I just say with a head teacher and argued with her that her fanny diagram was incorrectly labelled - and it's all the fault of you harpies..

M0stlyBowlingHedgehog

I'm supply so it isn't in all places but has happened a few times.

Well done OP! And well done Jigsaw, good response.

They're also helpfully contacting the school to let them know there's no reason they can't amend the materials if the context of the lesson means it would be more appropriate

Hahahaha. I would love to be there for that conversation.

Vulva is not sexual.

Bravo! Now I dare you to go and see the HT again - request a meeting about "Your Vulva Issue" and this time count how many times you say the word

Sorry, didn't finish. And thus, if one of the other potential cells end up with two Xs, the one that ultimately survives, could have none.

Ah, thanks!

I probably learnt that in school at some point (we did learn about X and XXX and what it means) but forgot the details.

I would like to say I learnt the correct term for vulva at school, but am not sure that actually happened. I found an old sex ed book from the 80s in the attic and that's probably where I know most anatomy from.
(It was a very feminist book, from a recent point of view, but might actually have been the norm back then)

Excellent OP - good work!

Quite refreshing to get a response that sounds so candid and open.

That's a good answer from Jigsaw, it makes some sense now.

Well done OP, we are all very proud of you. And you are... er... a ProudVulvaOwner!

Crikey, your biology department must be a bit shit, sashhh. I distinctly remember being taught in O level biology (gawd that dates me!) that the pulmonary artery transported deoxygenated blood returning from the rest of the body from the heart (hence artery) to the lungs, and the pulmonary vein then transported the oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart ready to be circulated round the rest of the body. (Though in fairness, according to my chemistry teacher, oxyhaemoglobin is a brighter red than de-oxyhaemoglobin, and carboxyhaemoglobin is brighter than either thus "giving corpses which have died from carbon monoxide poisoning an unusually healthy look"... that was one of those school moments you never forget!)

I'm 31 and only really learnt what a vulva was from MN. I've never heard anyone use the word in real life.

That is a good response but it is truly staggering that people are resistant to teaching correct anatomical terms.

Good response from Jigsaw to be fair

It has to be the fault of the education system. Which is being perpetuated!

Teaching health and social care to teenagers I have had to correct the one about peeing from your vagina (although orange is the new black has helped).

And that deoxygenated blood is red. Cutting yourself does not oxygenate you blood, that's just blood coming out of your vein and meeting air.

Oh and then we have the battle of departments.

Me: arteries take blood away from the heart, veins return the blood.

Biology: Arteries transport oxygenated blood, veins transport deosygenated blood.

No wonder the kids are confused.

Well done OP. I think it's absolutely wrong to deprive children of the words they need to talk about their own bodies. Failing to name the different parts just sends the message that it's all a bit embarrassing and we shouldn't look at it in too much detail. No one would suggest avoiding to tell children they have a throat as well as a neck - why would they, they're just body parts. But the vulva and vagina are hidden and secret. Which of course is great news for abusers - that's just how they want it.

Pudenda is also correct. It means 'external sexual organs' and lacks the sexual context.

My 4 year old DD suffers from a sore vulva because she's not very good at wiping after the toilet. DH had a hilarious phone call from my very prudish MIL one evening while she was babysitting and we were were out - 'DD says her vulva hurts?' DH said it was clear MIL wasn't sure what a vulva was! He glossed over it and said to put some cream on her labia - then quickly explained what the labia were. I was in stitches, which didn't help matters.

Poor old MIL thought babies came out of your belly button until after she was married.

Sorry, didn't finish. And thus, if one of the other potential cells end up with two Xs, the one that ultimately survives, could have none.

Other possibilities might include various genetic abnormalities which might normally cause infertility, but not always (mosaics etc)

I have always wondered how single X comes about - I mean, triple X or XXY is explained by the chromosomes doubling and that process being somehow interrupted, but can a whole chromosome just vanish?

I think it's because after the doubling and then splitting, although theoretically that will make four haploid cells, in females, only one actually goes on to become a fully formed egg, because it's needs all the cytoplasm, mitochondria etc from the original cell - the others I believe get reabsorbed. In contrast, four sperm cells get made from each division.

Sil is a doctor and when her first daughter was born was adamant that she would learn the anatomical names for her body parts from a very young age. So one wasn't allowed to refer to her navel as a bellybutton but an umbilicus etc etc. Sil didn't have any words when I pointed out that she'd taught her daughter to refer to her labia as her vagina which was incorrect. She is a dr ffs and it hasn't even occurred to her the importance of females being able to describe their genitals correctly. I was a bit

It doesn't at all matter whether you say "bellybutton" or something else, because everyone will know what you mean.

But if you go to a gynecologist and tell her your vagina hurts, and only after you mention that peeing hurts she finds out you mean your urethra ... that's a bit more of a problem!

But, well, I guess we have to be grateful women no longer try to explain to a doctor how there's a medical problem in their upper leg, when they mean vulva.

Vestal, DD is 5, not fifth DD. Also I'm her father rather than mother, so she probably has a better reason for not believing me, I don't actually own these organs after all.

Fair enough, that explains it. Especially if her mother refuses to talk about it.

I'm on the fence about whether "front bottom" is worse than "vagina" ... I mean, it is a horrible "euphemism" (although it sounds like you have an arse in the front, so perhaps not really an euphemism), but at least it is a general term and not the term for some specific part.

YY doesn't exist as far as I know.

I think it would be lethal. Not sure it even occurs in fetuses.

I have always wondered how single X comes about - I mean, triple X or XXY is explained by the chromosomes doubling and that process being somehow interrupted, but can a whole chromosome just vanish?
YY would require the X chromosome, which is much bigger, to somehow completely vanish, which I think is even more unlikely than the single X.
(Single X might come about by the two X joining to each other and then not doubling, perhaps?)

Why has my hmmm face turned into a gin bottle?!?!

You must be the mums net messiah!