the.com/ovary
a tiny vault that ships your entire genetic future in monthly installments.
means The female reproductive organ that produces eggs and sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone.
from From the Latin 'ovarium,' a tidy compound of 'ovum' (egg) plus the suffix '-arium' meaning 'a place for' — the same '-arium' that gives us aquarium and terrarium. So an ovary is literally 'a place for eggs,' an egg-holding chamber. The term entered medical English in the late 17th century as anatomists were busy cataloguing the body's machinery. That root 'ovum' is also a cousin of the Greek 'oon' (egg), and it scrambles its way into English as 'oval' too — the egg-shaped.
- egg count
- holds all your eggs before you're even born
- size
- about the size of an almond
- hormone factory
- pumps out estrogen and progesterone on schedule
- lottery odds
- releases roughly 400 eggs across a lifetime
- dual job
- makes hormones and gametes simultaneously
ovary of the anglerfish — female produces bioluminescent eggs to attract prey in the deep ocean at 1000+ meters depth
human ovary follicle reserve — women are born with approximately 1-2 million follicles, declining to around 400,000 by puberty