Where do the eggs go?

So, I am updating you all on my shadowing experience. I sat through another case of a woman who is 25 years old and is getting a vaginal hysterectomy due to unusual and excessive bleeding. A vaginal hysterectomy is a surgical procedure to remove the uterus through the vagina. Specifically, the surgeon detaches the uterus from the ovaries, fallopian tubes, upper vagina, and the blood vessels and connective tissues that support it (Vaginal hysterectomy 2019). 

Sitting in the surgery, I was thinking about why they decided to keep the fallopian tubes in if she was not going to get her period anymore. Interestingly, my mentor told me about how this woman still needs to get her estrogen and progesterone. Which allowed me to connect what I learned in physiology to real-life medical situations in how the body will continue to work.

Even if the body loses the uterus, the ovarian cycle will still occur, specifically the follicular phase. The oocyte is still going to be developed into a secondary oocyte, and will still move into the fallopian tube. The corpus luteum will still form, providing the woman with the right hormones. The only change that will occur is that the secondary oocyte is not able to fall into the uterus in preparation for fertilization. Instead, it just stays in the fallopian tubes.

                                          

Which brings me to my main question, where does the egg go? When I first asked my mentor, she did not know and said it just “disappears”. When I asked Dr. Campisi, he agreed and said it just “disappears” as well. However, I found the real answer. According to (OBOS Common Medical Conditions Contributors 2019), it says that instead of having the egg fall into the uterus and continuing the menstrual cycle, the egg will be absorbed by the body into the pelvic cavity. So, the eggs do not just magically disappear, our own bodies absorb our own eggs. 

References:

Vaginal hysterectomy. (2019, July 25). Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/vaginal-hysterectomy/about/pac-20384541.

OBOS Common Medical Conditions Contributors | October 15. (2019). Hysterectomy. Retrieved from https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/hysterectomy/.