So now that we have an overview of the organs of the male reproductive system let's start talking
about some of the specifics and we're gonna start with the male gonad so when we think of gonad we
know that that means it's capable of producing gametes in this particular case when we're talking
about the male well we're talking about sperm so before we move on to the specifics let's think
about the homologous structure when we're talking about females so what is going to be the paired
sex gland that's going to produce gametes and females that's going to be the ovaries so these
are very straightforward examples of a homologous structure between males and females okay so we're
gonna have paired oval glands these are going to be the testes and one thing I'm going to
point out is I know you're going to be looking at these the imagery here is that in this particular
portion right here this is what we refer to as a hemisected portion of the organs were actually
looking at the internal structure of the testes whereas here we're looking at the actual coverings
of the entirety of the testes so embryologically testes are actually going to develop
in the abdomen very near the kidneys so fairly far up so they have quite a ways to go in terms of the
descent which occurs around 7 months in utero so what actually will happen is it's going to travel
through this inguinal canal which is about in that region it will travel through there along with the
contents of what we refer to as the spermatic cord and in an adult individual it will be suspended
there within the scrotum which is associated with the skin that is going to hold the testes so the
two main functions of the testes is to produce sperm so spermatogenesis occurs here as well
as the hormone testosterone so a form that has two main functions in terms of the testes now in terms
of what's actually going to cover and protect the testes we'll talk about the scrotum in a bit
more detail in a moment but there's two things that are going to be much more closely adhered
to the testes this is going to be your tunica vaginalis which is going to be the more external
or superficial and the tunica albuginea which will be very closely adhered to the testes itself so
this will be the more internal structure or deep the tunica vaginalis is actually going to be a
remnant of the peritoneum and that makes sense if you think about the testes actually having
developed within the abdomen which obviously is going to have the associated peritoneum that
peritoneum is going to travel and descend with the testes through the inguinal canal and then
form this covering here and you actually have two different layers here you had the visceral which
is very closely associated with albuginea and the parietal which forms more of that protective role
there now in this particular image here you can kind of see it in this portion right here so a
little bit tougher than what you have in terms of the tunica albuginea now albuginea
is going to stand for white so basically a very dense white connective tissue which
gives it this appearance here so very closely adhered to the actual structure of the testes
now one of the main functions as we discussed is going to be spermatogenesis and this actually
occurs within the testes and what we refer to as the seminiferous tubules and we'll talk
a little bit about the seminiferous tubules they will actually kind of coalesce into what we refer
to as the ductus deferens which is one of the main ducts associated with the male reproductive
system but you're going to have about 300 million sperm being formed through spermatogenesis per day
in a typical male and sperm really is going to be composed of two parts you're gonna have the
smaller but wider head this is where the nucleus is going to be located with those 23 chromosomes
we referred to that is haploid also importantly associated with the head you have what's referred
to as the acrosome which is going to release enzymes that can help in terms of being able
to unite with those secondary oocytes or the the gamete portion in terms of the female now the tail
is going to be the longer portion of the sperm it's very important in terms of the mobility of
sperm you actually have mitochondria associated with the tail that will allow ATP production to
occur so that's the basics in terms of the testes we'll talk a little bit more about that duct
structure in terms of the ductus deferens as it goes through the spermatic cord but first let's
talk about the sack by which the testes are going to be held and that's referred to as a scrotum