My daughter got a tubal ligation with her last C-section birth about a month ago. A section of each Fallopian tube was removed (and given to her, like replacement parts at the car shop). She now cannot have more children because her eggs cannot get to the uterus. This, of course, was the desired effect.
The question: None of this affects the ovaries. I presume they continue to churn out ova at their usual rate. How come women with tubal ligations don’t have a problem with the eggs piling up in the Fallopian tube and causing some sort of burst or other problem?
As I understand it the unfertilized eggs are absorbed by the body, so they don’t pile up anywhere. A woman usually only produces 12 viable eggs a year, 6 from each ovary, so it’s not like there are hundreds of eggs that need to be dealt with.
A human egg cell is around 1/10th of a millimeter across, or something like a million eggs in a 1 cm cube. It takes the average woman somewhere around 83 thousand years to release a million eggs. It isn’t like that candy factory scene from I Love Lucy down there.
You’re probably thinking about the emergency that happens when a fertilized egg implants in the Fallopian tube, and starts to develop. That quickly becomes larger than one cell, and that’s why it’s a problem.
Also, FWIW, sometimes fertilized eggs die in the Fallopian tube, and then there isn’t a problem. It’s only when they keep growing that it’s a problem.
And yes, it’s true that women are born with all the eggs they will ever have, but a mature one released in the Fallopian tube is a little larger than an immature one. We’re talking microscopic either way, though.
That’s my understanding as well - the sperm have no natural exit after a vasectomy, and are just absorbed into the bloodstream. I am not entirely sure of the mechanism for this, tho. But, the body produces many time more of those swimmers compared to eggs, and it’s not like they are piling-up somewhere.