There are numerous ways that animals attempt to reproduce, but the story about a woman and a squid has people thinking that you can get pregnant in the mouth.
What Happened To A Woman Who Ate A Squid?
In June, a story surfaced about a 63-year-old woman getting "pregnant in her mouth" from a squid that she ate. It was a decision that she immediately regretted.
It was originally published in August 2011 in the Journal of Parasitology.
According to the study, she purchased a squid and briefly cooked it for a few seconds. The squid was Todarodes pacificus, also known as the Japanese Flying Squid. This particular squid is known for flying a few feet above the water.
In addition to only cooking the squid for a few seconds before eating it, the woman failed to remove the internal organs of the squid.
"As soon as she put a piece into her mouth, she felt like many 'bugs' were biting her oral mucosa," the authors of the study wrote. "She experienced severe sharp pain and spat out the entire portion without swallowing. Despite that, she could feel many small squirming white bug-like organisms penetrating her oral mucosa."
The "bugs" that she felt were the squid spermatophores, which are tiny white sperm bags that the squid uses for reproduction purposes. The sperm bags were embedded her tongue and gums.
In addition to the pain, it got worse for the woman. Despite the removal of the sperm bags by a doctor, the tiny spermatophores were still swimming around her mouth. Doctors said that she eventually made a full recovery.
Can You Really Get Pregnant In The Mouth?
Many people who read this story from the scientific study reached the conclusion that this woman got pregnant by the squid sperms in her mouth and tongue. However, she did not get pregnant, and there were no baby squids in her mouth. People cannot get pregnant in their mouths.
"Impregnate" refers to the fertilization of a sperm when it reaches an egg and ovulation starts. This was not the case here. Instead, this was actually an insemination. This is when an organism introduces sperm into a female animal. Although the actual squid was very dead, the internal organisms of the squid acted on instinct by releasing the spermatophores. When the squid was alive, the sex organ of the squid was prone to flinging off the spermatophores.
There is a takeaway from this story: always cook raw food, and don't eat sex organs.
