Adam and Eve's story is of course not a scientific one, but a message from God to help us understand deep spiritual truths. 

Saint Irenaeus’interpretation says that Adam, as a creature, couldn’t reach God all by himself. He needed a partner to help him reach the infinite, the divine. This would be one of the reasons why God said that it wasn't good for the man to be alone.

We can also make a parallel with the creation of the Church:

The Church is the Spouse Born from Christ’s Side, like Eve was Born from Adam’s Side.

In Plock, Poland, on the 22nd of February, 1931, Jesus appeared to Sister Faustina, dressed in white, one of his hands raised to bless her and the other pressed on his chest. The half-opened tunic let two rays escape: one white and one red.
The nun looked at Jesus in silence and heard Him utter this request, "You must do a painting following this model, with the invocation: Jesus, I trust in You. At first, I would like this image to be venerated in your chapel and then throughout the whole world. I make this promise: the heart that venerates this image will not perish."

 The two rays represent the water and the blood that gushed out of Jesus’ side with the blow of the lance on Calvary. "This water and this blood were the symbols of Baptism and the Eucharist. The Church was born from these two sacraments, from this bath of rebirth and regeneration in the Holy Spirit. The symbols of Baptism and the Eucharist come out of my side.

Consequently, from His side, Christ formed the Church, like He formed Eve from Adam’s side... He took from Adam’s side what He needed to make the woman. Thus Christ gave us the blood and the water from His side to make the Church. Just as the extraction happened to Adam in his deep sleep, it is only after Christ’s own death that He delivered the blood and the water to us. His death was what Adam’s deep sleep had been, in order that you know from now that death is nothing any more than deep sleep." MariedeNazareth.com

The need for love is, indeed, the most basic condition for survival. Without it, we will die in infancy. Children whose physical needs are provided for – they are fed and changed – but who are not touched and held, cooed at and responded to, literally stop growing. Their pituitary glands don’t put out enough growth hormone, and they grow very slowly, if at all…. Many of them die as young children, and those who do survive are psychologically scarred. These poor children are sad scientific proof of what we all know in our hearts – that love is the life force itself.- Joan Borysenko, PH.D.