Female Reproductive System

The organs that produce eggs, support fertilization and pregnancy, and produce female sex hormones.

Main parts

• Ovaries — produce eggs and the hormones estrogen and progesterone.
• Fallopian tubes — carry the egg toward the uterus; the usual site of fertilization.
• Uterus — the muscular organ where a fertilized egg implants and a fetus develops.
• Cervix and vagina — the lower passage; the vagina is also the birth canal.
• Mammary glands — the breasts, which produce milk after birth.

What it does

Releases an egg in a roughly monthly cycle and — if fertilization occurs — houses and nourishes the developing fetus.

Key idea

Unlike the continuous male system, the female system runs in cycles, and its egg supply is fixed before birth rather than continually renewed.