Embryologist Reveals What Human Eggs Look Like to the Naked Eye Compared to a Dime

An embryologist has revealed what a human egg looks like to the naked eye, compared to a dime.

Shaun Reed uploaded a series of clips to his TikTok page, sharing an insight into his field.

Reed, based in Utah, shared a video at the beginning of last month, captioned: "Can you see a human egg with the naked eye?"

He filmed a petri dish, with a dime inside, as he said: "This is a good question I get asked all the time, so let's see. There's my hand as a frame of reference. This is a dish with a bunch of drops of media, that drop right there has 20 eggs in it. It's a lot easier to see a group of eggs just one of them, is impossible to see. That's what they look like under the microscope, and now you know that."

The clip amassed three million views, as Reed noted: "To think we all started this small, and what women go through every month for these little guys."

After the video soared in popularity, Reed decided to share more insights from his work, this time focusing on just one egg.

He shared a follow-up clip last month, captioned "can you see the one egg??" that has been watched nearly four million times.

Again he filmed the petri dish with the coin for scale, as he chatted over the clip to explain what was visible.

Reed said: "Round two because I figured out the perfect lighting set up to really make those eggs pop. This first drop has 10 eggs in it. And this one has one. That's just my phone being held close to the dish before zooming in."

Numerous people commented on the videos, in awe of the rare sight. Human eggs are 100 microns, or millionths of a meter, which roughly equates to a strand of hair, website Extended Fertility said.

They explained: "The fact is that egg cells are about 4 times the size of skin cells—and about 20 times the size of sperm!"

Women are born with all the eggs they'll ever produce, around two million, which steadily declines throughout their life until they reach menopause.

Commenting on the video, Jaime Danger said: "How tiny are eggs I didn't even realize deffo thought they were bigger."

"The words "human eggs" had me tripping, I forgot we all came from eggs," Paninipanic wrote.

Bakq_mars commented: "This little cutie makes all women suffer every month."

Bored_asf186 noted: "That tiny thing becomes a huge human?? What the fawk."

"So fascinating!" mzellous simply wrote.

Laurenbweaver agreed, writing: "Amazing how much chaos one tiny little thing can cause."

Newsweek has reached out to Reed for a comment.