physically abnormal sperm, human semen contains a large proportion of duds. Quality controls on human ejaculate have seemingly been relaxed in the absence of direct sperm competition.

Sperm passage is more like a challenging military obstacle course than a standard swimming race

For species not regularly exposed to direct sperm competition, the only promising alternative explanation for high sperm counts concerns genetic variation. In a couple of rarely cited papers published more than four decades ago, the biologist Jack Cohen at the University of Birmingham in the UK noted an association between sperm counts and the generation of chromosome copies during sperm production. During meiosis , the special type of cell division that produces sex cells, pairs of chromosomes exchange chunks of material through crossing over. What Cohen found is that, across species, sperm counts increase in tandem with the number of crossovers during their production. Crossing over increases variation, the essential raw material for natural selection. Think of sperm production as a kind of lottery in which enough tickets (sperm) are printed to match available numbers (different genetic combinations).

Other findings fly in the face of the popular scenario, too. For instance, most mammalian sperm do not in fact swim up the entire female tract but are passively transported part or most of the way by pumping and wafting motions of the womb and oviducts. Astoundingly, sperm of smaller mammals tend to be longer on average than sperm of larger mammals – a mouse sperm is longer than the sperm of a whale. But even if these were equivalent in size, swimming up to an egg becomes more of a stretch the larger a species gets. Indeed, it might be feasible for a mouse sperm to swim all the way up to the egg – but it is quite impossible for an even smaller blue whale sperm to swim 100 times further up the female tract unaided. Convincing evidence has instead revealed that human sperm are passively transported over considerable distances while travelling through the womb and up the oviducts. So much for Olympic-style racing sperm!

In fact, of the 250 million sperm in the average human ejaculate, only a few hundred actually end up at the fertilisation site high up in the oviduct. Sperm passage up the female tract is more like an extremely challenging military obstacle course than a standard sprint-style swimming race. Sperm numbers are progressively whittled down as they migrate up the female tract, so that less than one in a million from the original ejaculate will surround the egg at the time of fertilisation. Any sperm with physical abnormalities are progressively eliminated along the way, but survivors surrounding the egg are a random sample of intact sperm.

Many sperm do not even make it into the neck of the womb (cervix). Acid conditions in the vagina are hostile and sperm do not survive there for long. Passing through the cervix, many sperm that escape the vagina become ensnared in mucus. Any with physical deformities are trapped. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of sperm migrate into side-channels, called crypts , where they can be stored for several days. Relatively few sperm travel directly though the womb cavity, and numbers are further reduced during entry into the oviduct. Once in the oviduct, sperm are temporarily bound to the inner surface, and only some are released and allowed to approach the egg.

P ushing the notion that the fertilising sperm is some kind of Olympic champion has obscured the fact that an ejaculate can contain too many sperm. If sperm surround the egg in excessive numbers, the danger of fertilisation by more than one ( polyspermy ) arises with catastrophic results. Polyspermy occasionally occurs in humans, especially when fathers have very high sperm counts. In the commonest outcome in which two sperm fertilise an egg, cells of the resulting embryo contain 69 chromosomes instead of the usual 46. This is always fatal, usually resulting in miscarriage. Although some individuals survive as far as birth, they always expire shortly afterwards. Because polyspermy typically has a fatal outcome, evolution has evidently led to a series of obstacles in the female reproductive tract that strictly limit the number of sperm allowed to surround an egg.

Polyspermy has practical implications for assisted reproduction in cases of compromised fertility or infertility. For instance, the original standard procedure of introducing semen into the vagina for artificial insemination has been replaced by direct injection into the womb (intrauterine insemination, or IUI). Directly introducing semen into the womb bypasses the reduction of sperm numbers that normally occurs in the cervix, where mucus weeds out physically abnormal sperm. Analyses of clinical data have revealed that depositing 20 million sperm in the womb (less than a 10th of the number in the average ejaculate) is enough to achieve a routine pregnancy rate.

Sperm numbers become even more important when it comes to in vitro fertilisation (IVF), with direct exposure of an egg to sperm in a glass vessel. This bypasses every single one of the natural filters between the vagina and the egg. In the early development of IVF, the general tendency was to use far too many sperm. This reflected the understandable aim of maximising fertilisation success, but it ignored natural processes. High sperm numbers between 50,000 and 0.5 million increasingly depressed the success rate. Optimal fertilisation rates were achieved with only 25,000 sperm around an egg. Both IUI and IVF potentially increase the risk of polyspermy and the likelihood of miscarriage.

Human fertilisation is a gigantic lottery with 250 million tickets: for healthy sperm, it is the luck of the draw

The possibility of polyspermy casts new light on the evolution of sperm counts. Discussions of sperm competition generally focus exclusively on maximising sperm counts, but – as is common in biology – some kind of trade-off is involved. Whereas natural selection can lead to increased sperm production if males are in direct competition, it will also favour mechanisms in the female tract that constrain numbers of sperm around the egg. In promiscuously mating primates, such as chimpanzees, increased oviduct length in females offsets increased sperm production by males. This presumably limits the numbers of sperm approaching the egg. It also shows that the female’s role in fertilisation is by no means as passive as is often assumed.

The entrenched idea that ‘the best sperm wins’ has elicited various suggestions that some kind of selection occurs, but it is difficult to imagine how this could possibly happen. The DNA in a sperm head is tightly bound and virtually crystalline, so how could its properties be detected from outside? Experiments on mice indicate, for instance, that there is no selection according to whether a sperm contains a male-determining Y-chromosome or a female-determining X-chromosome. It seems far more likely that human fertilisation is a gigantic lottery with 250 million tickets, in which – for healthy sperm – successful fertilisation is essentially the luck of the draw.

Other puzzling features of sperm also await explanation. It has long been known, for instance, that human semen contains a large proportion of structurally abnormal sperm with obvious defects such as double tails or tiny heads. The ‘kamikaze sperm’ hypothesis proposed that these dud sperm in fact serve different functions in competition, such as blocking or even killing sperm from other men. However, this has since been effectively discredited .

The entrenched notion that human sperm, once ejaculated, engage in a frantic race to reach the egg has completely overshadowed the real story of reproduction, including evidence that many sperm do not dash towards the egg but are instead stored for many days before proceeding. It was long accepted as established fact that human sperm survive for only two days in a woman’s genital tract. However, from the mid-1970s on, mounting evidence revealed that human sperm can survive intact for at least five days. An extended period of sperm survival is now widely accepted, and it could be as long as 10 days or more.

Other myths abound. Much has been written about mucus produced by the human cervix. In so-called ‘natural’ methods of birth control, the consistency of mucus exuding from the cervix has been used as a key indicator. Close to ovulation, cervical mucus is thin and has a watery, slippery texture. But precious little has been reported regarding the association between mucus and storage of sperm in the cervix. It has been clearly established that sperm are stored in the crypts from which the mucus flows. But our knowledge of the process involved is regrettably restricted to a single study reported in 1980 by the gynaecologist Vaclav Insler and colleagues of Tel Aviv University in Israel.

In this study, 25 women bravely volunteered to be artificially inseminated on the day before scheduled surgical removal of the womb (hysterectomy). Then, Insler and his team microscopically examined sperm stored in the crypts in serial sections of the cervix. Within two hours after insemination, sperm colonised the entire length of the cervix. Crypt size was very variable, and sperm were stored mainly in the larger ones. Insler and colleagues calculated the number of crypts containing sperm and sperm density per crypt. In some women, up to 200,000 sperm were stored in the cervical crypts.

Insler and colleagues also reported that live sperm had actually been found in cervical mucus up to the ninth day after insemination. Summarising available evidence, they suggested that after insemination the cervix serves as a sperm reservoir from which viable sperm are gradually released to make their way up the oviduct. This dramatic finding has been widely cited yet largely ignored, and there has never been a follow-up study.

Mutations accumulate four times faster in sperm than in eggs, so semen from old men is risk-laden

In his textbook Conception in the Human Female (1980) – more than 1,000 pages in length – Sir Robert Edwards, a recipient of the 2010 Nobel prize for the development of IVF, mentioned cervical crypts in a single sentence. Since then, many other authors have mentioned sperm storage in those cervical crypts equally briefly. Yet storage of sperm, with gradual release, has major implications for human reproduction. Crucially, the widespread notion of a restricted ‘fertile window’ in the menstrual cycle depends on the long-accepted wisdom that sperm survive only two days after insemination. Sperm survival perhaps for 10 days or more radically erodes the basis for so-called ‘natural’ methods of birth control through avoidance of conception. Sperm storage is also directly relevant to attempts to treat infertility.

Another dangerous misconception is the myth that men retain full fertility into old age, starkly contrasting with the abrupt cessation of fertility seen in women at menopause. Abundant evidence shows that, in men, sperm numbers and quality decline with increasing age. Moreover, it has recently emerged that mutations accumulate about four times faster in sperm than in eggs, so semen from old men is actually risk-laden.

Much has been written about the fact that in industrialised societies age at first birth is increasing in women, accompanied by slowly mounting reproductive problems. A proposed solution is the highly invasive and very expensive procedure of ‘fertility preservation’ in which eggs are harvested from young women for use later in life. However, increasing reproductive problems with ageing men, notably more rapid accumulation of sperm mutations, have passed largely unmentioned. One very effective and far less expensive and invasive way of reducing reproductive problems for ageing couples would surely be to store semen samples from young men to be used later in life. This is just one of the benefits to be gained from less sexism and more reliable knowledge in the realm of human reproduction.

Nowadays, the story of Hartsoeker’s homunculus might seem veiled in the mist of time, mentioned only as an entertaining illustration of blunders in the early exploration of human sex cells. But its influence, along with the macho-male bias that spawned it, has lived on in subtler form among the cultural stereotypes that influence the questions we ask about reproductive biology.

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The Great Sperm Race - encouraging public understanding of human reproduction

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Medical and Health Sciences:  Paediatrics and Reproductive Medicine

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Summary of the impact.

Research conducted at the University of Sheffield between 1992 and 2006 was developed into a film (The Great Sperm Race) for Channel 4, distributed by ITV global media and shown on television in twenty-two countries between 2009 and 2010. The film had critical reviews in the national media (e.g. The Daily Mirror , The Metro ) and stimulated public debate via its global distribution.

An on-line game developed to support the film has been played over ten million times with excellent feedback about its educational value. The film won several television and film awards around the world and this helped the production company prosper and go on to make ground- breaking films in other areas.

Underpinning research

From 1992 to 2006, Dr Allan Pacey (University of Sheffield since 1992) and his research team in the Department of Human Metabolism at the University of Sheffield undertook research focused on the basic biological processes of human sperm transport through the male and female reproductive tracts and on the molecular and cellular basis of sperm function and male fertility.

In 1992, with funding from Birthright — now called Wellbeing of Women - the charitable arm of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and working with PhD student Jianjun Zhu, Pacey used a tissue-culture model to show that the secretions from the inner cell layer of the Fallopian tube helped to prolong sperm survival beyond that normally seen in tissue culture [ R1 ]. Pacey and Zhu went on to show that the sequence of fluids from the female reproductive tract that sperm have to pass through on their journey are critical to ensure that the successful sperm have optimum physiology by the time they reach the egg [ R2 ].

In 1994, Pacey was awarded a three-year project grant from the Medical Research Council to investigate how the human fallopian tube might act as a sperm-storage site in the pre-ovulatory period. Using tissue culture and electron microscopy, Pacey was able to demonstrate the very first descriptions of the physical interaction made between human sperm and the cell layer that lines the inside of the fallopian tubes [ R3 ]. With Helen Baillie (Research Assistant at Sheffield, 1994-97), he showed that the part of the fallopian tube closest to the uterus (called the isthmus) potentially stored the most sperm and that female hormones (which obviously vary across the menstrual cycle) did not alter the number of sperm that were stored [ R4 ]. Pacey also found that to release themselves from this storage site, sperm must exhibit a characteristic and particularly vigorous form of movement (called hyperactivation) [ R5 ].

In 2000, Pacey worked with PhD student Louise Reeve to investigate the molecular mechanism of how sperm might be stored in the isthmic region of the fallopian tube. They found that a class of molecules called integrins were probably involved in tethering sperm to the inner surface of the fallopian tube at the storage site [ R6 ].

References to the research

University of Sheffield researchers shown in bold

R1. Zhu, JJ, Barratt, C.L.R., Lippes, J., Pacey, A.A., Lenton, E.A., Cooke, I.D. (1994) Human oviductal fluid prolongs sperm survival. Fertility and Sterility 61: 360-366.

R2. Zhu, J.J., Barratt, C.L.R., Lippes, J., Pacey, A.A., Cooke, I.D. (1994) The sequential effects of human cervical mucus, oviductal and follicular fluid on sperm function. Fertility and Sterility 61: 1129-1135.

R3. Pacey, A.A., Hill, C.J., Scudamore, I.W., Warren, M.A., Barratt, C.L.R., Cooke, I.D. (1995) The interaction of human spermatozoa with epithelial cells from the human female uterine tube in vitro. Human Reproduction 10: 360-366.

R4. Baillie, H.S., Pacey, A.A., Warren, M.A., Scudamore, I.W., Barratt, C.L.R. (1997) Greater numbers of human spermatozoa associate with endosalpingeal cells derived from the isthmus compared with those from the ampulla. Human Reproduction 12: 1985-1992. doi: 10.1093/humrep/12.9.1985

R5. Pacey, A.A., Davies, N., Warren, M.A., Barratt, C.L.R., Cooke, I.D. (1995) Hyperactivation may assist human spermatozoa to detach from intimate association with the endosalpinx. Human Reproduction 10: 2603-2609.

R6. Reeve, L., Ledger, W.L., Pacey, A.A. (2003) Does the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) adhesion sequence play a role in mediating sperm interaction with the human endosalpinx? Human Reproduction . 18: 1461-1468. doi: 10.1093/humrep/deg296

Details of the impact

The research by Pacey has had an impact on society through a public debate on human reproduction generated by a film called The Great Sperm Race .

Process to impact

As a result of his expertise in human fertility research Pacey was approached by a UK production company (Blink Television) in 2008 to help make a film called The Great Sperm Race [ S1 ]. A consultancy contract was agreed with the University of Sheffield formalising the arrangement whereby Pacey would give advice to the producer and director over the script and shooting of the film (as well as appearing on screen). The script was based on the papers [ R1 to R6 ] in addition to an invited review written by Pacey and Suarez (Cornell University), published in Human Reproduction Update. Pacey also helped in developing on-line resources for the Channel 4 website including an on-line game made by a small independent game developer in London, called Johnny Two Shoes, and `Fertility Tips for Men', a short article authored by Pacey and available from the Channel 4 website.

Impact on society — public debate informed by research

The first UK broadcast of the film was on 23 March 2009 on Channel 4, where it was listed by The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Times TV critics as Pick of the Day and Pick of the Week , respectively. It was subsequently shown in Canada on 28 June 2009, France 5 December 2009 (where it was known as Spermatozoïdes, que le meilleur gagne! ), Australia on 10 January 2010, and Finland on 22 April 2010 [ S1 , S2 ]. The estimated UK audience was almost 1.7 million viewers and the worldwide audience in the region of 10 million viewers [ S1 ]. The film received many critical reviews in the media including:

"Lovely and packed with information — this should be a staple part of sex-education lessons" The Sunday Times (Pick of the Week) [ S1 ]

"Inventive, fun to watch and terrifically informative" Radio Times [ S1 ]

"It's probably the best science lesson you'll ever have" and "my reproductive knowledge has been significantly enhanced by The Great Sperm Race ; it contains a few interesting factoids that may help couples trying to conceive" OntheBox.com [ S3 ].

"No nut was left unbusted in a highly entertaining romp that should be made compulsory viewing on the national biology curriculum" The Metro [ S4 ].

"As far as Woody Allen is concerned in his movie Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sex ... it's a comical journey. But according to this unusual documentary, the heroic struggle of sperm to achieve their glorious goal is more like a disaster movie, with impossible odds and a battlefield strewn with the bodies of millions of casualties." The Daily Mirror Pick of the Day [ S5 ].

It is clear from the number of informal blogs, forums and websites that discuss the film and its associated on-line resources that they have increased debate and improved public understanding of issues related to reproductive medicine. More personal comments come from the entries from individual viewers on bulletin boards associated with pregnancy and infertility, such as pregnancyforum.co.uk [ S6, S7, S8 ], with comments such as:

"An amazing documentary showing how sperm gets to the egg. They scale the sperm up to human size to make it easier to understand. Really worth watching!" CholeNat 2011.

"you can see now why it can take so long to conceive!" Bellarina from Wales.

The on-line resources developed for the Channel 4 website [ S9 ] are still being used today and the game produced with Johnny Two Shoes has been played nearly 10.5 million times since March 2009 [ S10 ]. To date, over 400 comments have been left by people playing the game [ S9 ] including:

"A friend at school found this game at school and played it during Science class last year. Really fun game." Alex Smapons on 23 February 2013.

"keegan simpson and I love this game so much keegan does not under stand a lot about sex education and this game really helps him understand." james bignell on 29 January 2013.

"THIS GAME IS ANAZING! MY FREINDS IN PSHE WERE (sic) LAUGHING AND LEARNING! GREAT GAME FROM ALL AT GREENACRE SCHOOL!" Jordan on 23 November 2012.

"This game is very good, educational and fun." shawr on 05 March 2012.

"This is a wicked game and its very educational." thefootballstig on 24 January 2011.

As a mark of its success, the film was nominated for a Royal Television Society award in 2010 and won a Canadian Society of Cinematographers award in 2009 for the best "Docudrama Cinematography" and an Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, Gemini Award in 2010 for the Best Science Documentary [ S1, S2 ]. These awards have helped Blink Films to go on and prosper as a production company and make further ground-breaking films in other areas [ S1 ].

Sources to corroborate the impact

S1. Letter from Executive Producer and Managing Director of Blink Films

S2. Details of the Great Sperm Race film and cast (including Pacey) can be found at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1461416/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

S3. Onthebox.com review of Channel 4 screening of the Great Sperm Race in 2009. http://channelhopping.onthebox.com/2009/03/23/the-great-sperm-race-review-come-again/

S4. The Metro review of Channel 4 screening of the Great Sperm Race in 2009. http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/592744-inside-the-box-the-great-sperm-race

S5. The Daily Mirror Pick of the Day review of Channel 4 screening of the Great Sperm race in 2009. http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-previews/pick-of-the-day-the-great-sperm-race-384093

S6. Pregnancyforum.co.uk recommendation of the film. http://www.pregnancyforum.co.uk/trying-to-conceive/217537-great-sperm-race-documentary.html

S7. Recommendation and discussion of the film and game on fertility blog, The Pitter Patter. http://thepitter-patter.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/great-sperm-race.html

S9. Link to Channel 4 The Great Sperm Race online game presented alongside a short accompanying article by Pacey, `Fertility Tips for Men'. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-sperm-race

S10. A document from Johnny Two Shoes showing website statistics and the number of `plays' of the game, March 2009-May 2013.

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The great sperm race., about this work, description.

What makes one sperm succeed in reaching and fertilising an egg rather than another? This documentary re-enacts the journey of a sperm using human volunteers. Using computer animated graphics the process of male ejaculation and fertilisation is illustrated. The human volunteers attempt to overcome the obstacles faced by a sperm on its way to an egg.

Publication/Creation

Physical description, contributors.

• Pacey, Allan.
• Ellington, Joanna.
• Miller, Geoffrey, 1965-
• de Jonghe, Chris.
• Travis, Alex.

Copyright note

Creator/production credits, type/technique.

• Spermatozoa
• Infertility, Male

Where to find it

Permanent link.

The Great Sperm Race

National Geographic goes all out :

People dressed in all white literally act out the role of sperm in the race to become one with the egg, running through valleys, squeezing through spirals, battling Leukocytes and much more. The impressive undertaking was completed with helicopter-mounted cameras, world-renowned scientists, CGI and over-the-top reconstruction of the sperm’s journey played out in real life by humans.

It airs tomorrow. More info here .

All about sperm

The Great Sperm Race Documentary: A Fascinating Insight into Fertilization

Short answer: The Great Sperm Race is a British documentary that explores the scientific process of fertilization. Released in 2009, it uses computer graphics to create a simulated race between sperm to reach the egg. The film includes interviews with fertility experts and couples struggling to conceive, and has been praised for its informative and accessible approach to a complex topic.

Uncovering the Secrets of Fertilization: An Overview of The Great Sperm Race Documentary

How the great sperm race documentary sheds light on the miracle of conception, a step-by-step guide to the journey of sperm: an in-depth look at the great sperm race, frequently asked questions about the great sperm race documentary – answered, up close and personal with fertility: an in-depth analysis of the great sperm race, the impact of the great sperm race documentary on fertility research and awareness.

Table of Contents

Fertilization is a complicated biological process that most people are familiar with, but few really understand. However, the Great Sperm Race documentary aims to change all of that by offering viewers an in-depth look at this fascinating process. The film, produced by the BBC, provides audiences with an insightful and entertaining overview of everything from egg production to sperm delivery.

One of the primary strengths of the Great Sperm Race documentary is its accessibility. Even if you’ve never taken a biology class or read a science book, you’ll be able to follow along with the explanations provided throughout the film. From cartoonish animations to real-life footage, there are plenty of visual aids to help explain complex concepts and provide context for what’s going on.

The documentary introduces us to key players in fertilization: the sperm and the egg. We learn how eggs develop into fully matured ova, which then travel through various stages before being released from their follicles when ovulation occurs. On the other hand, we also get an insight into how millions of sperm are produced daily in men’s bodies.

Viewers will also gain insights into sexual biology such as sex determination – masculine vs feminine traits – , what role hormones play in fertility (both male and female), conception odds (less common than most would think) etc.

What makes this documentary so engaging though is not only its informative aspects but also its comedic relief moments; many puns about swimmers caught me off my guard! Plus there’s always something inherently interesting when nature meets comedy whether it involves gags or punchlines about giant sperm wearing tiny capes en route to fertilization stardom(!).

Another important aspect covered within this documentary is eugenics relating particularly to natural selection where top-performing sperm cells are chosen naturally during reproductive processes as opposed having been selected beforehand by techniques such as artificial insemination or IVF treatment.

Overall, Uncovering the Secrets of Fertilization: An Overview of the Great Sperm Race Documentary is a fascinating, witty, and clever daw-dropping documentary that offers a closer look at one of nature’s most intriguing processes. Whether you have an interest in biology or simply enjoy well-crafted documentaries, this film has something to offer everyone. So if you want to learn more about fertilization without getting bogged down in technical terms or endless textbook readings, definitely give this film a watch – it’s well worth your time!

The miracle of conception has been a subject of fascination for centuries, but it wasn’t until the 21st century that we were able to witness its intricate details through documentary film. “The Great Sperm Race” is one such documentary that sheds light on this biological phenomenon like never before.

The premise of the documentary is simple – follow the millions of sperm as they race their way towards fertilizing an egg in a woman’s body. It sounds like something out of science fiction, but this is actually what happens every time a man and a woman come together to create life.

Not only does “The Great Sperm Race” provide us with stunning visuals of how sperm navigate through the female reproductive system, but it also gives us insight into the incredible odds that must be overcome for fertilization to occur. Out of millions of sperm, only one can successfully reach and penetrate an egg. This means that only one winner emerges from each race, making conception an incredibly rare and miraculous event.

One fascinating aspect uncovered by the documentary is how sex selection plays a role in determining whether a male or female embryo develops. Although there is no surefire way to control which gender will result from intercourse, scientists have discovered that male sperm tend to be faster swimmers than female sperm, yet die off quicker. On the other hand, female sperm might not swim quite as fast but stand up better against harsh conditions within the vagina. These subtle differences between male and female sperm make all the difference when competing for fertilization.

In addition to scientific details about conception itself, “The Great Sperm Race” also explores societal and cultural aspects surrounding pregnancy and birth around the world – including traditions around childbirths as well as ethical problems associated with embryonic research conducted during In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatments.

Overall, “The Great Sperm Race” offers much more than just stunning visuals – it’s an enlightening look into one of the most incredible biological phenomena on the planet. By watching millions of sperm in action and learning about the odds involved with fertilization, viewers truly appreciate just how special each new life is.

Are you curious about the journey of sperm? If so, then welcome to our in-depth look at The Great Sperm Race. In this article, we’ll guide you through each and every step of this fascinating process that takes place inside the male body.

First off, let’s start with some basic anatomy. The male reproductive system is made up of a number of different parts including the testes, prostate gland, seminal vesicles, epididymis and vas deferens. It’s within these organs where the magic happens.

When a man becomes sexually aroused, his brain sends a signal to the tissues in his penis causing it to become erect. This prepares for ejaculation – which is when millions upon millions of sperm cells are sent on their way into the world.

So, let’s follow those little swimmers as they make their way towards their intended destination: an egg cell waiting in one of the female’s two fallopian tubes.

Step One: Let’s Get Ready to Rumble! As soon as ejaculation occurs, the race begins! Alongside millions more ‘competitors,’ sperm cells begin swimming forward rapidly – propelled by tiny tails called flagella that wiggle back and forth.

Step Two: The Holding Place Just behind your balls lies one single long tube called epididymis where billions of new sperms are produced each day. Once matured- after around 70 days or so – they’re able to leave here via a lengthy coiled series of tubes (vas deferentia)

Step Three: Meet Mr Seminal Vesicle Once sperm cells join up with fluids from several other glands along its path (including seminal vesicles), this new liquid mixture helps protect them until they reach their final destination; otherwise known as semen.

Step Four: A Sticky Situation Semen provides a transport medium designed specifically for allowing sperm to travel comfortably and avoid desiccation outside deep within female reproductive tract. The mucus-like mixture helps the sperm stick to the cervix of a female’s uterus.

Step Five: A Race Against Time In less than 30 minutes after ejaculation, sperms start to get tired and some will die, with others getting lost along their journey. However, a small minority of these tiny competitors are able to outrun the rest and move ever closer to squaring off against their final opponent: an egg.

Step Six: Mission Accomplished Once that one lucky sperm makes contact with an egg and successfully penetrates its outer layer – fertilization has officially occurred! After several days of cell division and meandering down into fallopian tubes, your baby-to-be eventually implants itself inside the walls of the mother’s womb where it starts growing into a wonderfully magical human.

And there you have it – our step-by-step guide to The Great Sperm Race! This incredible process is just one of many complex biological wonders that occurs naturally within our bodies. So next time you sit down for sex-ed class discussion about

The Great Sperm Race is a fascinating and award-winning documentary that delves into the mysterious world of human reproduction. From the moment of fertilization to the birth of a child, this documentary provides a captivating insight into every aspect of conception.

Since its release, The Great Sperm Race has generated lots of buzz and attention with many people having several questions. Here are some frequently asked questions about The Great Sperm Race Documentary – answered!

What Is The Great Sperm Race About?

As mentioned earlier, The Great Sperm Race is a documentary that explores human reproduction and focuses on the journey sperm must undertake to fertilize an egg successfully. It follows 250 million competitors as they race to be the lucky one to fertilize an egg and create new life.

Is This A Scientifically Accurate Film?

Yes! There’s no doubt about it. Everything you witness in this documentary is scientifically accurate, so viewers can expect to learn a lot about how human conception works in reality. However, because some parts have been dramatized for effect quite unlike what happens in real life or within specific species (such as animals), it’s clear where creative license was taken.

Is It Suitable For Children To Watch The Great Sperm Race Documentary?

Although there’s nothing inappropriate visually or language-wise in terms of age rating on the film itself or otherwise; whether it’s suitable for your child will depend entirely on your parental discretion.

The subject matter might seem somewhat graphic for kids under eight years old. Still safe-to-watch-impressionable young ones — depending on their maturity levels — could learn scientific lessons from watching this informative experiment unfold online or via streaming services available by subscription like Netflix etc,.

Where Can I Watch “The Great Sperm Race” Documentary?

Fortunately, if you missed watching “The great sperm race” when it was first aired over ten years ago now either due to scheduling conflicts then lost out recording it onto PVR you still stand a chance to catch up via streaming services like Netflix.

Netflix is one of the best platforms to watch this exciting documentary that provides invaluable insight into human reproduction. But, you could also look for various other options on Amazon Prime and YouTube.

Is There A Sequel For This Documentary In The Works?

Sadly, no. As far as we are aware, there’s no sequel or new series in the works yet. Regrettably, this means fans of “The Great Sperm Race” will have to keep waiting patiently for any updates from the creators if the post-production phase sees successful outcomes having gathered valuable resources and funding.

However, there are lots of other similar documentaries out there that explore human biology from different angles that interested parties could seek out instead!

Should You Watch “The Great Sperm Race” Documentary?

If you’re somebody who enjoys learning about human anatomy and wants an in-depth study regarding the path sperm take struggle across distance amidst competition — then yes! “The Great Sperm Race” is thoroughly recommended watching.

Apart from being informative and educational about human science, it

Fertility is one of the most fascinating and important topics when it comes to human biology. The ability to conceive a child is not only a biological function but also an emotional and psychological one. And while there are many different factors that can affect fertility, one of the key players is undoubtedly sperm.

With this in mind, we turn our attention to a BBC documentary series called The Great Sperm Race. This groundbreaking series took us on an incredible journey through the male reproductive system as millions of sperm raced to fertilize an egg.

So, what makes this series so special? Well, for one thing, it offers an up-close-and-personal look at what happens inside the male body during intercourse – something that has never been seen before on film! But beyond its novelty factor, The Great Sperm Race provides viewers with a comprehensive understanding of how sperm works and how it plays a critical role in fertility.

The show begins by taking us on a journey through the development process of sperm cells, from their creation in the testicles all the way to their release into semen. We learn about how semen itself is made up of several different substances that help keep the sperm alive and mobile as they move towards the ultimate goal: fertilization of an egg.

But perhaps what’s most fascinating about this series is its exploration of just how difficult it is for sperm to reach their destination. From navigating impenetrable barriers within female reproductive tracts to facing off against other competing sperm cells along the way, nearly 90% of all sperm will never make it to the egg.

Yet somehow amidst all these obstacles, one lucky little swimmer ultimately emerges victorious by successfully penetrating and fertilizing an egg – paving the way for new life to begin.

Ultimately, The Great Sperm Race serves as both an educational tool and source of entertainment. It gives us a deep dive into how our bodies work while also showcasing some truly remarkable special effects (like the stunning 3D animation of millions of sperm cells in motion). But more than anything, the series encourages us to appreciate just how complex and remarkable our bodies are – particularly when it comes to bringing new life into the world.

The Great Sperm Race is a captivating and informative documentary that explores the complex biological processes behind conception. It chronicles the journey of millions of sperm cells as they fight their way to the egg, and ultimately, the miracle of fertilization. The documentary has had a significant impact on fertility research and awareness, shedding light on some important issues related to fertility.

Firstly, The Great Sperm Race has brought attention to male infertility in a way that was not previously possible. Historically, discussions around infertility centered around female reproductive health. However, thanks to this documentary, we now understand how important it is to consider male infertility as a significant factor in fertility problems.

Secondly, The Great Sperm Race has highlighted the importance of timing when it comes to conception. Couples who are trying for a baby need to know when ovulation is occurring so that they can increase their chances of successful fertilization. This understanding can be hugely beneficial for couples who have been struggling with infertility for an extended period.

Furthermore, The Great Sperm Race has made people more aware of lifestyle factors that can affect fertility. For example, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption can damage sperm quality and decrease chances of conception significantly.

The insights gained from this fantastic documentary have contributed immensely towards advancing our understanding about reproduction and fertility mechanisms further. Both researchers and families who want children now have access to invaluable information about what it takes to become pregnant successfully.

In this regard, we can positively deduce that watching documentaries such as “The Great Sperm Race” educates us thoroughly on various aspects concerning our lives’ development stage if taken seriously; one may start implementing healthy changes towards increasing their chances of becoming pregnant successfully within reach but also helps us create awareness among society too regarding how lifestyle choices impact reproductive health.

Overall! We must commend “The great sperm race” for giving researchers groundbreaking insights into human reproduction while also serving as an excellent resource for anyone interested in understanding all aspects of fertility and reproductive health. It positively impacted the way people view conception and infertility, empowering them with knowledge to make informed decisions on their lifestyle choices that impact reproduction while debunking myths surrounding conception dynamics.

The Great Sperm Race

Richard Armitage (Self - Narrator) Richard Glover (Glenn) Natasha Pring (Emily) Erik Twight (Lead Sperm) Jaqueline Wingfield (Lead Sperm) Kai Almeida-Jones (Baby) Allan Pacey (Self - Sperm Expert: University of Sheffield) Chris De Jonge (Self - Fertility Expert: University of Minnesota) Joanna Ellington (Self - Sperm Physiologist) Andy Malone (Sperm)

Julian Jones

With 250 million competitors, it is the most extreme race on earth and there can only be one winner.

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The Great Sperm Race

Documentary special, produced in association with blink uk, with clever use of drama and cgi animation, the great sperm racecharts the extraordinary journey of human sperm – a giant obstacle course – that takes place over several hours or days. most will perish, but in the final act only five of the original 250 million will remain and only one will be the final victor., winner of "best science, technology, nature, environment or adventure documentary program" at the 25th annual gemini awards..

REPRODUCTION: THE GREAT SPERM RACE (Documentaries with questions)

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The great sperm race is a documentary about the difficult journey of the sperm through the female reproductive system. The sperm cells need to fight against adversity and this is something wonderful and this documentary shows it, perfectly.

Enjoy the documentary while answering the proposed questions.

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The Great Sperm Race

It's the most extreme race on earth - a contest with 250 million competitors, only one winner and relentless obstacles thrown in for good measure. Scaled up to human size with the sperm played by real people, The Great Sperm Race tells the story of human conception as it's never been told before using helicopter-mounted cameras, world-renowned scientists, CGI and dramatic reconstruction to illustrate the extraordinary journey of sperm. With the microscopic world of sperm and egg accurately scaled up by 34,000 times, we see the human-sized heroes negotiate some of the world's most striking landscapes when the epic proportions of the vagina become the Canadian Rockies and the buildings on London's South Bank symbolise the intricacies of the cervix. With the female body designed to repel and destroy invaders, from acidic vaginal walls to impassable cervical crypts, the sperm face unremitting obstacles. 'The battle that sperm have in order to find and fertilise an egg is just immense,' explains Dr Allan Pacey. 'Everything is working against sperm and they're not really given a helping hand by the female reproductive tract.' Huge swathes perish and only one will reach the ultimate goal - fertilisation of the egg and the beginnings of new life. Made in conjunction with the Wellcome Trust and consulting the world's leading reproductive scientists, The Great Sperm Race demonstrates the extraordinary intricacies of our bodies and the giant lottery of luck that is our reproductive process.

• Originally Aired March 23, 2009
• Runtime 45 minutes
• Content Rating United States of America TV-PG
• Network Channel 4
• On Other Sites IMDB
• Created October 15, 2012 by Administrator admin
• Modified October 15, 2012 by Administrator admin

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The Great Sperm Race

Aug 8, 2022 | Health , Videos

Are you ready for a weird and hilarious reproduction documentary video? Well, here you have it.

With more than 250 million competitors, the sperm race is the most extreme race on Earth. There can be only one winner.

A fertile male human ejaculates between 2 and 5ml of semen on average. That is about a teaspoon of semen. In each ml, there are about 100 million sperm, and if the concentration falls below 20 million sperm per ml, there might be troubles with fertility.

So, who wins the sperm race? And how do you prepare for such race? This hilarious video takes a closer look at the sperm race.

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