WEEK 10 FEMALE PERINEUM FINISHED Flashcards
What is female external genitalia?
- mons pubis
- labia majora
- labia minora
- clitoris
- vestibule of vagina
- bulbs of vestibule
- greater vestibular glands
DEFINE: • Perineum • Vulva • Pudendum • Vagina • Hymen • Clitoris • Vestibule • Mons • Pubis
- Perineum – Greek “perineos”,
- Vulva – Latin “vulva” meaning wrapper
- Pudendum – Latin “pudendus” meaning shameful
- Vagina – Latin for sheath
- Hymen – Greek for membrane
- Clitoris – Greek “kleitoris”
- Vestibule – Latin “vestibulum” meaning courtyard
- Mons – Latin for mountain, mound
- Pubis – Latin “pubes”, signs of maturity
What is the mons pubis?
• Fatty eminence anterior to the pubic symphysis
• After puberty is covered with
course pubic hairs (limited in females, in males extends to the umbilicus)
• The fatty content increases after puberty and decreases after menopause
• Cushions the pubic symphysis & vulva during sexual
intercourse.
What is the labia majora?
- Folds of skin, thicker anteriorly (equiv to scrotum)
- Indirectly provide protection to the vaginal and urethral openings
- Passes from the mons pubis towards the anus
- Consists of loose subcutaneous tissue containing smooth muscle, fat, and the termination of the round ligament of the uterus (anteriorly).
- The split between the labia is a called the pudendal cleft
- Covered by hair and pigmented skin containing many sebaceous glands & sweat glands.
- Interior aspects contain no hair, pink and smooth
What are sebaceous glands?
- Glands in the dermis that usually open into hair follicles.
- Secrete an oily, semifluid substance called sebum
What happens to the labia majora anteriorly and superiorly?
- Thick anteriorly where form the anterior commissure
- Posteriorly form a ridge called the posterior commissure, this overlies the perineal body, usually disappears after a women gives birth.
- Commisure = angle or corner
What is the labia minora?
- Folds of fat-free hairless skin
- Enclosedinthe pudendal cleft within the labia majora
- Immediately surrounds the vestibule (cavity situated at the entrance to a hollow part) of the vagina
- Contains connective tissue with erectile tissue and many small blood vessels
- Extends posteriorly laterally from the clitoris around the urethral and vaginal openings /orifices
- Consists of thin moist skin with many sebaceous glands and sensory nerve endings
What is the clitoris?
- Erectile organ where the labia minora meet anteriorly.
- Consists of a root and body, which are composed of two crura, two corpora cavernosa and a glans clitoris which is covered by a prepuce.
- The body and glans are about 2 cm long and have a circumference of about 1 cm.
- Enclosed in dense fibrous tissue.
- Has a suspensory ligament.
- Crura = connect clitoris to Ischiopubic rami
- Correspond to the crura of the penis.
- Become the Corpora Cavernosa anteriorly.
- Covered by Ischiocavernosus mm
- Body is formed by the crura anteriorly.
- Glans is a small amount of erectile tissue that caps the body of the clitoris. Has lots of sensory endings, partly hidden by prepuce.
What is the bulb of the vagina?
- There is a little bit of erectile tissue that extends from the bulbs of the vestibule to the glans.
- This correlates to the corpus spongiosum.
- Divided into two parts because of the vagina.
- Covered by the Bulbospongiosus mm
What is the prepuce?
- The prepuce is formed by the anterior aspects of the labia minora, surrounds the clitoris
- Prepuce = fold of skin
What is the frenulum?
The labia minora also forms a fold posterior to the clitoris called the frenulum of the clitoris
• Frenulum = fold of mucous membrane
• Clitoris - No functional relationship to the urethra
• Functions purely as an organ of sexual arousal, the glans the most highly innervated, highly sensitive tissue
• Enlarges on tactile stimulation
What is the vestibule?
- The space / cavity between the labia minora
- Contains the opening of the vagina, urethra and the ducts of the lesser and greater vestibular glands
- The external urethral opening is about 2 -3 cm behind the glans of the clitoris in a posterioinferior direction.
- The urethral opening is anterior to the vagina.
- The vaginal opening varies in relation to the state of the hymen
- The hymen is a thin fold of mucous membrane surrounding the vaginal orifice, usually perforates spontaneously before puberty, if the opening is small it will tear with initial intercourse.
- Varies greatly - size & shape, annular when stretched.
- No established function
- Hymen – Greek for membrane
The bulbs of the vestibule
• Bulb = “swollen root”
Bulbs of the Vestibule
• Paired masses of elongated erectile tissue, about 3cm in length (similar to corpus spongiosum in male)
• United anteriorly as well as to the clitoris.
• Lie either side of the vaginal orifice, under the bulbospongiosus muscles.
• Posterior ends are expanded and in contact with the greater vestibular glands.
What are the greater vestibular glands?
- Greater vestibular glands,0.5cm in diameter are on either side of the vestibule, posterior laterally to the vaginal orifice
- Reddish/yellowincolour
- Are partly overlapped by the bulbs of the vestibule
- Open into the vestibule on either side of the vaginal orifice
- Secrete mucous into the vestibule during sexual arousal
- Open into groove between the hymen and labia minor.
- Similar to bulbourethral glands in males
Lesser vestibular glands
Lesser vestibular glands
• Are small glands on either side of the vestibule that open into it between the urethral and vaginal orifices
• Also secrete mucous
