In my last post I gave you the gyno's view of some of your girlie anatomy. Time now for a look at the rest of our lovely junk:

Coming off the sides of the top of your uterus are your fallopian tubes. Their sole purpose is to pick up the recently ovulated egg and allow it time to get fertilized by arriving sperm. Think of the tubes like your bedroom (or once upon a time, your parents' basement): they're where the magic happens. Normally, the fertilized egg then travels on down to the uterus to implant and begin to grow. If the tubes are scarred or damaged, there's a greater chance that the egg won't make it to the uterus, and implants instead in the tube itself. This is called an ectopic pregnancy, and is bad news. Pelvic inflammatory disease is a common culprit of scarred tubes--the reason that gynos are obsessive about checking you for STDs. When you've decided that your childbearing years are done, your gyno can sterilize you by sealing off your tubes (tubal ligation) by cutting, burning, or clipping them, closing the fertilization highway permanently.

The tubes have fimbriated ends (like long feathery fingers) that drape near the ovaries to facilitate their egg-catching duties. The ovaries are about the size of walnuts, and contain from birth all the eggs that we'll have in our lives (unlike sperm, we don't make them as we go along). Each month a series of hormonal ups and downs trigger the release of one egg (on occasion, two--hello, Wonder Twins). Some women experience a cramp with ovulation, called Mittelschmerz. Sometimes the ruptured follicle (think ovarian blister) seals over to form a cyst, which is almost always harmless.

So those are the things your gyno is palpating for when it feels like she's reaching for your tonsils. Any questions?