Introduction to Reproduction

Science AMA Series: Hi Reddit! I’m Dr. Teresa Woodruff from Northwestern University here to answer any questions you may have about ovarian biology, oncofertility, and the importance of sex and gender inclusion in the biomedical sciences.

Hi Reddit! I’m Dr. Teresa Woodruff from Northwestern University here to answer any questions you may have about ovarian biology, oncofertility, and the importance of sex and gender inclusion in the biomedical sciences.

In 2006, I coined the term “oncofertility” to describe the merging of two fields: oncology and fertility. When we started this work, young men were able to bank sperm before a potentially sterilizing cancer treatment but women, with the same hope for survival, were not provide options. Now we have options and babies born to men and women who have survived their disease. This work was fostered by my interest in ovarian biology. Men make sperm constantly – about 1,500 sperm with every heartbeat. By contrast, women are born with all the oocytes that we will ever have – about 1 million in our ovaries. My lab is interested in how the ovarian reserve, this million follicle pool (a follicle is a single egg surrounded by cells that produce hormones like estrogen and support egg maturation) is metered out from birth until menopause – 6 decades to wait for activation. We began growing individual ovarian follicles in our lab to unravel some of this fundamental biology and developed strategies that are helping cancer patients who want to protect their fertility.

Finally, I’m interested in educating scientists about the value of including both males and females in their studies. For a lot of good reasons, many labs study only one sex. But the outcomes from single sex experiments cannot always be translated to the opposite sex. So we have been working to ensure that we all think about sex as a biological variable from bench to bedside.

I will be back at 2 pm ET to answer your questions, ask me anything!

Here are some resources for more information:

Women’s Health Research Institute

Oncofertility Consortium

Repropedia

Introduction to Reproduction on Coursera

EDIT: Thank you for all of your questions! I will be heading out now but may check back in if there are any follow up questions!

FREE Sex Education course from Northwestern University on Coursera

The syllabus covers the scientific aspect of reproduction.

It is made to be understood at a high school level and is usually taught to freshmen at the university.

The course has been made free due to the coronavirus crisis, so take advantage while you can.

Here is the syllabus below:

1. Reproductive Anatomy & Hormones
2. Menstrual Cycle, Oocyte Maturation, & Sperm Activation
3. Sexual Biology, Fertilization, & Contraception
4. Reproductive Health & Disorders

The course starts on Easter Sunday (April 12th) and will take about 10 hours to complete.
You can sign up here:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/reproductive-health

Here's a poster I made earlier

Here you go: http://www.seventeendays.org/ https://www.coursera.org/learn/reproductive-health https://www.healthynativeyouth.org/curricula/native-iyg

This one is a pretty good free course. Lots of good videos and readings. It covers mostly the biology of sex and pregnancy, so you will have to fill in the ideas around relationships, consent, and STIs.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/reproductive-health

If you want to brush up on more than just eh biology, this site has a TON of information aimed at parents raising teens (which you are sort of doing here)

https://teachingsexualhealth.ca/parents/

I understand. I guess I’m not really sure how you could do it without seeming degrading. It may be something that you’ll just have to teach along the way.

I’m assuming with this specific situation he now knows he needs to test to know since his friend(s) had a conversation about it unless they were just embarrassed to inform him of it. You mentioned you explained some anatomy to him already, as well.

Maybe there’s a free class you could find online and say “hey, I think this would be interesting to take together so we can both learn more.”

Edit: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/09/22/the-birds-the-bees-beers-and-stds-sex-101-begins-at-northwestern-university/ Could also use this as a conversation starter so he maybe doesn’t feel alone.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/reproductive-health They may have more classes than this one specifically.

Also, your doctor may be able to provide you with resources as well.