This captivating image captures the precise moment of human ovulation—the release of a mature egg (oocyte) from the ovary—photographed for the first time in stunning clarity.Taken in 2008 by Dr. Jacques Donnez during a routine laparoscopic partial hysterectomy on a 45-year-old woman at the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, the event was observed entirely by chance. As the surgical team prepared, they witnessed spontaneous ovulation unfolding in real time.
The prominent reddish structure is the mature ovarian follicle, swollen and protruding from the ovary’s surface with a visible vascular pattern. At the tip, the tiny, translucent egg emerges like a small, golden-yellow dome (arrow in similar labeled versions), gently released into the peritoneal cavity over about 15 minutes—far slower and less “explosive” than previously assumed.
These historic photos, published in Fertility and Sterility, revolutionized our understanding of the process and remain among the clearest direct visuals of natural human ovulation ever recorded in a living person. The egg, though appearing surprisingly prominent here due to magnification, is actually only about 0.1 mm across—roughly the width of a fine pencil point—before it’s normally swept into the fallopian tube by the fimbriae for potential fertilization. A true glimpse into the miraculous start of human life!