This is going to be going over the reproductive system. So, it's a combination of both the male and the female reproductive system. So, in the reproductive system for humans, um when we talk about it, we begin by identifying what are called the gonads. The gonads are the structures that are going to be producing what are called the gametes. Gameamtes specifically are sperm in gentlemen and ova or eggs in women. Additionally, the gonads are responsible for secretreting the secondary sex hormones which is what's going to help promote um gender as far as either being male or female as well as going to help support the development of a child and a female and to further develop the gametes. Additionally, both men and women are going to have a series of ducts that are going to be very important to the process of the reproductive system. Ducks in general are going to be there to help store and transport the gametes um in order to hopefully produce new offspring. That's the main goal. First up is the male reproductive system. So this is a anatomical image of a section through the male reproductive system. Um we will be going through most of these and this is a good picture refer back to uh to identify these particular organs as well as their location of them. Externally it's going to begin the male reproductive system with a structure called the scrotum. The scrotum is the supporting structure for the testes. It's going to consist of a lot of loose skin and some subcutaneous tissue that's going to be extending off the anterior portion of the male. It looks like a single pouch, but it's actually separated um in the middle by a vertical septum that's going to help separate each one of the testes into their respective compartment. So they are fully separated which is one of the reasons as to why when um testicular cancer occurs it most commonly is just in one testy because it is compartmentalized. Yes it can occur in both of them but one testy in its compartment is usually what's going to be affected by it. So externally single internally divided definitely into two. Then on the surface of the scrotum is going to be a muscle that we call the dartose muscle. This is smooth muscle and this is going to cause the wrinkling of the fascia skin um when it happens to contract. There's also going to be the cremaster muscle which is associated with each testee. This is actually skeletal muscle and it comes down from the internal abdominal oblique. What happens during the course of development is that as the testes descend from the abdominal area in a male when he is in uterero, they will poke out through the anterior abdomen and bring with it that muscle as they descend to their final positioning. So that is a um structure that just goes with it. Now the purpose of the scrotum for gentlemen is that it helps keep the testes at a cooler temperature. It's about 2 to 3 Celsius cooler and that is optimal for sperm development. If the testes were internally inside the body, sperm would not be viable. So, it's important that they're held at a cooler temperature outside the body to grow sperm. On the surface of the testes, they're going to be covered by a cirrus membrane called the tunica vaginalis. The tuna vaginalis comes from the paritonyium and again is pulled down when the testes descend. It has um the ability to basically form a nice clean smooth surface around the testes. Then there's going to be the tunica albenia which is a dense irregular connective tissue. The tuna albenia is going to send extensions into the testes to form what are called lobules. Each of the two to 300 lobules are going to be then subcompartmentalized by tightly coiled tubules called semifpherous tubules. So again the lobules which were talked about a little bit on the previous slide. These come from, excuse me, the extension of the tunica albugenia into the testes and compartmentalize it and turn into or help to compartmentalize the semiifferous tubules. The semiifferous tubules is where spermatogenesis begins. Uh genesis means to produce. This is the production of sperm. So this is how sperm is going to be produced inside the male body is in the structure of the semiphus tubules. The process of spermatogenesis is going to begin with cells that are called spermatagonia. These are also known as diploid which means they have a full 46 chromosomes as opposed to the 23 chromosomes that are necessary to create a viable human being. So a sperm with 46 chromosomes would not be able to mate with an egg because it had too many chromosomes. Through the process of development eventually those spermatagonia are going to divide into diploid primary spermatocytes. So primary sperm cells. These again are going to have 46 individual chromosomes to them. So, still not ready yet to be able to uh procreate with an egg, but on its way to be able to re be reduced down to a smaller number of chromosomes. So, you can see right here the 2N for the spmatagonia and then the primary spermatocite there. You can also look structurally to the left and show that you that it's just basically a cell. After the primary spermatocy uh goes through the cell division of meiosis, it then turns into the secondary spermatocy. Secondary spermatocy now has the correct number of chromosomes. It is hloid. So it's going to be 23 chromosomes. But these sperm cells are not quite ready to exit the testes because what has to happen is they have to develop um protective coating around the nucleus as well as the fleella tail that will ultimately turn into the spermatid that then can leave the male reproductive system. So at the end of the process one cell one spermatagonia will turn into four viable spermatids. Within the structure of the testes is going to be a cell that is called a sustenacular or cerolei cell. Now this cell is going to be responsible for helping to support and develop the eventual what will be sperm and so it is located in the wall of the semi tubules. The main functions of the sustenacular or cerolei cells is they're going to help to develop the nourishing um spermatagonia. They're going to help mediate any effects of hormones on the development of sperm. They might help to control the movements of the sperm as they progress to development and ultimately turn into the pro uh the spermatids to be released. They also are important for helping to promote fluid for um sperm to be transported in. So the cestinacular or the cerolei cells are different than these cells which are called the interstitial cells of lidig. The interstitial cells of liidig are found between the semiferous tubules. So that's a big difference of them is that they are found between whereas your stolei or sustenacular cells are found within the interstitial cells of liidig are important for secretreting the male hormone testosterone. So they are going to help with the promotion of um the sperm development but also ensure that a male secondary sex characteristics are going to be um what they are helping to promote the gender or the sex of being male. So here's a picture of this um labule within a testes with the semifous tubules. So the semious tubule is where you see this dark border. So that's going to form a circle. Then the sperm are going to start developing from the peripheral and go towards the middle. So what you see here in this blank space is going to be sperm. That's what those stringy webbby things are. So within that structure is where you find your cerolei cells. Whereas between the semian tubules is where you find your liic cells which are going to be producing testosterone. So the sperm is absolutely designed in its morphology to promote uh reproduction and so the parts of it are ideally made to be able to procreate with an egg. The main part of the sperm is going to be the head that is containing the male donation to eventually make a human which is going to contain 23 chromosomes in the structure called the nucleus. So that's going to be found in the head. Covering the head is a structure called an acrosome. And the acrosome is an enzyme that allows the sperm to eat through the wall of the egg when it gets to the egg in order for it to donate its 23 chromosomes to mate with the female's 23 chromosomes. The middle piece contains mitochondria because that's going to be producing a lot of ATP. Um, the sperm need a lot of ATP and energy to be able to move its tail for locomotion in order to get through the male reproductive system ultimately to the female reproductive system in order to fertilize an egg. So there's quite a bit of energy that is necessary for that. Sperm typically live um they can live up to 5 days and it's been found for that. Um often times most of them don't survive beyond 48 hours in the female reproductive tract, but they've been proven to live up to 5 days. Then there's a series of ducts that once the sperm have developed into their four spermatids that the sperm will have to navigate through in order to leave the male reproductive system. So the first series of ducts after the semipherous tubules are going to be the straight tubules. Then the straight tubules are going to lead to a network of ducts called the ready testes. And then from the ready testes, they're going to move to a series of coiled ducts called the epherent ducts or eerant ducts that are going to be found in the epidmus. So each of those locations are going to be a place that the fluid as well as the sperm are going to be traveling through um in hopes to eventually leave to fertilize an egg. From there, the epidmus, which is a comm-shaped organ on the testes, is going to be the housing place for sperm before it ultimately leaves the testes. There are three main divisions. There's the head, the body, and the tail. The head is the larger portion. Then the body is the middle portion. And the tail is the inferior portion. Connected to the tail is a structure called the ductus vast deference or the vast defence or the ductus deference. This is the tube that's going to be taking the sperm from the testes ultimately to join up with the male urethra for um the release of sperm out of the penis. So the ductus epidmus is the final structure where sperm are going to hang out before they leave the testes. So the ductus epidmus can store the sperm and when the sperm are ready to leave it will help squeeze to help promote the movement of sperm out of the testes. Um functionally the epidmus is going to be the site basically for sperm maturation which takes about about 14 days. So it will help store the sperm until they are ultimately fully mature and leave the testes. Then connected is going to be the structure called the ductus deference or the vast deference or the ductus vast deference. There's multiple names for it. Uh the structure itself is about 18 in long uh which is a pretty decent length. This is going to connect from the testes to ultimately empty into the male urethra. So it passes from outside of the male to inside. So it's going to penetrate through what's called the inguinal canal. Eventually, it's going to loop around the backside of the bladder and it's going to empty into the male urethra. There are three layers of muscle that are going to be surrounding it and that will help to again uh squeeze the parasultic contractions in order to move the sperm towards the male urethra for fertilization to take place after it leaves the male urethra. The beginning of the ductus deference is called the ampula. Um and I'll show you what that picture looks like when we look at um an upcoming slide. So that is a dilated portion of where the ductus vast deference will empty into the male urethra. Then there is a structure or a space outside of the male reproductive system that we call the spermatic cord. Please know that often times the spermatic cord gets confused with being the ductus vast deference and it is not. It is a region that's going to be containing all kinds of structures through it. It is found right above each of the testes and it will extend up until that all of those structures enter the male body. So the structures that are found in it are the ductus deference, testicular artery, veins, the autonomic nerves, lymphatic vessels, the cremaster muscle. All of those items are going to be found in the structure of the strummatic cord. So it's a way for um the body to protect your ductus vast deference. This is also the place that when a male has a vasectomy, this is where they go in and cauterize um or staple it or or or cut it um in order to prevent sperm from leaving the testes. It's also how the testes get cooled down because of the blood supply from the veins that are in the area. So again, it is a region that is going to contain all those structures as opposed to it being an actual structure like the ductus vast deference. So as the ductus vast deference passes through the male body, it is going to uh go to the posterior side of the bladder and unite with the ejaculatory duct that is coming from the seminal vesicles. So that is where we find the ampula as I mentioned earlier I would point it out here. So the ampula is the widened portion of the ductus deference and then it is going to unite with the ejaculatory duct um from the seminal vesicle to form that structure that will empty into the urethra. Then the male urethra is the last passageway of tubes in order for the sperm to leave the male body. So just to refresh your memory so far we have talked through the various ducts that began with the straight tubules that will again then go to the ready testes then to the eerant ducts then into the epidmus with the ductus epidmus then to the vast deference to the ejaculatory duct now to the urethra in the three structures that make up the urethra the prosthetic the membranous and the spongy. The male urethra doubles as an organ for both semen as well as urine. So it's a dual organ. Again the three divisions we have the prosthetic that's going to pass through the prostate gland. You have the membranus that passes through the muscle part of the um basically the pelvic diaphragm muscles that are there. And then the spongy part which is going to be the very distal end through what is called the spongy urethra because that's where the corpus spongiosis tissue is going to be found. And so that will be the passageway for urine and sperm to exit the male body. The male body as a whole contains five total glands that are considered to be accessory glands. These are going to be secretreting most of the liquid portion of semen. So there are two seinal vesicles also called seinal glands. They are pouch-like and they commonly look like a piece of chewed gum on the posterior side of the bladder. They are going to be secreting an alkaline substance that's going to help them neutralize the environment of the female reproductive tract because the female reproductive tract is quite acidic to prevent growth of bacteria and this is going to help to neutralize that environment to help promote sperm to be able to live. There's also going to be fluid that contain fructose and that's used for the production of ATP by sperm. And there's going to be some prostaglandins that are going to help with sperm motility and viability as well as the female reproductive um tract to squeeze in order to help promote your um sperm for uniting with a female egg. Overall, this gland, the pair of them are going to secrete about 60% of the total fluid volume of semen. Then there's a single prostate gland. It is shaped like a donut. In the middle then is the opening that's going to allow the passageway of the male urethra. Hence why it's called the prosthetic urethra. It's about an acorn in size and it's going to be secretreting a very milky substance to it. And that milky substance is what's going to add um fluid to the semen that has come from the seminal vesicles. That milky substance again is going to help with the promotion to be able to um create an optimal environment for sperm to live in. Then two really small glands called the bulthal glands, sometimes called kalper glands. They each are about the size of a pee. They're going to be sitting right underneath the prostate gland. During sexual arousal, these are going to be secretreting an alkaline fluid that helps to protect the passing sperm um by the neutralizing acids from any urine in the urethra. And at the same time, it's going to act as a mucus or lubricant um in order for the sperm to pass smoothly through the urethra. So all five of these are positioned right around the male urethra to contribute to the substance of semen. So here is the seinal vesicle also known as the seinal gland. So one on either side here they look like chewed pieces of gum but they empty into that ejaculatory duct with the vast deference. Then we have the single prostate that contains the prostatic urethra. And then here's the paired calpers or bulb urethral glands that are sitting right below the prostate that are also going to be contributing fluid to the urethra in hopes for sperm to survive. Now what exactly is semen? So semen is going to be the definition of both a mixture of sperm and seinal fluid. And the seinal fluid comes from secretions of the semi tubules, seminal vesicles, prostate gland and bulurethal gland. The volume of semen can range anywhere from 2 and a half to 5 milliliters with a count of anywhere from 50 to 150 sperm per milliliter. So let's say that it was 2 and a half milliliters of 50 million sperm. So that's 250 million sperm in one ejaculation. So it's quite a lot of sperm that can be produced by male and not all of them will be viable. sperm has more of an alkaline or sorry, sperm with the seinal fluid is going to have more of an alkaline substance to it, which again is going to help neutralize the female environment in order for sperm to survive. The liquid sperm is then going to leave via the urethra that's found in the penis. The penis is the common passageway for both semen and urine. The penis itself is going to extend off the anterior part of the male body by ligaments that are going to help hold it in its spot. It's made up of three cylindrical masses of tissue. There are two tissues called the corporais and one piece of tissue called the corpus spongiosis. The corpus cavernosis is what fills up with blood during a male erection. Whereas the corpus spongiosis is going to be surrounding the spongy urethra or that division of the penis. So those are going to help form the structure of the penis itself and then during arousal it can fill up with blood. At the very distal end of the penis is going to be a piece of tissue called the gland's penis. it's going to um form kind of an acorn-shaped region that is what's covered by a loose piece of tissue called the prepuse. The prepuse is also called the foreskin and this is what is removed during circumcision um in order to expose the gland's penis. So here you can see the tissue that makes up the penis itself. So you have two corporais and a single corpus spongiosis that's going to be containing a single urethra and the two corpus cavernosis are going to be able to fill up with blood during a male arousal. So again to review the process of how sperm are going to be leaving the male body. It's going to begin by uh being produced in the semi tubules. That's where spermatogenesis occurs. Then the sperm will move into the straight tubules. Then to the readyt testes, then to the epherent ducts and then finally into the ductus epidmus that is going to connect with the ductus vast deference which is going to be the tube that will then exit the male testes. From there it will pass the posterior side of the bladder where it then is going to unite with the ejaculatory duct that comes from the seminal vesicle and then ultimately it's going to empty into the male urethra to pass through the prosthetic urethra, the membrinous urethra and the sponge urethra to exit the male body in hopes for fertilization to take place. So the next part of the reproductive system is about the female reproductive system. Female reproductive system overall um anatomically has less structures than the male but certainly physiologically is a lot more challenging similar to the male picture that you saw of this. This is going to be a section through the female reproductive organs and the female reproductive organs um here again contribute to the process of not only supporting the production of ova or eggs but also for the promotion and the development of a baby. The ovaries are the female gonads just like the testes were the males. They are only about the size of an almond. So they're not very big at all. Because the ovaries are not actually attached to anything, meaning they don't actually touch anything. There's a series of ligaments that hold them in position. So there's a ligament called the broad ligament. This is going to be a fold of paritinium that will help attach the uterus to the ovary. There is a fold of tissue called the messo ovarium. So ova for that um ovaries. Again another small fold of pararitinium between the broad ligament and the ovaries. Then there is the ovarian ligament that will specifically anchor the ovaries to the uterus and then the suspensory ligament that's going to anchor your ovaries to the pelvic wall. So a series of all of these are going to help hold the ovaries in their position. So the ovaries are going to be paired glands that are homologous to the testes. They're going to be producing gametes which again are the female eggs or ova. They also produce the important hormones to make a female female and the secondary sex hormones as well as to help promote the development of a baby. So they produce progesterone and estrogen as well as inhib and relaxin which are going to help with the promotion and the development of a baby and um uh delivery by a female. So this is looking down. So a transverse section looking down into the pelvic cavity of a female. So the white is going to be the ovaries and again there's going to be four pieces of ligaments that will help hold them in their spot. There's the broad ligament that's going to attach the uterus to the ovary. There's the mess ovarium which is also going to be attaching your um ovaries to the broad ligament. Then the ovarian ligament which is going to be attaching your ovaries to the uterus and the suspensory ligament which is going to be attaching your ovaries to the pelvic wall. So because they don't physically touch anything, they have to be kind of attached in this area for floating. The structure that will allow blood vessels and other items to enter and exit the ovaries is called the hilus. So there's a hilus of the kidneys. There's a hilus here of the ovaries. There's a hilus of the lungs. Hilus just means this is the part of the the structure that things can enter and exit because there's not usually more than one location on that organ. So here you can see blood vessels entering the ovary. This is also going to be where that mess ovarium tissue is going to attach. Inside the ovary is going to be a collection of tiny and microscopic cells called ovarian follicles. Ovarian follicles. Follicle means little bag. They're going to consist of oytes that are in various stages of development as well as the cells are going to be surrounding it such as the granulosa cells. So the ovarian follicles every month are going to be growing um a certain amount of them and in hopes that one will ultimately come the one to leave ideally for fertilization take place. the one that ultimately will leave we call the mature follicle or the graphian follicle and that is what's released to help expel the secondary oite. After that occurs inside an ovary the tissue that is left in that is called the corpus ludium and it's going to act as a gland during the initial part if a female happens to get pregnant um by that egg being fertilized. So down below in the picture you can see that there is the ovarian follicles which are going to be containing those oytes in supportive cells. The process of the development of female eggs is known as oenesis just like spermatogenesis um was for males. A big difference though is that a female's eggs are actually formed before she is born whereas a male doesn't begin spermatogenesis until he reaches puberty. So by the time a female is born from her mom, her eggs have already been developed. The oonia um are going to be the cells that initially divide because they are deployed into germ cells which will ultimately become primary oytes. So oonia initially have 46 chromosomes and they have to be reduced down to 23 chromosomes during the process of oenesis. So each of the primary oytes are going to be surrounded by supportive cells called follicular cells. And then we then call these primordial follicles. Each month primordial follicles will turn into and develop into primary follicles which will develop into secondary follicles and ultimately they will develop into a single graphen or mature follicle that can leave the ovary in order for it to be fertilized. So here's a picture to show you that this is the nucleus. So that's the part of the female and right there as well that's going to be going to donate the 23 chromosomes. Surrounding it are your follicular cells um and the fluid of the primary oite. In the picture in the right you can see that there are multiple stages of development. So these really small ones are your primordial ones. The larger ones leading up to the secondary perhaps a graphian follicle if it was large enough. So extending from the uterus is going to be the structures that we call uterine tubes, fallopian tubes, also sometimes called ovoducts. All of those refer the same structure. So those are the tubes that are extending off the bladder. At the very end of the tubes are going to be these fringe called fimria. Fimria are like little fingers. They're going to um hang off the distal end of the tubes in order to grab onto an egg when it is developed. Inside the fimria is the widen portion, the funnel that we call the infundibilum. Um the infundabolum is going to um just be a dilated portion that will allow more space for the egg to enter into the fallopian tubes. Then it will travel to a wider portion called the ampula. The ampula is ideally where fertilization takes place. Um that's because of the egg is only going to live for about 12 to 24 hours after it's been released. So that's where fertilization ideally will take place. So that way the egg doesn't die before it breaches the uterus which occurs most the time unless a female is getting pregnant every single month and having a baby every single month which doesn't happen um that it doesn't happen that way. So the ampula is ideally where fertilization takes place. Then the uterine tube is going to narrow at a point in which it's going to connect to the uterus which is called the ismas. And so all four of those divisions can be found on the fallopian tube. So you have the fimbria, the infendibulum, the ampula, and then the ismas of the uterine tube that's going to connect to the female muscular organ that we call the uterus. The uterus doubles as a pathway for sperm to reach the uterine tubes. It's also the site of implantation of a female blastois and it's also where the development of the fetus is going to occur um and ultimately for the pregnancy and then labor. The uterus itself has a couple different divisions to it. It is going to be positioned between your bladder and the rectum. Oftentimes, it's going to extend when a female's pregnant to go above the bladder, which can put pressure on the female bladder, making her feel like she has to go to the bathroom quite often. So, the top part is a dome shape called the fundus. The fundus was also part of the digestive system of the stomach. Then the main part is called the body followed by an inferior structure called the cervix which is the opening into the uterus. So again we have the fundus which is the dome-shaped portion of the uterus. The body which is going to be the major central portion. The ism which is going to be the transition between the body and the cervix. And then the cervix is the dome-shaped opening into um the female vaginal canal. Now, the cervix plays a role in the fact that it can fill up with um a mucus throughout the female reproductive cycle. So, I'll talk about that in just a second. When we look at the tissue that makes up the uterus, there are three tissues. There's the paritonyium that we also call the sarosa. That's going to be the outermost layer. Then, we have the myometrium. My means muscle. This is going to consist of three layers of smooth muscle that can grow and become thinner during the course of holding a child. It is smooth muscle, so a female doesn't have to think about it stretching. It will do it on its own. But additionally, that smooth muscle allows the female uterus to recoil when a female is not pregnant to get down to a smaller size. The inside layer of the uterus is called the endometrium. It's a highly vascularized uh piece of tissue and it's going to every month shed off a portion of it in hopes that a new piece of tissue will be able to support a fertilized egg. So the stratum functionalis is a piece of tissue that's going to be slloed off every month during um menration. The stratum basalis is what's going to stay and so the stratum basalis every month will grow new stratum functionalis which will then be slloed off. So on the left side you can see of the tissue there are two samples one of them is in the second week the other one's in a third week and so it's looking at the endometrial tissue. What you see happening is the myometrium then becomes less common because on top of the myometrium a very thickened stratum basali which has grown the stratum functionalis has occurred and so the stratum functionalis becomes thicker because this is ideally where an egg is going to implant in order for it to get the adequate nutrition. So then on the right side the endometrial tissue this is what you lose every month as a stratum functionalis and that's going to be growing from the stratum basalis during the course of development. So the cervix again is going to be the opening into the vagina. Um the cervix is going to consist of two subopenings itself called the internal O and the external O. In between is going to be the interior which is called the cervical canal. Um the internal O and external O play a role um when that cervix needs to dilate during the course of um pregnancy for a female to deliver. And so the external o is the opening. The internal os is from the uterus but both of them have to expand. Sitting in this area is going to be a cervical mucus. And the cervical mucus is going to act as a plug during a female um reproductive cycle because what will happen is that it will close up basically the opening and near the time that a female is going to be releasing her egg for fertilization to take place. The fluid be this mucus becomes much more thin which allows a passageway for sperm. then it will fill back up again and become much more stronger to prevent any additional sperm or any um inhospitable items from passing into the uterus. When a female is pregnant, this is what will fill up to create what's called the mucus plug to again act as a protective mechanism against um anything that might attack the baby. The vagina then is going to be a tubular firamuscular canal that is lined with a mucous membrane to go from the cervix to the external um part of the body. It is muscularis and is composed of mainly smooth muscle. It will allow um that to stretch during the course of delivery as well as during um intercourse to help promote that um meeting of the sperm with the egg as much as possible. So, it is a muscular organ. It is positioned between your urethra and the rectum. I can't tell you how many times this gets messed up. Um, so it is important that you know that this is the urethra. Then back here is the rectum and in between is going to be the vagina. Externally, the area that makes up the female external genitalia is called the vulva. Sometimes it's also called the pudendum. This is just the place where you find all the external genitalia. This is going to consist of the mons pubis, the two pieces of tissue that surround the opening in the female vaginal canal called the labia minora and the labia majora. It will also contain the female erectile tissue called the clitoris. And then there's going to be an opening or a space between the labial called the vestibule. The vestibule is also going to be an area but now the vestibule is going to contain the opening for the urethra, the opening for the vagina as well as opening of several glands such as the perurethal, the greater vestibular, lesser vestibular. All of those are going to be in the space called the vestibule. So again externally we have the man's pubis which is going to be a fat covered tissue that has some pubic hair laying on top of it to help cushion the pubic symphysis. Then we have the two lips called the labia majora and the labia manora. Those are going to be surrounding the opening of the female vaginal canal. Then we have the space called the vestibule which specifically is going to contain the urethral opening, the vaginal opening. It's also going to be where you find openings for ducts. So all of that is in the structure in the space called the vestibule. The final organ of the female reproductive system are the mammary glands. Memorary glands um are going to be a an adaptive form of a gland that's going to be secretreting milk that are found then in the breast tissue. Memorary glands consist of roughly 15 to 20 loes or 30 loes or compartments that's going to be separated within themselves of labules that contain the milk secretreting structures called avoli. The avioli overall are going to converge together to form larger passageways for milk in order to leave the breast tissue. Lactiferous ducts are what are going to open onto the surface of the breast tissue called the nipple. The nipple is going to be um designed for a baby to attach to in order for lactation or suckling to occur. And so there's many tiny lactiferous ducts that will open up into the nipple. The skin around the nipple is called the areola. And the areola contains um some glands for smell as well as it gets darker when a female is pregnant to help a baby be able to find it without sight when it's uh has that smell from the glands. But then also with sight because it gets darker to help a baby be able to locate it. Produce Whoopsie.