"Even if you think your body looks different from those of your friends, your body parts are probably 'quite normal for you'."
Is my body normal?
The appearance of the genitals varies a lot, especially the size and shape of the folds of skin surrounding them and the type and amount of hair. If you think you look different from your friends, it is probably 'quite normal for you'. If you are worried, come to see us at shac.
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If I come to shac, do I have to know the proper names for my body parts?
It is natural that you might not know the medical names for parts of the body. If you want to describe a particular body part, use the name that you are most comfortable with, we will know what you mean, or point. If we use a name that you don't understand, ask us what we mean. We will use medical names when we talk among ourselves so that we know exactly what we're talking about.
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Can you tell me some of the medical names?
- Reproductive organs. These are the sex organs that are hidden on the inside of your body. They include the vagina, the uterus, or womb, the fallopian tubes and the ovaries.
- Genitals. These are the sex organs that we can see. They include the vulva, or outer lips, the clitoris, the opening of the vagina and the opening of the urethra.
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What is the pelvic area?
The pelvic area or pelvis is the lower part of your tummy, way below your belly button, it contains your reproductive organs, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and the bladder.
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What are the holes I can see with a mirror?
Where your legs meet, you have three small openings, or holes. These are covered up by big folds of skin on either side, called the outer lips or labia majora.
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Is it normal to have one fold of skin larger than the other?
The size of the inner and outer lips varies a lot. Those on one side might be bigger than those on the other and the inner ones might hang below the outer ones.
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What is the vulva?
The vulva is the name that is given to the outer and inner lips, the labia, of a girl's sex organs, the clitoris and the vaginal opening. Doctors find this term useful because all of these body parts can get similar infections.
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What is the hole at the front for, and what is it connected to?
The hole at the front, the urethral opening, is the one that your urine, your 'pee', comes out of. It is below your clitoris and is small and hidden away under smaller folds of skin, the inner lips or labia minora. Inside your body your urethra, the water passage that your urine comes down, connects to your bladder and eventually to your kidneys where the urine is made.
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What is connected to the middle hole?
The middle hole, the vaginal opening, is just below the first one and is quite a bit larger. It is the opening to the vagina. When you are young it is mostly covered over. The vagina is a flexible tube that leads to the cervix. The cervix is the opening of the womb, the uterus. When a girl or woman has her period, the blood comes out of the womb through her vagina. The vagina is also where the boy or man puts his penis during penetrative sex.
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What is the hymen?
Just inside the vaginal opening is a thin skin called the hymen. This partly covers the vaginal opening but allows enough of a gap for period blood to get through. It is the hymen that is stretched the first time a girl or woman has sex, this is why you can get a little bleeding.
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What is the clitoris?
The clitoris is at the top of the vulva and in front of the vaginal opening. It is where the inner lips meet and is about the size of a pea. It is very sensitive to touch and stimulation of the clitoris helps a girl or women to have an orgasm.
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What connects to the womb, and what do fallopian tubes and ovaries do?
Inside the body the womb, uterus, is the expandable bag that babies develop in. At its top the womb leads to two openings, the fallopian tubes, which collect eggs from each ovary. Eggs, ova, are produced only after ovulation has started, which is about the time a girl starts her periods during puberty. Usually one egg is released every month.
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How and when are eggs made? What happens to unfertilised eggs?
Inside their bodies, girls and women have two ovaries, in the pelvis. Before a girl is born she develops unripened, immature, eggs in the ovaries. These eggs only start to ripen, to mature, during puberty. To become a fertilised egg the ripened eggs have to be released from the ovary and meet up with sperm. Eggs only start to be released from the ovary, ovulation, during the later stages of puberty at about the time a girl has started having periods. Eggs are released about fourteen days before a girl's or woman's period starts, which is about once a month. This is when girls or women are most likely to become pregnant. An egg can be released at any time during your cycle and so you can become pregnant at any time during your menstrual cycle. Unfertilised eggs are lost in the period blood but they are so tiny that you can't see them.
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What is the back hole called, and what is it connected to?
The anus is the opening of the back passage. This is where faeces, 'poo', comes from. Inside your body it is connected to the rectum, where faeces are stored, and then to the colon where they are made.
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