Vaginal Anatomy 101: The Power Of Your Awesome Body!

Your vagina is a capable and powerful organ, but so much misinformation exists about vaginas that many women – and their partners – don’t know them as well as they could. This could potentially be a source of frustration. We’ve outlined all the parts of your vagina and their functions in this post, and you can refer to the vaginal diagram to help it all make sense.

Vulva

Your vulva is the external portion of your genitals, including your clitoris and labia minora and majora. When many people say “vagina” or “pussy,” they actually mean vulva. Vulvas can be plush and full of fatty tissue, darker or redder than other skin and covered in hair.

Mons Pubis

Your mons pubis is the area above your clitoris and below your stomach. You can feel your pubic bone through your mons. Some women enjoy pressure on their mons or lower stomach during sexual activity.

Labia

Your labia are two sets of lower lips: the minora or inner lips and the major and outer lips. Labia come in all sorts of shapes and sizes from plump to thinner, longer or shorter. It’s completely normal if your labia are asymmetrical and don’t quite match a vaginal diagram. Furthermore, not everyone has two noticeable set of lips. You may have difficulty discerning between the two pairs of lips, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Go Deeper: The 21 Different Types Of Vagina – What Is Normal & Abnormal

Clitoris

Your clitoris is akin to the key to your personal pleasure, which is why it’s a shame that so many men have difficulty finding it and so many women are unaware of its power! Your clitoris pretty much serves only for pleasure, and it’s chock-full of nerve endings. If you compare male and female anatomy, the clitoris is analogous to the penis.

The similarities continue. During arousal, your clitoris becomes erect like a miniature penis. Both organs are covered in a small sheath; it’s known as a foreskin around the penis, but a clitoris is surrounded by its “hood.”

However, your clit extends far beneath the skin where you can’t see. Imagine the visible portion as the vertex of a wishbone. The bones that extend from either side are actually your clitoral “legs,” which is why you might enjoy stimulation along either side of your vaginal opening.

The root of your clitoris extends inside your vagina. G-spot stimulation is actually stimulation of the hidden part of your clit through the tissue at the front of your vaginal wall. So, there’s really no separate mechanism for vaginal versus G-spot orgasms.

Learn more about vaginal orgasms.

We could go on about how awesome your clitoris is and what it can do for you (as well as what you can do for it), but we don’t want to focus on only the clitoris in this anatomy of the vagina post. Instead, you can read some of the helpful guides we’re already written about the clitoris.

• Where Is The Clitoris?
• 9 Clitoral Stimulation Techniques

Perineum

You might know this part of anatomy better as the “taint.” It’s the bit of skin between your vaginal entrance and your anus, and it can be incredibly sensitive! This spot offers even more pleasure for men because their prostate can be stimulated through it.

Vaginal Entrance and Hymen

The entrance to your vagina is sometimes just known as the vaginal orifice. It’s not necessarily considered a separate organ or body part by most people as the labia minora come together to form the vaginal opening. However, there is one body part that gets a lot of attention in this area, and it’s usually misunderstood: the hymen.

You might think of your hymen as a thin layer of tissue that covers your vaginal opening. Most of us were taught that the hymen rips or breaks the first time you have sex or from riding a bike, using a tampon, etc. But this isn’t necessarily true.

Very few girls are born with a hymen that completely covers their vagina, and this is a good thing! When this is the case, menstruating is impossible, and the blood and tissue collect in your vagina and uterus and can lead to an infection [1].

Instead, you should think of the hymen as stretchy tissue that surrounds and may partially cover your vaginal opening; and there is a number of different ways a hymen can form [2]. The hymen never really breaks – although it can thin – and bleeding during your first time having sex is generally something that can be avoided. Interesting, 63% of women don’t experience pain from the first time [3].

Using lube is one way to ensure you’re comfortable and not harming your body when masturbating or having sex. Read our guide to lube.

Urethra

Your urethra is the hole through which you urinate, and it’s so small that it’s hard to see! A woman’s urethra is located just above her vaginal opening in the vaginal diagram [4], but everything is so close together that many people think women pee from their vaginas (this is also why sex can lead to urinary tract infections)! This isn’t the case, but it’s easy to understand why people are confused.

Vagina

The vagina is often the focus of sex ed, porn and the male mind. It is an impressive organ! Your vagina allows you to menstruate and give birth. You can experience intense pleasure through vaginal penetration, not to mention deep connection with your partners! But despite all this, or perhaps because of it, most vaginas are still misunderstood.

Vaginas are potential spaces, which means they remain “closed” when not filled with something: a penis, tampon, fingers, or sex toy, for example.

Obviously, the biggest thing that ever inhabits your vagina is a baby, and this proves how capable your vagina is! Think of it like a balloon. An empty balloon is flat, but it is capable of expanding to many times its original size. Vaginas are much the same, and this is why vaginas don’t really become loose because you’ve had multiple partners or gone through labor.

Cervix

Your vagina isn’t the only thing capable of stretching. Your cervix can, too! In women who haven’t had a hysterectomy, the cervix is the back “end” of the vagina. Your cervix is a small canal between your uterus and vagina through which menstrual blood passes every month.

Your cervix naturally dilates to around four inches enough to allow a baby to pass through [5], and it can be manually or medically dilated by your doctor. This is sometimes necessary during childbirth as well as placement of an IUD [6]. In fact, an IUD’s tail resides in your cervix and pokes out into your vagina will the upper part sits in your uterus.

G-spot

As we mentioned, your G-spot is a sensitive spot inside your vagina that’s actually part of the clitoral structure, usually tucked behind your pubic bone. To achieve G-spot stimulation, most people need hooked fingers or a toy with a curved shaft or bulbous head.

For some women, this leads to squirting. But not everyone is capable of squirting or G-spot orgasms, and not everyone who is capable of these things enjoys them.

Discover more about finding your G-spot and having a G-spot orgasm here.

Every Vagina Is Different

While we have thus far focused on the typical vagina anatomy, we cannot stress enough how each vagina is different and that there’s no “normal.” You might never see a vagina that looks like yours in your life, and many women see very few other vaginas to begin with.

Because there are so many variations, no one vaginal diagram can depict them all. However, you can read about some of the ways that each vagina is unique below.

Shape and Size

Your vulva might be thick and plush or sleek and narrow. Some labia are shorter while other labia are longer and have more movement. Internally, you might have a vagina that enjoys deeper stimulation and feels longer to your partners. Or you might prefer more shallow penetration.

Related: What Does a Normal Vagina Look Like?

G-Spot Location

Your G-spot might demand a hooked toy or crooked fingers, or it may be more shallow and easier to access with a straight shaft. In fact, if your G-spot is shallow enough, a toy that has too much of a curve or too long of a shaft might miss it entirely!

Clitoral Size and Location

Although every clitoris is amazing, they’re not all the same. For example, some are bigger or smaller. A clitoris that’s bigger might be more ideal for a piercing, but that doesn’t mean anything is wrong with a smaller clit.

Read: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About a Clit Piercing

Another difference is how far your clitoris is from your vaginal opening. A clit that’s closer to your vagina means you are more likely to orgasm due to the motion of sex [7]. However, if it’s further away, it might be left out in the cold during sex if you or your partner doesn’t make the effort to specifically stimulate it. This one piece of knowledge is key for many whom who have been unable to orgasm from sex to be able to do so consistently.

Hopefully, you feel closer to your vagina and have a better understanding of how it works after reading this post and checking out the vaginal diagrams above. You might even be able to use this information to improve your sex life!