Some interesting facts about the vagina...

[ResistanceIsNecessary]

Inspired by this thread on twitter which had some good vagina info. It's amazing how many people know so little about the female anatomy so here are some more interesting facts!

• The walls are very elastic to allow it to stretch and then shrink back again after vaginal childbirth delivery. It does not require manual dilation to keep it open or maintain its shape, unless as a result of side effects from other medical procedures (such as some female-occurring cancer treatments).

• It is self-cleaning and has a naturally acidic environment until the time around ovulation, when the PH changes to make it more accommodating for sperm, to promote fertilisation. It does not require daily artificial cleaning products or lubricant to keep it healthy.

• The walls of the vagina (the vaginal vault) are made up of two layers of muscle tissue, which allow for expansion and contraction - which can often be felt as 'ridges', which lessen with age or post- vaginal delivery childbirth. The walls contain no glands.

Feel free to add your own facts

All women have a clitoris. Completely irrefutable. Always thought it was just a lucky extra!

*hides in corner and hopes that no one invites me to view their cervix a la Annie Sprinkle. I’m from the Home Counties

that looks like an iris! Or an orchid!

Beautiful, right? And no other function than a woman's pleasure. No. Other. Function.

And, surprisingly enough (not), one of the least studied.

I thought the origin of "cunt" was from an ancient form of the word/idea of "wedge" , similar etymology to cuneiform script (which is a system of wedges impressed into clay)

Oh yes, the caped crusader that is the clitoris.

Apparently double the amount of nerve endings than a penis has.

Unlike the vagina, which has rather few, if any.

A detail of which many men seem entirely unaware.

Keeping your pubic hair actually protects the vagina and vulva from infections. It also protects against friction.

Thats funny

Ive just watched that scene in Orange is the New black when some of the women are educated as to the makeup of a vagina

Hear hear! The vagina is an absolutely epic organ, and not merely (or some cases ever) a recepticle for a penis.

I recently watched an interview on YouTube in which someone who had undergone sex change surgery giggled to the male interviewer “yes, it’s fully functioning” in reference to their neovagina. I don’t think I’d ever heard anything as phallocentric before.

Apparently, vaginal lubrication is the best lubricant in existence.

An engineer once told me that in complete seriousness.

@LangCleg that looks like an iris! Or an orchid!

That's why people came up with the theory Georgia O'Keefe was painting vulvas - look up her paintings if you aren't already familiar and while you're at it look up Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party installation - a wonderful feminist work of art (and still not straying too far from the topic at hand).

The cervix moves up and down in the vagina, you can tell when you are fertile by feeling its position.

There are little ridges between the first knuckle and second knuckle if you pop a finger in and hook the finger towards the belly button. Those ridges if the correct pressure and movement for the individual woman is used give a very powerful vaginal orgasm, similar to a male prostate orgasm. When exploring at first the feeling is similar to wanting to pre, so always he's to go to the loo first. Once you get used to the feeling, the feeling of wanting to urinate diminishes.

best to go to the loo

Does anyone know somebody who has had vaginoplasty in real life?
I'm talking about reconstructive surgeries due to gynaecological cancers or injury not the unnecessary cosmetic sort.
I imagine the result to be a bit under par compared to the real thing the woman would have had before.

But with cancer etc you just have to accept it to survive.
Just wondering really

That's an amazing image Lang.

There was a book published in the late 70s or early 80s, intended to help women who struggled to reach orgasm. They suggested a speculum and mirror and had a PO box number for women to write to buy a speculum.
I can't remember the title. It wasn't Our Bodies Ourselves or Women and Their Bodies.

The bold type came out a little tooo bold

I was referring to the comparison of a re-construction to what was there before.
I imagine its not great. Surgery is not an exact science. But if it saves your life then that's a small price to pay.

I love this picture, LangCleg The clitoris almost looks like an Ankh.

That clitoris image is gorgeous. Also since suffering nerve damage and some pretty impressive scarring in my vagina from childbirth last year, thinking about the location of the clitoris (out of the way of all the snipping and ripping and subsequent numbness and prolapse) is the closest this good little atheist has come to believing in intelligent design and a compassionate creator

Wrath, I have had reconstructive vaginoplasty due to injury, hence my discomfort with the word being used when what they mean is neovaginoplasty

I need to appreciate vaginas more! I am always harping on about the astonishing capabilities of uteri & cervixes

Beyond
It must have been quite a life changing event for you. [Flowers]

I would also be annoyed with the neo terminology too.

"vaginal vault" is an amazing term!

Anyone old enough to remember the days when we bought our own speculums and looked at our cervixes with mirrors?

That web link I posted has pictures people have taken....

Vaginas are excellent, aren't they? Shame you can't make them out of other body parts but them's the breaks, folks!

"Vagina as wound" is a long standing trope in art and literature. The famous scene in Crash between Rosanna Arquette and James Spader (where he fucks a hole in her leg) was one of the more literal depictions, but there is a rich history of medieval poetry and art with a similar, more subtle theme