Vagina Dimension and Sexual Pleasure: Does Dimension Matter?

The age-old query of whether or not or not dimension issues is often directed at males. However though they may not speak about it, some girls could fear in regards to the dimension of their vagina and the way it impacts sexual pleasure, significantly after having a child.

Not numerous analysis has been carried out on this space. As a result of so many issues have an effect on girls’s sexuality, it is laborious for researchers to know if vagina dimension and sexual pleasure are linked.

“Our capacity to grasp dimension because it pertains to sexual operate is poorly understood,” says Christopher Tarnay, MD, director of the division of feminine pelvic medication and reconstructive surgical procedure on the UCLA Medical Middle.

The vagina is a really “elastic” organ, says Christine O’Connor, MD, director of adolescent gynecology and effectively girls care at Mercy Medical Middle in Baltimore.

It is sufficiently small to carry a tampon in place, however can develop sufficient to cross a child by way of. It is because the partitions of the vagina are much like these of the abdomen in that they’ve rugae, that means they fold collectively to break down when unused, then develop when obligatory.

“It doesn’t keep one explicit dimension,” O’Connor says. “It adjustments to accommodate no matter is happening at the moment.”

Essentially the most generally used measurements concerning the dimensions of vaginas come from Masters and Johnson’s work from the Sixties. They checked out 100 girls who had by no means been pregnant and located that vagina lengths, unstimulated, vary from 2.75 inches to about 3¼ inches. When a lady is aroused, it elevated to 4.25 inches to 4.75 inches. No matter how lengthy the vagina is, the realm that’s regarded as necessary for most girls’s sexual response is the outer one-third.

So how does size relate to sexual satisfaction? Nobody appears to know for positive.

Tarnay says the primary points girls report is discomfort throughout intercourse. This sometimes occurs if the vagina is simply too brief or tight or if they’ve a prolapse. In prolapse, the uterus, bladder, or different organs fall misplaced, sometimes after childbirth.

However generally, vaginal size “in all probability doesn’t matter,” Tarnay says. “There may be such a variety of regular. One will be utterly assured that within the absence of prolapse, size has no impression on sexual satisfaction.”

What could make a distinction, Tarnay says, is what he calls the genital hiatus — the vaginal opening. If there’s an issue, it sometimes occurs after childbirth.

The vaginal opening probably adjustments solely barely after start, Tarnay says. In 1996, docs started utilizing a measurement referred to as the pelvic organ prolapse quantification system as a method of serving to them see how effectively they had been doing repairing that space after childbirth.

This was the primary time there was a real before-and-after measurement, Tarnay says. Docs have used the system to have a look at populations of ladies and located that there’s a slight enhance within the dimension of the opening after vaginal deliveries. The problem could also be extra associated to muscular weak spot or damage in that space, Tarnay says.

“Girls who’re capable of contract the pelvic ground muscular tissues can enhance or lower the dimensions of the hiatus,” he says. “Rising pelvic ground muscle tone can scale back looseness.”

Kegel workout routines will be very efficient at strengthening these muscular tissues, Tamay says could usually enhance intercourse.

Worrying about vagina dimension and whether or not or not it adjustments over time is the incorrect concern, O’Connor says. She notes that different issues — like lubrication, arousal, and having and having relationship together with your associate — have a a lot higher impression on sexual enjoyment for girls.

A 2010 examine printed within the Worldwide Urogynecology Journal bears out her opinion. Researchers used medical information, an examination, and questionnaire of 500 gynecological sufferers aged 40 and older to see if there was a correlation between vaginal size and opening dimension and sexual satisfaction.

The researchers discovered that need, arousal, orgasm, ache, and sexual satisfaction weren’t linked to vagina dimension. 

“It’s not a precise bodily match you might be in search of by way of sexual operate,” O’Connor says. “It’s extra in regards to the communication between the 2 companions and ensuring each are getting what they want out of the expertise and are comfy.”