All about those little Spermies!

So today - thanks to a friend on facebook - I read an article about the largest sperm bank in the world.  Apparently the sperm bank has turned away the sperm of our ginger headed friends.  According to Ole Schou, Director of Cryos International, "I do not think you chose a redhead, unless the partner - for example, the sterile male - has red hair, or because the lone woman has a preference for redheads."  So yes, they don't want your sperm redheads!  Sorry about your luck.  As of right now the sperm bank is on overload - with 600 men WAITING to donate.  As of current time, the sperm bank has 70 Liters of sperm on hand - with each man ejaculating only 2 - 6 milliliters each time.  that means they have between 11,000 and 35,000 "samples" depending on how much junk men have. 

So, of course... on the page is linked to an article called Sperm: Crazy Things you Should Know.  And you know I'm going to jump all over that one.  So listen and learn...

Crazy Thing #1: Abnormal Sperm, That's Normal. 
90% of the sperm in a single ejaculation is deformed.  For instance, it can have two heads, two tails, huge heads, pinheads, coiled tail... Oh yeah guys it's deformed.  Sorry about your luck.

Crazy Thing #2: Half  Teaspoon.

Yup, men who think  you are shooting out a BIG load.  Nope, sorry... a typical man only ejaculates a half a teaspoon.  (Although, I have to question that myself, because damn...)

Crazy Thing #3: Sperm Wear Hard Hats
Each sperm has an oval-shaped structure called the acrosome - it contains control chemicals that are released if and when the sperm attaches to an egg.  The chemicals are what allow the sperm to melt the egg's outer surface and penetrate the egg. 

Crazy Thing #4: Sperm vs Semen
Did you know that sperm does not equal semen.  Sperm cells are only a part of semen.  Semen also contains substances from the prostate and a pair of rabbit ear-shaped organs inside the pelvis called the seminal vesicles. Sperm get the fuel they need in the form of sugar fructose supplied by the seminal vehicles, and Fluid from the prostate allow for semen to liquefy once inside the female.  And yes, that's a whole lot of technical terms, I apologize.  I'm just here to educate.

Crazy Thing #5: One Testicle is Enough
Just ask Lance Armstong - he's fathered 5 children since losing his nut.  Granted, 3 were from sperm banked prior to the surgery, but 2 were done the natural way.  Granted there are two baby mommas, but that's not part of this ...

Crazy Thing #6: 200 Million Competitors. 
As we all learned in sex ed, it only one takes one sperm to fertilize an egg.  But did you know that with each ejaculate there are 200 Million Spermies released?  It's a bit amazing that we don't all have multiple children!

Crazy Thing #7: The Factory Never Closes.
You've heard those (horror) stories of women getting pregnant at 50, 60.  And it's because men produce sperm all the time, every day, all day for their entire lives.  Unlike women who are born with a set number of eggs that once they are gone, they are gone.

Crazy Thing #8: Sperm are Tiny
Each sperm measures only about 0.002 inch from head to tail. or about 50 micrometers.   You better get our your microscope if you want to see one.  BUT, if you lined up each sperm, end to end, from one ejaculate it would measure about 6 miles - ewww.

Crazy Thing #9: Sperm need protection!
The immune system doesn't like the way sperms only have 1/2 of the DNA of other cells.  So to keep the immune system from killing off all the sperm - the testicles employ speczied cells to surround them with a soft of "picket fence"  ahh, how all American.

Crazy Thing #10: Dead Sperm can make live babies.
Well, shit.  Non-swimming sperm can still fertilize and egg with in-vitro fertilization.  The only thing that matters is the sperm inside the egg...