Good question!

What I'd like to know is how come only one sperm fertilises the egg? Does the egg turn into steel once one breaks through or something?

pretty much..once one sperm gets through USUALLY no others can get through...unless one happens to and I think thats what causes twins...one of the types of twins anyway I always get the terms confused...

and to answer the first question the sperm do eventually die and i'm pretty sure they are just expelled through normal secretions

Yeah, actually. The egg is constantly releasing hormones that lures and guides the sperm in, once one gets through, it stops- plus the egg begins to immediately physically change. I can't remember the specifics, but that's the basic idea.

I know our bodies absorb the extra eggs that don't get fertilized, maybe that's what happens with the sperm? I'm not sure. If it gets through into the uterus, that is- if not, (if you're on bc or at the point in your cycle where your cervix is protected) it probably just comes out with vaginal secretions.

extra eggs? i thought only one egg was matured and released during each cycle? i'm pretty sure.....

well yeah, but I mean the ones that don't turn into babies

and sometimes multiple eggs are released, too.

what do you mean the ones that dont turn into babies.. you mean after menopause? but doesn't menopause occur after you run out of eggs and are no longer fertile? i'm so confused....
i realize sometimes multiple eggs are released due to another case of twins(different from the ones I was talking about in the previous post) but that isn't the usual case...during meiosis only one mature graffian follicle(the egg) is produced and released during the cycle and the by products are 3 polar bodies or somethin..i guess thats why i'm confused by "eggs" plural

and isn't the egg that doesn't get fertilized expelled along with the uteral lining during menstruation?

Every month you release an egg, if it's not fertilized, it's absorbed by the body- that's all I meant. And actual fertilization happens in the fallopian tubes, not the uterus.
So I don't know, everwhere I read it says the unfertilized egg "dissolves" but it say where it dissolves- I guess it could get expelled with uterine lining if it ever makes it into the uterus. I'm not sure the unfertilized eggs make it into the uterus?

What I'm curious about- is how do the ovaries decide which one gets to pop out an egg? From what I can read, it's a random pattern of which one does the work that month, not every other or anything regular like that. Weird!! Do they, like, flip a coin or something?

ahhh i see what you mean, sorry i was confused

Hmm...good question... I dunno..maybe its whichever side has the matured egg to release first?

That makes sense. Also, if one ovary is missing or unhealthy, the other one just takes over and releases an egg every month. How does it know? The stuff I read said that there haven't been any hormones detected that would communicate that stuff....

FSH? maybe the body knows which ovary is damaged and automatically redirects the horomone? or maybe its a hit and miss thing you know...maybe one month you are fertile if youre missing that ovary and the next you're not? I dunno...the body is so complicated