What is inside the vagina?

Many female friends are actually quite curious about their own body structure and want to know what the vagina looks like. In fact, the vagina is formed by tissues such as mucosa, muscle layer and outer membrane. It is a part connecting the uterus and external genitalia. The vagina has many functions, such as expelling menstrual blood from the body, being an important part of sexual life, etc.

The vagina is a muscular tube composed of mucosa, muscle layer and outer membrane. It is highly elastic and connects the uterus and external genitalia. It is the female's sexual organ and also the channel for discharging menstruation and delivering the fetus.

The normal pH value of vaginal secretions is 3.8. The lower part of the vagina is narrower, and the lower end opens into the vaginal vestibule at the vaginal orifice. During the virgin stage, the vaginal opening is surrounded by the hymen, which may be ring-shaped, crescent-shaped, umbrella-shaped or sieve-shaped. After the hymen ruptures, a hymen mark remains around the vaginal opening.

Structural features

The structure of the vagina is mainly that the lower part is narrower, and the lower end opens to the vaginal vestibule with the vaginal opening. During the virgin stage, the vaginal opening is surrounded by a hymen, which may be ring-shaped, crescent-shaped, umbrella-shaped or sieve-shaped. After the hymen ruptures, a hymen mark remains around the vaginal opening.

The upper end of the vagina is wide, surrounding the cervix and vagina, forming a ring-shaped depression between the two, called the vaginal vault, which can be divided into the front, back and two side parts. It is deepest at the posterior part of the vaginal vault and is closely adjacent to the rectouterine pouch, separated only by the vaginal wall and a layer of peritoneum. It has great practical significance clinically, for example, the accumulated fluid in the depression can be drained through the posterior fornix.

Physiological functions

The vagina is a very important channel connecting the internal and external genitalia of women. It is the female sexual organ and the channel for menstrual blood to be discharged and the fetus to be delivered. The upper end of the vagina is connected to the uterus, and its lower end is the vaginal opening. The front of the vagina is adjacent to the bladder and urethra, and the back is connected to the rectum and perineum. Because there is a bladder in front of the vagina and a rectum in the back, if childbirth takes too long and the fetal head presses on the vaginal wall for too long, it can cause necrosis of the vaginal wall due to lack of oxygen and ischemia, resulting in severe urine and fecal leakage. Therefore, the delivery process should not be prolonged too long.

Physiological functions of the vagina

① The channel that transports menstrual blood from the uterus to the outside of the body.

②An important place for women to have sex. The front wall of the lower vagina is particularly sensitive to sexual activity.

③Under normal circumstances, the vagina is the channel through which the fetus is delivered from the mother's body.

④The vagina is a window for examining the female internal reproductive organs.

Physiological characteristics

①The stretching and adjustment potential of the female vagina is sometimes quite amazing.

② Different sections of the vagina respond differently to sexual stimulation. For example, the outer 1/3 of the vagina is differentiated from the ectoderm and is rich in nerve fibers, so the nerve endings that respond to touch are only concentrated near the vaginal opening. The inner 2/3 of the vagina comes from the mesoderm and has no nerve endings, so the outer 1/3 of the vagina is more sexually sensitive than the inner 2/3. As for the penis, although there are large differences in size when it is flaccid, the difference becomes smaller after erection. Generally speaking, after erection, the depth can far exceed 1/3 of the outer part of the vagina, so the determining factor of female sexual satisfaction is by no means the size and thickness of the penis.

③Another important physiological feature of the vagina is that it is surrounded by abundant muscles, called pubococcygeus muscles.

④The vagina itself has no secretory glands.