Why doesn’t pregnancy occur after the follicles are discharged?

Women ovulate every month, which is common knowledge. But sometimes many women find that their ovulation is normal and they do not suffer from any gynecological diseases, but still cannot get pregnant. At the same time, the husband also went for a full body check-up, which proved that there was no problem. What was the reason? Generally, such a situation is related to the failure of egg and sperm to combine. So, where do the follicles go if there is no pregnancy after they are discharged?

Ovulation begins when a woman has her first menstruation. During puberty, there are 300,000 to 500,000 follicles in the ovaries of women. About 3 to 11 follicles develop together before ovulation each month, but in the end only one follicle will mature each month. During a woman's lifetime, approximately 400-500 follicles develop, mature and eventually ovulate.

Generally speaking, ovulation occurs about 14 days before each menstruation, which is what we call the ovulation day, and the egg can usually only survive for 24-48 hours after being released. At this time, if the sperm and egg meet, a fertilized egg will be formed, which will then develop into an embryo, and a new life will be born ten months later.

So where do the eggs go if a woman doesn't get pregnant?

Fertilization process

After a woman ovulates, the fimbria of the fallopian tube will "pick up" the egg and transport it to the entrance of the widest hall in the fallopian tube, "the junction of the ampulla and isthmus of the fallopian tube," where it waits for the arrival of sperm.

However, there is only one egg, but there are thousands of sperm, so the egg will witness a fierce sperm "triathlon". Only the strongest sperm can break through the cell membrane outside the egg faster, send its own nucleus deep into the egg, combine with the egg, and form a fertilized egg. The fertilized egg continues to move forward to the uterus, expands its territory on the endometrium, and finally implants, so the woman becomes pregnant.

If a woman does not become pregnant, it means that the egg is not fertilized. For an egg that fails to be fertilized and fails to evolve, only death awaits her. So where will the egg go in the end?

The withered egg can disappear completely in two ways:

1. Because the egg cannot be fertilized, the ovaries stop producing estrogen and progesterone. As the secretion of these two hormones decreases, the thickened endometrium begins to fall off, carrying the egg that has failed in evolution and died, and is expelled from the body. This is the origin of menstruation.

2. Some eggs never have the chance to reach the uterine cavity and just stay in the abdominal cavity. There are a large number of phagocytes that are invisible to the naked eye in the female pelvic and abdominal cavities. The function of these phagocytes is to protect the body. When the body is invaded by inflammation, bacteria, or necrotic cells, these phagocytes will devour the invaders like guards, and the eggs that cannot be excreted from the body will eventually be devoured by the phagocytes.