Top Vagina
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Top Vagina
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What exactly IS a vagina ? Well, it's the muscular tube that extends from the cervix to the vulva. It's a surprisingly common question for such a simple definition, but that quick sentence might not answer all your questions. Luckily, a good old vagina diagram can sure help out. You might think you've got it all down pat down there, but we use a lot of code words to talk about it, and we use the technical word itself in the wrong way — after all, it's not entirely accurate to call the extended network between your legs just the "vagina." There's a whole word down there, and the vagina is just one part of it. Since knowledge is power, it's super important to know the anatomy of your vagina. To get to the heart of the matter, we chatted with Melanie Davis, PhD, a certified sexuality educator and sexuality education consultant, who gave us a virtual tour of the vagina and beyond.
First of all, Davis recommends using a mirror and a light and taking a good look between your legs. (Or you can even use the selfie setting on your phone's camera.) Not only should you know what your body looks like, because, well, it's yours, but it will also help keep you safe. If you ever notice anything different down there (i.e., redness, bumps, etc.), you already know what your healthy baseline looks like and can let a doctor know about any changes .
Here's everything you need to know about your anatomy from the outside in, including some facts that we guarantee will surprise you, and a vagina diagram.
When people refer to the "vagina," what they usually mean is the vulva , which includes all the external parts, including the inner and outer lips.
These are the first things you see, and hair grows on them naturally. According to Davis, the labia majora's job is to protect the more sensitive parts inside.
The labia minora provide the second layer of protection for the underlying structures and openings, and they also have oil glands that secrete lubrication to keep you comfortable. Davis also says they're the part of the anatomy most likely to cause women stress due to how they look . Just know that the lips might not be symmetrical, they might extend beyond the labia majora, and the edges might not be totally smooth — and all of this is totally normal. "The healthy thing is to understand that our labia are as unique as our fingerprints. Everybody is different," Davis explains. "There is no right or wrong about it."
According to Davis, the tiny bit of the clitoris that is outwardly visible, which is the little nub you see at the top of your external area when you spread the labia, contains 8,000 nerve endings. That means it's really sensitive, and for many women, stimulating it is the best way to orgasm. The hood, a flap of skin that slides back and forth, functions to protect the clitoris and prevent irritation and arousal when you don't want it. When you are aroused, however, the hood slips back to expose the clitoris. The outer clitoris that you can see and feel is actually connected to an inner clitoris (!!), but more on that shortly.
This small opening, which is where urine comes out, is right below the clitoris. It's hard to see, and you can't really feel anything there. And, no, pee doesn't come out of the vaginal opening! Davis says that many young women think the clitoris is actually the urethra, but don't be fooled.
Right below the urethra lies the introitus, also called the vestibule or the opening to the vagina. Think of it as a foyer. "When we go into an office building, we go into that little area where there are two sets of doors," she says. Basically, the vestibule is the lobby leading to the vagina, which is inside your body. We should also say here that there are many color variations in the whole external vulva area, depending on your skin tone and whether or not you're sexually excited.
This concept is mind-blowing and a relatively recent anatomical discovery. You have a wishbone-shaped structure extending from your clitoris on the outside of your body—the top of the wishbone—to the area under your labia majora deep inside. "It's tissue that engorges during sexual arousal and that is excitable," Davis says. So there's literally much more to female sexual excitement than meets the eye.
So do you see now why calling the whole thing a "vagina" is not exactly accurate? The vagina, also called the birth canal, leads to your uterus. "People think the vagina is a tube that's always open, but it's not. It's a muscle that, when at rest, is closed," Davis says. "The walls touch unless there's a tampon or a finger or whatever inside. So it's not like you're walking around with an open hole in your body." Also, you can't lose anything inserted into your vagina; it's an enclosed pouch that doesn't lead to the rest of your body. It's normal for the vagina to feel bumpy to the touch.
The cervix is the neck-like part of your uterus that extends into the vagina. It's the place where your gyno takes a sample from for a Pap smear. It's also the part that dilates before a person gives birth. Otherwise it stays closed, opening only enough to release blood and other fluids from the uterus when you have your period. If you reach in to touch it, it feels sort of like a clenched fist with a dimple at the bottom.
Your uterus is the place where a fetus would live should you get pregnant. It sheds its lining every 28 days or so when there's no pregnancy, otherwise known as getting your period . You can't feel the uterus from outside your body...it's buried pretty deeply in your lower abdomen.
Every month your ovaries shoot out an egg and send it floating happily down the uterus, where it will hang around in hopes of meeting up with some sperm to make a baby.
Now that you know the ropes, you might have some questions about what's going on down there and whether everything is OK down there. We've got you covered: Check out these links to learn what you need to know about your vaginal health , why your vagina might be itchy , and what these common vaginal odors mean .
So there you have it. And unlike your biology teacher, we're not going to quiz you. Yet.
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*First Published: Jul 24, 2015, 10:05 pm CDT
More stories to check out before you go
Posted on Jul 24, 2015 Updated on May 28, 2021, 7:13 am CDT
Following rigorous competition and more than 130,000 voters, the World’s Most Beautiful Vagina Contest anointed a champion this week. It was a strange, difficult-to-gauge event—but that’s why organizers turned to scientists to tell us what it all means.
U.K. resident Nell, 27, won first place and $5,000 in the pageant with a vulva beauty ranking of 7.7 out of 10. Jenny, 23, of Bavaria, Germany, took second place with a 7.3; and Anita, 20, from Hungary, came in third. They each earned $2,500 and $1,250, respectively.
The contest was sponsored by Brian Sloan, who is also the manufacturer of the Autoblow 2 . It’s known as “the first truly realistic alternative to traditional pleasure products for men,” according to the its website .
These winners will also be flown out to Los Angeles, where their vulvas will be 3D-scanned to later be reproduced for the Autoblow device.
Sloan contracted a group of data scientists to analyze the contest’s findings for their scientific implications. The data was then compiled in “ The Vulva Paper .”
If you’re a visual learner, you can view photo examples of each class here .
The Vulva Paper’s website says scientists “used the contest data to assess the diversity in vulval morphology and voters’ preference for different morphologies.” A total of 182 women participated in the contest; 110 entries were examined for the study (if measurements could not be taken from the photo, the entry was not considered).
The scientists viewed each entry on a 15-inch computer screen, zooming in “until the genitalia were easily measured using a screen ruler,” read the paper .
They measured labia majora length, labia minora length, and clitoral hood length.
Finally, the scientists rated the complexity of the labia minora; they used the three categories of rugosity (smooth, moderate, marked) to do so. To prevent vaginal bias, the same person also conducted all of these measurements. The scientists later used this research to classify the contest’s entries into six different categories of “vulval morphology.”
A chart detailing the six classes is included below:
As far as methodology is concerned, a random assortment of entries was sent to each voter, who was then asked to rate the vulva pictured on a scale from 1 to 10. These voters were only able to rank one photo at a time, but could also vote on an unlimited number of entries. The scientists compiled 2,766,671 ratings from 134,707 contest voters.
“To reduce individual biases, we centered each voter’s ratings using their mean and standard deviation. This allowed us to reflect the preferences of voters on the same scale,” read the study .
According to the paper , each voter rated 21 photos, on average. Each vulva also received 15,285 votes, on average.
The study also found that “roughly 51% of voters preferred the first two classes of non-protruding, simple labia. The other 49% favored the four more complex vulva classes.”
“As expected from the rankings that we saw at the country and local levels, Class 1 vulvas are preferred over the others more often. But the combined percentages of voters who preferred more complex classes of vulvas far outweighed those who preferred the simplest style.”
The winners’ photos, however, were not included in the study—having been among the participants whose photos were not able to be considered. Moreover, the “doggy style” posture featured in these entries made it difficult for the scientists to complete the necessary measurements.
“Indeed, pictures depicting contest entrants in a doggy style position obtained ratings 2 points higher on average (p <0.001) than others. Other features, like piercings in the clitoral hood, didn’t affect the ratings,” read the study .
So basically, the “doggy style” photos generated “influential excitement” among the contest’s voters—an important competitive advantage for all future entrants to consider.
Photo via mislav-marohnic /Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
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*First Published: Jul 24, 2015, 10:05 pm CDT
More stories to check out before you go
Posted on Jul 24, 2015 Updated on May 28, 2021, 7:13 am CDT
Following rigorous competition and more than 130,000 voters, the World’s Most Beautiful Vagina Contest anointed a champion this week. It was a strange, difficult-to-gauge event—but that’s why organizers turned to scientists to tell us what it all means.
U.K. resident Nell, 27, won first place and $5,000 in the pageant with a vulva beauty ranking of 7.7 out of 10. Jenny, 23, of Bavaria, Germany, took second place with a 7.3; and Anita, 20, from Hungary, came in third. They each earned $2,500 and $1,250, respectively.
The contest was sponsored by Brian Sloan, who is also the manufacturer of the Autoblow 2 . It’s known as “the first truly realistic alternative to traditional pleasure products for men,” according to the its website .
These winners will also be flown out to Los Angeles, where their vulvas will be 3D-scanned to later be reproduced for the Autoblow device.
Sloan contracted a group of data scientists to analyze the contest’s findings for their scientific implications. The data was then compiled in “ The Vulva Paper .”
If you’re a visual learner, you can view photo examples of each class here .
The Vulva Paper’s website says scientists “used the contest data to assess the diversity in vulval morphology and voters’ preference for different morphologies.” A total of 182 women participated in the contest; 110 entries were examined for the study (if measurements could not be taken from the photo, the entry was not considered).
The scientists viewed each entry on a 15-inch computer screen, zooming in “until the genitalia were easily measured using a screen ruler,” read the paper .
They measured labia majora length, labia minora length, and clitoral hood length.
Finally, the scientists rated the complexity of the labia minora; they used the three categories of rugosity (smooth, moderate, marked) to do so. To prevent vaginal bias, the same person also conducted all of these measurements. The scientists later used this research to classify the contest’s entries into six different categories of “vulval morphology.”
A chart detailing the six classes is included below:
As far as methodology is concerned, a random assortment of entries was sent to each voter, who was then asked to rate the vulva pictured on a scale from 1 to 10. These voters were only able to rank one photo at a time, but could also vote on an unlimited number of entries. The scientists compiled 2,766,671 ratings from 134,707 contest voters.
“To reduce individual biases, we centered each voter’s ratings using their mean and standard deviation. This allowed us to reflect the preferences of voters on the same scale,” read the study .
According to the paper , each voter rated 21 photos, on average. Each vulva also received 15,285 votes, on average.
The study also found that “roughly 51% of voters preferred the first two classes of non-protruding, simple labia. The other 49% favored the four more complex vulva classes.”
“As expected from the rankings that we saw at the country and local levels, Class 1 vulvas are preferred over the others more often. But the combined percentages of voters who preferred more complex classes of vulvas far outweighed those who preferred the simplest style.”
The winners’ photos, however, were not included in the study—having been among the participants whose photos were not able to be considered. Moreover, the “doggy style” posture featured in these entries made it difficult for the scientists to complete the necessary measurements.
“Indeed, pictures depicting contest entrants in a doggy style position obtained ratings 2 points higher on average (p <0.001) than others. Other features, like piercings in the clitoral hood, didn’t affect the ratings,” read the study .
So basically, the “doggy style” photos generated “influential excitement” among the contest’s voters—an important competitive advantage for all future entrants to consider.
Photo via mislav-marohnic /Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
‘Disney should just pay their employees a living wage’: Travel vlogger says Disney Cruise Line has ‘weird’ tipping policy, sparking debate
‘They limit what people are allowed to tip you’: Chili’s customer calls out kiosk tip limit in PSA
‘You can get chocolate, vanilla, or twist’: Dairy Queen soft serve quart PSA
‘The best food app fr’: McDonald’s app $2 breakfast hack
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It's hard to have a healthy relationship with your body if you're not sure how it actually works. When it comes to your vagina, however, there's a chance that you've got a knowledge gap around its anatomy – from how everything slots together to what each part's job is.
Why are we so sure? Well, recent research from the Eve Appeal showed that half of women aged 26-35 were unable to label the vagina accurately – and that fewer than a quarter of women aged 16-25 said they felt confident that 'they were well informed about gynaecological health issues.' This isn't really a surprise when 65% of the age groups combined said they have a problem even saying the words 'vagina' or 'vulva.'
No doubt, living in a culture in which pretty much anything to do with the female reproductive system, from conditions such as endometriosis to procedures such as cervical screenings (AKA smear tests) aren't talked about nearly as much as they should be, contributes to all of this. Keen to understand the ins and outs of all of the parts of your vagina – and even check out a handy diagram? Scroll on.
To understand what each part of your vagina does, WH is supplying you with some handy diagrams. You are welcome.
It's a common misconception that the visible outer parts of the female anatomy is called the vagina. The technical name is actually the vulva. Yours has the job of protecting your internal organs and warding off dirt and bacteria. The vulva houses your labia, clitoris, vaginal opening, and the opening to the urethra.
This is your outer lips and is a protective layer of fat covered by skin and hair that guards the entrance to the vagina
The inner lips which are thinner and more sensitive than the rest of your vagina. They begin at your clitoris and end under the vaginal opening. They contain erectile tissue, made up of clusters of tiny blood vessels, which means they become slightly stiffer (though not as stiff as the clitoris) when you're turned on.
Straight up: everyone's labia differs. It can be long, short, wrinkled or
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