(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] This little white tablet
is more explosive than dynamite.
Sermons have been preached on it.
Men and women have argued over it.
- I can't believe that she's ours and she's in our lives.
- [Woman] Fantasy is fantasy and it turns us on.
It can remain in your head or sometimes
you can actually make them a reality.
- It's a cautious thing, I want to pick my fertility.
- [Janelle] In France, they call the moment of attraction
(speaks in foreign language) or a lightning bolt.
In Arabic, (speaks in foreign language), a wind.
In China, (speaks in foreign language), a fated forest.
And in Japan, they say (speaks in foreign language)
the feeling when you meet someone
that you're bound to fall in love.
- How do I know if I'm attracted to someone?
- It's just kind of this like, magnetic,
but it's just kind of like,
I just feel drawn to that person.
- When you're attracted to somebody,
you shouldn't really be able to explain it
beyond just like, I'm attracted to them, right.
It should just be visceral and you should know it.
- [Janelle] We're not sure why this shape
became the universal symbol of love
but one leading theory is that it came
from the silphium pod so valuable
across the ancient Mediterranean.
It was printed on the currency of the only place they grew,
the Greek colony, Cyrene.
It was exported around the region for all kinds
of medical uses and one in particular.
Soranus of Ephesus, the foremost gynecologist
of his time advised women to drink silphium juice
once a month, since it not only prevents conception
but also destroys any already existing.
Which means our modern heart shape
may derive from an ancient kind of morning after pill.
- The top of the cervix actually has a lot of muscle
that does contract so that's what lead us start to think
okay, well maybe this is the sphincter.
And so that actually completely changes the map
that we're working with to understand
what goes on in pregnancy
because in women who deliver early
that cervix starts to open prematurely
and it might actually be a sphincter
that's relaxing too soon.
- [Janelle] But why that happens in one patient
over another, we don't fully understand.
- Mechanics obviously play a really important role
in pregnancy.
I do need an engineer to help me understand
how strong is the tissue.
- We can run what ifs scenarios.
So what if the patient has a short cervix?
Will her cervix open if the baby kicks
or if there's a small contraction?
Can that cervix mechanical withstand
the lows of pregnancy?
- We should know those answers, I mean, we're curing cancer,
we should be able to understand pregnancy a lot better.
- [Janelle] Male germ cells in the testes
don't start producing sperm until puberty.
A germ cell divides into two identical copies.
One keeps dividing and those cells become sperm
but the other stays a germ cell so they don't run out
and a man can produce new sperm until old age.
But in a female fetus, those germ cells in the ovaries
start turning into immature eggs right away.
A 20 week old fetus has roughly seven million of them
but they quickly start wasting away.
A female newborn is left with about two million
and by the time the first one
makes it's day view in puberty,
she's down to three or four hundred thousand.
And then every month one egg is released
and a thousand or so more die off.
And that's why most women have a much harder time
getting pregnant after 40 and are pretty much
out of eggs by the time they're 50.
Doulas aren't doctors or midwives,
they're trained birth coaches.
They're to support the laboring woman
and help make sure her wishes are being respected
by the medical provider.
(moaning)
- You're so strong, look at you.
- [Janelle] A number of studies have confirmed
the presence of a doula reduces the need of interventions,
finding a 51% decrease in C-sections.
- I think it's partly just that it's nice
to have somebody in the room to say, yeah, this is normal,
this is okay, everything is going fine.
I think that that part of labor is quite scary.
(moaning)
- We're almost there, sweetheart.
We are almost there.
- [Janelle] And the natural childbirth movements
underlying message continues to resonate
around the world that women should make their own choices
based on what's best for them.
On TV, low sperm count is often treated as a joke,
like the risks posed by hot tubs.
- Mr. Truman? - Yes.
- We need to talk about your sperm.
- (gasps) I knew it, it's the jacuzzi at the gym,
he boiled them didn't he?
(audience laughs)
- [Janelle] And too tight underwear.
- Look, you gotta help me I have to get off jockey shorts.
- You have a low sperm count?
- Very low.
- [Janelle] And excessive masturbation.
- Sample hardly had any swimmers.
- That's probably from excessive masturbation,
the guy's been outpacing his ability to produce sperm.
- [Janelle] Daily ejaculation has no major negative effect
on semen parameters, as in sperm count or quality.
As for tight underwear, one study found,
semen parameters gradually decrease
while the subjects were in tight conditions
but they gradually increased
while they were in loose conditions.
And the wet heat of hot tubs
can also temporarily lower sperm count,
but only DJ Khaled level of jacuzzi time could do that.
For the record, DJ Khaled's sperm seems totally fine.
See, he's got a son.
Scientists figured out how
to hack the male reproduction system decades ago.
And large trials in the 1970's showed some promise,
the perfection of male birth control
seemed right around the corner for decades.
- The Chinese have developed what they say
is a safe and effective birth control pill for men.
- Medical researchers reported today
they have found the chemical that may hold the key
to a male birth control pill.
- International research teams are working on
an injectable--
- Birth control pill form.
- Men are taking part in the first trials
of a new form of birth control.
- For men.
- Birth control for men.
- Male birth control.
- Male birth control pill.
- Male birth control may be one step closer
to becoming a reality.
- [Janelle] But it never arrived.
Since trials were often cut short
because men faced too many side affects,
side affects that might sound familiar
like mood swings, acne and a loss of libido.
When approving the drug, the FDA weighs it's risks
against the risks of not taking that drug
and men unlike women don't personally face the risks
that come with pregnancy and child birth, like blood clots.
Male birth control just has to meet a higher bar.
And drug companies aren't sure male birth control
has a market to make that worth it.
- I'll be open to it, does that make me less of a man,
I don't know but I'm open to anything, honestly.
- If guys had the option to take that level
of responsibility like leveling up from just using a condom,
I think that make it a fairer conversation.
It takes two people to accidentally get pregnant.