reproductive system
Meaning of reproductive system: The only body system that can be removed without ending a life, and the only one that stays switched off for years.
Definition of reproductive system
The reproductive system is the group of organs that make reproductive cells, bring them together, and in females shelter a developing pregnancy. It also produces the sex hormones that shape the body at puberty and drive its cycles afterward. It is the one organ system an individual can live without, and it lies dormant until hormones from the brain switch it on.
What are the parts, and what does each do?
| Role | Female | Male |
|---|---|---|
| Makes the cells and hormones | Ovaries | Testes |
| Carries and houses | Fallopian tubes, uterus, vagina | Epididymis, vas deferens, urethra |
| Adds fluid | Glands of the cervix and vulva | Seminal vesicles, prostate, bulbourethral glands |
| External structures | Vulva | Penis, scrotum |
Older descriptions list only the largest organs and leave out the ducts and glands, which is misleading, since a blockage in a duct or a failure of a gland disrupts fertility as surely as a problem with the gonad itself.
What controls it?
A chain of command starting in the brain. The hypothalamus releases pulses of a signal that prompts the pituitary to send out two further hormones, and those travel in the blood to the ovaries or testes with instructions to mature a reproductive cell and to make sex hormones. The hormones then feed back to the brain, raising or lowering the next pulse. The loop is quiet throughout childhood, starts up in puberty, runs as a repeating monthly cycle in females and more evenly in males, and winds down at menopause in females while declining slowly in males.
Why is it described alongside the urinary system?
They share both structures and origins. In males the urethra running through the penis carries urine and semen along the same channel, and the prostate sits astride it. In females the two systems stay separate but open side by side, and both develop from the same ridge of embryonic tissue, which is why a malformation in one is often accompanied by one in the other. The combined term genitourinary reflects that overlap, and it explains why the cervix, the bladder and the kidney can all fall to the same specialty in different settings.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The report described normal development of the reproductive system for the stated age.
Good to know
Descriptions listing only the gonads and the uterus omit the ducts and accessory glands, although blockage or failure at those points disrupts fertility just as effectively as disease of the ovary or testis.
Word origin
Where “reproductive system” comes from
Reproductive traces to the Latin re-, meaning again, and producere, to bring forth.