Ladies - Know Your Body!

[logansrogue]

Photos of a 25 year old cervix through-out a single menstrual cycle (one month). NSFW, clearly!! And not safe for your lunch if bodily fluids gross you out!

I found it really, REALLY interesting, actually. And strangely liberating to see that all the things I experience with my darling vag are not strange or embarrassing, but a natural part of being a woman. I mean, I don't think I want to generally stretch out my vaginal fluids as a party trick, but having a photo of that and educating women as to how a healthy body behaves so they know when they're well or not well is really, really good.

It also helps shift some of the shame women feel about their wet, ever-changing sexual organs. We're supposed to be dry, free, easy, breezy! Well, that's not what being a woman is about most of the time. *nods* Not for me personally, anyway. TMI! HAhahaha! It's always time for TMI in my journal, I think!

Anyway, I thought it was a great website!

Comments

[callistra.livejournal.com]

LOL
and yeah, wet = good, and when a woman is pregnant, wet = OMG all the fucking time.
:D

Also TMI?
:)

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

My fluids have been pretty non-stop since I hit twelve. I would have to change undies repeatedly through-out the day cause my lady-bits were producing so much fluid. I thought something was wrong with me. Thankfully I could talk to Mum about it and she said it was a natural part of starting puberty and bought me pantyliners. I stopped using them in my 20s cause I just bought more underpants. Plus it ebbed and flowed mored with my menstrual cycle. I hate to think what I'll be like if I have a babby one day!

Too Much Information. Of which there is no such thing in my journal! LOL!

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Drhoz has never got that this is the one of the reasons I can't wear knickers multiple days in a row, unlike some men I've met think they can. And I'm still trying to get through to him that there is a difference between 'normal' garden variety wet-down-there and the horny variety.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's a world of difference! As you can see in the photos, there's a lot of white matter in regular flow, which I think is dead white corpusles and dead skin cells sloughed away from the vagina and inside the uterus. (I think, I'm remembering from what I read in a book some years ago). Where-as the sex fluid is all clear and slippery, for obvious reasons. Of course I'm preaching to the choir here, you own the hardware, you know that of which I speak!

I think the female reproductive system is an incredibly complex and fascinating thing. I would spend ages reading my Mum's health and pregnancy books when I was growing up. Mum's pretty awesome in that if she's going to do something, she'll get every book she can get her hands on on the subject before undertaking it. So when she had seven kids, she bought lots of books about it, from general tips on mothers-to-be to full bore ob/gyn books with scary photos and drawings of deformed fetii and shit. My sister and I were like, "Woah, dude, don't look at those books!" If my Mum wasn't having a baby, it was an aunt. So much childbird around when I was very little, my baby sister would draw endless photos of women birthing. They were really awesome tribal pictures - dangling dark-nippled breasts with a baby head breaching in the vagina! She was tiny when she did these, and the amazing thing was my Mum *never* freaked out. I hope Tina or Mum have some of those drawings stashed somewhere. They would have made *awesome* paintings!

Oh God, I'm rambling today! This is the second time I've done it today!

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Well that's something you don't see everyday...

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I know. I saw it and thought, "Wow. I just looked at 33 pictures of someone's vagina and I wasn't looking at porn." Which can only be a good thing, I think.

[shantari.livejournal.com]

lol

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

That was really interesting, thanks for posting it!!

(TMI) My cervix doesn't look like that, as it's slightly inside out at opening, which is a less than normal thing, but not very unusual. But All those photos very VERY interesting!!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Mine is facing entirely the wrong way due to my inverted uterus. Mine is barely visible when my uterus is swollen, my uterus is bend up like a hairpin. Endo is really fucking up my ol' ute. I looked at this healthy young woman's pink unswollen insides ever so longingly. I know that sounds weird, but damn, what I'd give for a healthy reproductive system!

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

To be frank I have no idea what mine looks like, and I only have the tellings of the two women that I saw many times over the past four years during my bazillion bloody pap smears (for the cervical cancer vaccine study).

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I don't know what my cervix looks like, but I know what my Pouch of Douglas looks like. There are a lot of yucky spots and swollen bits.

I'd love to see what my cervix and vagina look like. It'd be impossible to get the camera up there though! LOL! I'm far too tight for that!

[mawaridi.livejournal.com]

That's fascinating! What an awesome idea. I always worry that my bits are weird or abnormal because nobody ever talks about female genitals and all the crazy fluids and smells they produce, but I'm also far too embarrassed to ask anyone else about it. This is a handy way for chicks to reassure themselves and maintain a bit of privacy at the same time :) Thanks for sharing!

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of women's attitudes towards their own bodies are controlled by media so much because we're discouraged from sharing with each other. The internet is great cause we can share that information anonymously, and still get the important information and comfort that brings us. :)

We're wet and smelly, but a lot of people like that smell. :)

[nephron.livejournal.com]

If you're interested, vaginapagina has a "Everyday Bodies Project that has dozens of photos of (anonymous) women's breasts, tummies, bottoms and vulvas- though it's behind a friendslock and I'm not sure how you find it once a member.

ETA: It's easily found on the bar to the left, under "VP Resources"

[nephron.livejournal.com]

Unlike this woman, I barely produce cervical fluid, even when I'm off any form of hormonal contraception. Ah, variety.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

It is the spice of life, as they say. I never said all vaginas were the same! :)

[nephron.livejournal.com]

You didn't, but I have been told by other people (in "safe spaces" no less) that I am faulty & not a proper woman for it. For srs.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

That's horrible! It's akin to people saying that thin people aren't "real" women. Uncool!

[nephron.livejournal.com]

I can understand the rationale for both- thin women and dryish cervices (sp?) are considered to be the ideal, so it's in reaction to that. Doesn't mean it's true, though.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Yeah. People have to learn to rail against the perpetuation of an ideal, not those that fit the idea itself.

[lady-niav.livejournal.com]

It's true. Lady bits get shamed and silenced. It would help for women to know their bodies better, but they also need to love their bodies and that can mean not only overcoming the media but a very long history of misogynistic hatred and oppression.

It's easier if this stuff gets normalised in the home I'm guessing.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

I was very lucky in that I grew up in a household dominated by women, so there was very little shaming of the human body. The usual "Argh, my thighs!" but everyone had periods, everyone had boobs and pubic hair, it was all very normal and regular. It wasn't until I hit the outside world that I learnt that there were things about the female body I was supposed to be ashamed of.

[lady-carrie.livejournal.com]

Well that was intresting, :)

I have a tilted Cervix

[shantari.livejournal.com]

In Swedish the Uterus is known as Livmoder (Lifemother) and the Cervix is known as Livmoderhals (Throat of Uterus). And once again I realise that I know surprisingly little about one of my body parts. I've never thought about what the cervix actually looks like for real. Very educating.

And I had no idea we were supposed to be dry and breezy! I'm just so used to the bodily fluids constantly coming out of my body.

[melalucci.livejournal.com]

I thought it was really cool, too!