The V Zone: A Woman's Guide to Intimate Health Care - Softcover

Bouchez, Colette

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684870975 ISBN 13: 9780684870977

Verlag: Atria, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Intimate Health Care
The V Zone answers those difficult and embarrassing questions women often are unable to ask their own doctor. Colette Bouchez, an award winning medical journalist, explains important health information in easy-to-understand language, and offers women a clear, concise plan for dealing with the most common gynecological complaints. In addition to describing currently available medical treatments, The V Zone reports on natural and alternative solutions, and helps navigate the wide array of over-the-counter products, including menstrual aids, home test kits, and feminine hygiene products. Know instantly what's safe to use, what's not, when it's okay to self-treat, and when it's time to seek professional care. Also included is the latest information on:

• vaginitis
• painful sex
• urinary tract infections
• yeast infections
• STDs
• and much more!

With advice from over two dozen medical experts, The V Zone is the definitive guide women can turn to and rely on, today and for years to come.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Coauthor of the bestselling Getting Pregnant, Colette Bouchez is the former senior medical writer for the New York Daily News. Her award-winning work has been honored by the American Cancer Society, The Medill School of journalism, and the American College of dermatology. Her reporting on women's health care issues has received an Emmy award.

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Chapter One: Understanding Your V Zone
What You Need to Know About Your Intimate Health

If you're like most other women, it's likely you pay very little attention to your intimate anatomy until a problem occurs. Then you panic, as you begin to realize how little you really know about some areas of your body. Indeed, studies show that, by and large, most of us are far more familiar with the pores on our nose than we are with our V zone, the area between our belly button and our thighs. And that can be a big mistake.

Why? First, the more you know about your intimate anatomy, the greater is your chance of having not only a happier and more satisfying sex life but, more important, a healthier one, for you and your partner.

More important, not being familiar with how this area of your body functions can have some dire consequences. Indeed, the placement and structure of a woman's intimate geography is such that each of us is at risk for a variety of diseases and conditions, several of which carry some potentially serious complications. If you're not familiar with what's normal for you, then you may have a real problem figuring out when something goes wrong -- at least early enough to get the kind of comprehensive treatment that offsets the risk of any of those serious health consequences from occurring.

What's that you say? You're counting on your doctor to provide you with all the V zone protection you need? Then you may be surprised to learn studies have shown that your gynecologist may not be offering you the care you deserve. Indeed, at least one new report, a 1999 survey of doctors conducted by the National Vaginitis Association, revealed that the majority of gynecologists sometimes bypass offering patients treatment for even potentially serious vaginal infections unless they themselves bring symptoms to their doctor's attention. And this can be the case even when the doctor notices problems during the exam. Perhaps the worst part is that the doctors surveyed didn't even provide a reason. They simply said they don't do it!

Indeed, if you are to be ensured the best, most progressive, most preventative health care possible, you must become an active participant in that health care. And ultimately that means knowing enough about your body to enable you to recognize when something does go wrong.

When it comes to learning about your V zone, the best place to start is with a little healthy self-exploration, done with a keen eye toward becoming familiar with form and function. In short, you need to know not only how your intimate anatomy looks and feels under normal conditions of optimum health, but also how it acts and reacts.

With that goal in mind, this book begins with a kind of personal road map -- a "geography," if you will -- of a woman's most intimate parts, with emphasis on helping you learn more about what's normal for you -- and what's not.

If you already believe you know more about your body than you probably will ever need to, feel free to skim this chapter and proceed to the areas of the book that apply to your V zone health needs right now.

But if you're not really sure about how much you do or don't know, then I invite you to pay special attention to this chapter. If, in fact, you take only one message from this book, let it be that you can have power over your body and your health care -- once you take the time to get to know yourself.

Your V Zone Road Map: Where to Begin

Your journey of self-exploration starts with the area just below your "bikini line" -- the area of your V zone known as the vulva. For most of us, the portion we are most familiar with is the mons veneris, or mound of Venus, a wad of fatty tissue that lies just on top of the opening to the vagina. Usually covered with pubic hair, it acts as a protective cover particularly during vigorous intercourse, helping to absorb impact and sheltering the more delicate organs and bones in and around the pelvis. Not coincidentally, this section of your V zone is also among the most erotic areas of your body, highly sensitive to the touch. In fact, the pubic hair found here can be so responsive that even a light touch can cause a sensual, electric-like shock sensation that travels right to the inside of your vagina.

Following the mound of Venus downward, you will come to the labia majora, or outside vaginal lips. Also made up of pads of fatty tissue covered with pubic hair, these "lips" are also extremely sensitive to both touch and temperature. In fact, much like a man's testicles, which shrink and wrinkle in response to cold temperatures, so do a woman's labia. They also swell and become puffy and softer in warmer temperatures, particularly when you are bathing in a hot tub or sauna or when you are sexually aroused. For some women, simply stroking the outside of the labia majora can act as powerful foreplay.

Inside the labia majora is a second set of "lips," known as the labia minora. Composed of a thin tissue with an elastic quality, they work to protect the interior of your vagina. In some women the labia minora are hardly visible; in others they are large and protruding. Both types, and anything in between, are considered normal.

Although most often we think of our intimate secretions and discharges as coming from the vagina, in fact, most come from the walls lining the outside and inside of the outer vulvar lips. Both the labia majora and labia minora contain an abundance of sweat, scent, and oil glands that continuously secrete the fluids that keep the vagina moist and healthy and provide the characteristic musky scent and extra "wet" sensation when you are sexually aroused. These secretions also help protect the vagina from acids and other irritating chemicals in urine and menstrual blood, as well as help block the passage of some bacteria into the reproductive tract.

Nestled neatly into the folds of the labia is your actual vagina. Although it is only about 3?4 of an inch wide and extends just 3 to 4 inches inward, it is composed of highly elastic tissue and stretches dramatically to many times its original size. This makes it possible not only to give birth but also to comfortably accommodate a penis of virtually any size. To help make intercourse easier and more pleasurable for both sexes, the inside of the vagina also has a pleated-like surface called rugae. Similar to the folds found in corrugated cardboard, the rugae help grip the penis and ease it deeper inside. After intercourse, as well as childbirth, your vagina contracts back to its normal size.

Located deeper inside the vagina is the hymen, a thin membrane that in the not too distant past was thought to function as a kind of archaic "virginity meter." As the myth went, on first intercourse the hymen would tear, causing bleeding to occur. If that characteristic bloodshed didn't take place, a woman's virginity was put into question. Today we know just how foolish (if not insulting) this myth really is. Indeed, so many factors can cause the hymen to tear, including most sporting activities, that even a doctor can't tell if a woman is a virgin simply by looking to this membrane for clues.

Although its shape and size is as individual as the woman herself (hymens can range from a thin, wispy membrane to a tough, fibrous layer), in some women it can be so thick that it won't break even during sex, which can cause any attempt at intercourse to be extremely painful. In fact, if you have always experienced pain or discomfort during intercourse, one of the first areas your doctor should check is your hymen. Should it be exceptionally thick, your gynecologist can remove it by a relatively fast and simple in-office procedure.

More V Zone Anatomy:

What Else You Need...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Atria
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0684870975
• ISBN 13: 9780684870977
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 260
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; Utrecht; 3584 AA; Niederlande