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26 November 2009
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A-Z of You

  • Vagina

  • Vagina

AKA: Beaver, box, c**t, fadge, vadge, fanny, front bottom, honey pot, love tunnel, minge, muff, pussy, quim, snatch, twat.

What is it?

The vagina is the passage connecting the internal reproductive organs (the bits inside your body that you need for having a baby) to the outside of your body. The genitals on the outside of your body are called the vulva.

What does it look like?

The vulva looks like a pair of fleshy lips between your legs. These are the labia majora and grow pubic hair after puberty.

Inside are a pair of smaller lips called the labia minora. Between the labia minori is the clitoris, which looks like a tiny lump of flesh.

Just below the clitoris is the hole connecting to the urethra, and below that is the opening of the vagina.

Vagina - outside

What does it do?

To have sexual intercourse a boy pushes his penis inside a girl’s vagina.

At the end of pregnancy a baby leaves its mother’s body through the vagina.

Girls wee through the hole connecting to the urethra (the hole just above the vagina), which is a tube from the bladder.

How does it work?

• The vagina is very stretchy. It will hold a tampon in place, but it can also expand enough to allow a baby through.

• When you become sexually aroused (turned on) your vagina produces fluids to make it easier for a boy’s penis to enter.

• You may have a thin stretch of skin just inside your vagina called the hymen. This is likely to tear when you first have sex.

• Some girls are born without a hymen, or it can tear naturally during physical activity or by using tampons. This doesn’t mean you’re not a virgin - you need to have full sexual intercourse to lose your virginity.

• The vagina leads up inside your body to the cervix, which is the entrance to your womb, where a baby will develop if you get pregnant.

Further help and advice

avert.org (diagrams)


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Pictures posed by models.



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