Paul Turek
speaker
358 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2025
last heard Jun 2025
Paul Turek’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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So reproduction is an incredibly highly evolved million-year process and remarkably conserved among mammalian species, even among land species and water species of animals. vaginas, cervixes, uteruses. And the question is, why is it so much work for a sperm to get into the vagina, especially in, say, water, and then have to go through a cervix?
And then the immune system in the uterus is very active because there's a hole in the woman to the peritoneum, to the abdomen. So it has to be highly protected. And then you have to go through the uterus. So there's a 10-inch, 12-inch swim, which is equivalent to about a 20-mile swim for a human. Based on the size of the sperm. And how much distance they have to go.
And they do that in minutes, which is crazy. So it's an interesting challenge that nature has kept in place for a million years. And I really respect evolution. And it is why we're here for, you know, eat, sleep, reproduce. So basically, with ejaculation, the penis is shaped to fit into the cervix. Everyone wonders, is it getting to the right spot?
It's also interesting that the semen is coagulated and then it liquefies. And that's because there's a lot of species of lower phyla. that they have to leave as soon as they have sex, otherwise they'll get killed, like praying mantises and black widow spiders. So you got to get out of there as a guy. So our ejaculates in humans are sticky.
I have no idea, Peter. I have no idea why you would do that. I don't know why one queen bee and the bees in the hive die after mating. I have no idea why that's an advantage. But I guess females are prioritized in evolution. And that makes sense. The anatomy is perfectly defined. So a lot of men think they're having trouble placing things.
I usually don't worry about it because the cervix and the penis expands. It forms a seal. Then there's a crypt. Sperm have to go through a crypt, a channel, which is only a few sperm make it. So 100 million sperm may start out. Maybe 5 million make it through the first barrier, which is the cervical barrier. The vaginal fluid is acidic. How acidic? 5, pH of 5, and the semen is a pH of 7.
It's all buffered as a hostile environment, so it has to get out of there quickly. As soon as it liquefies, there's sugars in there, and then they go through the cervical path. So 5 million will make it. One out of 20 makes it through the cervix. Then 100 make it to the fallopian tube, and then one will make it to the egg. Literally only 100? Right.
And this Settlage studies in the 50s had women have sex before hysterectomies. And then he swabbed different parts of the reproductive tract. These are young women for different reasons, not infertility, and found these numbers. And that's the basis for our move to technology from 5 million moving sperm is when we start doing inseminations versus sex, et cetera.
So those are based on numbers of sperm that reach the uterus and reach the thing. What's really interesting is there's some fascinating research. Everyone thought the Vanguard sperm wins, right? So it's the Phelps sperm that's going to make it. And there's a company out of Boston called Eric's Biosciences, and I'm consulting with them, disclosure.
But they've discovered that sperm work in phalanxes. So because the immune system is so vibrant in the uterus, the first round of sperm gets through the cervix
And there's also a mucus plug that exists for 28 days a month to prevent anything from going through because it's a hole into the woman's body and peritonitis is severe, right? And the cervical mucus thins and that's to let sperm through for two days a month. It's incredibly detailed, perfectly orchestrated system.
So it looks like the first round of sperm get through the cervix, get into the uterus, and they get demolished like a phalanx, like a Roman phalanx. And maybe a second round goes through and they get demolished and they're secreting the FCR receptor on the immunoglobulin because that's what antibodies bind to. So the female antibodies bind to that.
And we don't know how many phalanxes go through, but then it's like a run up the middle. And then eventually a couple of sperm or fourth make it and the immune system's deactivated and they get there. It's wild. And that can be measured now. And there's actually going to be an assay available to look at whether you're doing this.
They're calling it a sperm cycle, almost like ovulation, spermulation. But it's an hour and a half cycle when the phalanx is working, sperm are deactivating the immune system, and then maybe they don't. So there are jaculates, which is a group of sperm, some of which do this well and some of which don't. And that can be a whole reason for infertility.
Yep. 100 to 500 get to the fallopian tube and one gets to the egg. Wow. Why do you need so many sperm? The classic answer used to give is they don't like to ask for directions. Men don't like to ask for directions, but this is probably why.
It takes about 60 to 70 days. And it's a process called meiosis. So in a car assembly line, the Model T assembly, you know, mass produce, you want to all be the same. In meiosis, which is unlike mitosis, you want things to be different and to be a little easy peasy. So you get what's called recombination. And so that's the source of evolution.
So the genes, the chromosomes blend in a different way and separate a different way. And through that process of a couple of those, you get half the number of chromosomes, which is required to join the other half.
Correct. It's a loosey goosey.
Five million eggs at conception, one million eggs at birth, and you basically ovulate a thousand in your lifetime. Okay. So by the time you're 45, you're out of eggs. You actually ovulate one a month, but you actually produce 10 a month. So you lose 10. For every one. Right. So a lot of waste.
But they're stuck in a stage of perpetual space where they're just, you know, and they get older and they don't evolve really. And then they mature when they're asked to at that time.
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