Unique video recording: ovulation close-up
Belgian surgeons accidentally filmed the moment of ovulation – the release of a mature egg from the ovary.
The recording was made by doctors under the guidance of Professor Jacques Donnez during an operation to partially remove the uterus, which was performed on a 45-year-old woman at the Catholic University Hospital of Louvain (Brussels). The process of egg release from the mature follicle was recorded by an endoscope camera inserted into the pelvic cavity of the patient.
The video shows how a reddish protrusion appears in the hole formed by the action of enzymes in the wall of the follicle, and from it an egg cell, which is sent to the fallopian tube.
(Pictures from the article Human egg makes accidental debut on camera – New Scientist, 11.06.2008.)
Photos and videos of ovulation, available to scientists until recently, were of low quality. The new video report will allow us to correct some ideas about this important process. For example, it is already clear that the release of an egg from a follicle can take up to 15 minutes – much longer than previously thought.
A detailed description of the video will be published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.