A: True. Because cervical fluid can nourish sperm for up to five days until the woman ovulates.

A: Three to five.

A: False. Cervical fluid is created in the cervix's crypts, and is capable of nourishing sperm for several days, filtering out impaired sperm and carrying sperm to the mature egg in the fallopian tube at ovulation. Arousal fluid is created like a sweat in the vaginal walls; and while it may look and feel like fertile cervical fluid, it isn't able to nourish sperm, etc. Its function is to lubricate the vaginal walls so that sex isn't painful.

A: True. If (say) somebody's finger touches the pre-ejaculate, and that finger touches her vulva which has fertile cervical fluid (CF) on it, that CF will be happy to bring the sperm in that pre-ejaculate to her cervix and nourish them there until she ovulates. At ovulation, CF can carry the sperm to the egg for conception.

A: True.

A: False. Lambskin condoms are effective in preventing pregnancy, NOT STIs.

A: True. Women can produce cervical fluid during the period and/or while breastfeeding; and it can nourish sperm for up to five days. If a woman ovulates during those five days while CF is keeping sperm alive in her cervix--then, indeed, she can conceive.

A: Until very recently, researchers believed that this was true. By four months, a female fetus already has produced about one million follicles--the sacs which hold unripened eggs. At puberty, the number of follicles has reduced to 400,000; and girls begin maturing about a dozen of these follicles in each monthly cycle. Usually, in her lifetime, a woman matures 400-500 eggs. New research shows that it may be possible for a woman to produce new follicles; whether these follicles can release fertile eggs is still unknown.

A: Six to 24 hours. Normally, a woman matures one egg per cycle. Sometimes (about 10% of the time) she matures more than one--as in the case of fraternal twins.

A: One thousand per second, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As men age, this number goes down. Also, since the 1930s, men's sperm counts have dropped by about 50%. Some theorize this may be due to modern environmental toxins.

A: 40% of infertility problems are due to problems in the male; 40% to problems in the female; 20% to problems with the couple.

A: (g) all of the above. Sperm prefer to be produced in a cooler temperature. That's why the testicles (where sperm are produced) hang outside the body.

A: Before ovulation, a woman's basal temperature is COOLER. (Human males and females both prefer cooler temperatures while they're maturing their eggs--see #15.)

A: (a) ovaries (b) vas deferens--these are the tubes that are cut when a man has a vasectomy (c) cervical fluid (d) clitoris

A: True. Consistently erratic basal body temperatures (BBTs) can signal thyroid problems. Vaginal infections can be detected more easily when a woman can differentiate between them and normal cervical fluid. If the time between ovulation and menstruation is consistently less than eleven days, she may not have enough progesterone to sustain a pregnancy, and, hence, a propensity to miscarriage. If the woman has frequent "false peaks" wherein her cervical fluid builds up, but she doesn't ovulate, she may be at risk of ovarian cysts. Finally, "surgeries have been shown in some studies to have better outcomes if done during the fertile time. This may be due to the fact that blood sugar levels are higher and more stable during this time. (Blood sugar is lowest during the pre-menstrual infertile time.)"--from "Health Care Applications of Fertility Awareness" by Suzannah Doyle, WomenWise, Summer/91.

A: True. The method effectiveness of The Pill is 97%-99.9%, according to Our Bodies, Ourselves. The method effectiveness of Fertility Awareness is 98.5%, according to a multi-national study (of couples charting only cervical fluid) conducted in 1978 by the World Health Organization; it's slightly higher when waking temperatures are also used. Method effectiveness means when the method is properly used. User effectiveness is lower in both cases--i.e. if a woman forgets to take pills, she can get pregnant; likewise, if a couple is careless with Fertility Awareness rules for birth control, they might conceive. As Suzannah Doyle says, "CONSCIOUS DECISION MAKING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF MAKING FERTILITY AWARENESS WORK."

A: Female sterilization and The Pill. These are each used by about 20% of U.S. women. The condom is in third place, at 13% (according to Contraceptive Technology).