 Hey everybody, Dr. O here, so we're continuing our path through the male reproductive tract. So remember inside the testes, we have the seminiferous tubules where sperm is produced, the epididymis carries it while it's, while it's maturing and then it's stored there until ejaculation. So now during ejaculation, sperm is going to leave that tail, the epididymis and now it's going to travel up into the ductus deference or vas deferens. Now the best term for this is now ductus deference, but I would definitely remember the term vas deferens because a vasectomy is when you cut and burn the two ends of this tube to prevent a man from producing offspring. So what is the ductus or vas deferens? Very thick muscular tube. It travels up out of the scrotum as part of the spermatic cord. The spermatic cord has your testicular blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, nerves and it has this ductus deference in it. It travels up through the spermatic cord, through the inguinal canal and then into the body. The ductus deference or vas deference is the portion of the marrow duct tract that leaves the scrotum and enters the peritoneal cavity. Okay. So then as you see, it travels up through that inguinal canal as part and then now it's going to travel up and behind the bladder around the ureter there and then it's going to turn back around and now it's going to form what's called the ampula. The word ampula means flask, but it's going to be a larger area where more of this fluid can collect and that ampula of the ductus deference is going to meet with the seminal vesicles, the first of our accessory glands and then we're going to start to have semen, which is not just testicular fluid and sperm. It's now going to have the seminal fluid attitude as well. What else there? So the key function, so besides just transporting sperm from the scrotum into the body, it can store sperm for months. So when spermatozoa sit in this ductus deference, they go into like a state of stasis where they basically are just paused and they stay there until they're needed. They have a very low metabolic rate, kind of like a hibernating bat or a bear or something like that. So those are the two key functions of the ductus deference. They transport the sperm into the body so it can finally reach the ureter here in just a moment and then they can temporarily store the spermatozoa for months. All right, so that is the ductus or vas deference. Hope this helps. Have a wonderful day. Be blessed.