What % of women don't know basics of female anatomy?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I had a wonderful daughter of an elderly patient assist with doing a minicath. I missed the first try, making some comment about getting the correct hole, and the confusion at times. The 60 something daughter said "2 holes?". I said something like, you know the pee and the baby hole?

The lady was shocked she had no idea there were two holes down there. I good naturedly covered up my utter surprise at her ignorance regarding this matter.

How many women don't know about this?

I had a 15 y/o maternity patient on her second child; she thought that her foley was draining "that fluid the baby swam in"

This makes me sad on many levels :(

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I had a 15 y/o maternity patient on her second child; she thought that her foley was draining "that fluid the baby swam in"

I remember talking, years ago, to a pregnant teen (first pregnancy) who sincerely believed that the baby was going to burst out of her abdomen like the scene in "Alien."

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I grew up in a conservative family. I truly didn't understand sex/female anatomy until I was 15. I vow to not let my daughter go unaware as I did.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

A dear friend and mentor of mine told this great story:

Cathy graduated from an all-girl Catholic high school in 1960 and went straight into a Catholic hospital diploma nursing program. First term anatomy class (taught by a nun) the nun says "Now ladies, we all know that there are three holes in the pelvic area- one for urine, one for stool and one for menses." Cathy (and almost every other girl in the class) blurted out "Three?!?!?"

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.

As a young child, I knew that I would never be able to have babies. You see, I knew that there were supposed to be three holes, the urethra, the lady parts, and the orifice. (My mom was a nurse; so we used medical terms like urinate and defecate. I remember my aunt asking me if I had to "go tinkles". I had no idea what she meant!)

Anyway, when I explored myself, I could only find two holes. Since I knew that I could urinate and defecate, I figured that I wouldn't be able to have babies.

Mom explained it all to me the night before THE MOVIE in 5th grade.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I grew up in a conservative family. I truly didn't understand sex/female anatomy until I was 15. I vow to not let my daughter go unaware as I did.

good news for your daughter she has you! in your case though at least you did learn what was where at 15. Not fully grown and still no idea what any of it is, like some of these posts tell us. How we can be an advanced society when it comes to medicine and science and still have mature women not knowing what is between their own legs really does amaze me. LOL maybe I'm sheltered from knowing what other people don't know!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

I have no idea re: the answer to your question, but I'm surprised, that's for sure.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in School nursing.

Threads like this make me even more glad I teach sex education in grades 7, 8, and 10 at my school (I am a school nurse, as my icon shows). I was reviewing anatomy with my 10th grade class this week and while they were fuzzy on remembering the full details of a few things from 8th grade, one thing they did remember was that women do not urinate using their lady parts :).

(Though I did have a pair of seventh graders once ask a teacher how she closed her lady parts when she peed. While I scratched my head at that - we had just started health class the day before and hadn't gotten to the anatomy yet - I was proud that students used the word lady parts vs any slang I'd heard prior. I have a rule in my class that we use the proper medical terms.)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Threads like this make me even more glad I teach sex education in grades 7, 8, and 10 at my school (I am a school nurse, as my icon shows). I was reviewing anatomy with my 10th grade class this week and while they were fuzzy on remembering the full details of a few things from 8th grade, one thing they did remember was that women do not urinate using their lady parts :).

(Though I did have a pair of seventh graders once ask a teacher how she closed her lady parts when she peed. While I scratched my head at that - we had just started health class the day before and hadn't gotten to the anatomy yet - I was proud that students used the word lady parts vs any slang I'd heard prior. I have a rule in my class that we use the proper medical terms.)

Bless you. There is hope for our future after all.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Yes, it's pretty sad. Also, vulvas are mythical/mystical/magical in a somewhat evil kind of way, I've learned. Even many people in healthcare don't want to know anything about them.

I did my MSN capstone QI project on trying to decrease contaminated urine samples in an outpatient OB/Gyn clinic. As part of my project, I made a graphic representation (color drawing) of a vulva with labia separated, to visually show the two holes and where they're located, how to clean the area before peeing, etc. I posted the drawings in the patient restrooms. OMG, the complains I received! From other staff! One particularly vocal complainer was a pediatrician whose practice was with adolescents! The pictures regularly disappeared off the bathroom walls.

Six months later, I was invited to do a poster presentation at the local EBP symposium, and when I submitted the .PDF of the poster (which had a the graphic on it) I was asked by the symposium coordinators (who were healthcare people) to please remove the vulva from my poster.

For cripes sake, it's not like you were distributing Media.

I was recently in the ED, and when I was asked to give a urine specimen, I was given a cup in a brown paper bag. No wipes to clean off with, not even a label for the specimen.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

My "other job" involves educating women solely about their sexuality. It is astounding how many of them don't know their own anatomy, but through my experience as a nurse and as the product of a puritanical yet public sex education experience, I'm not surprised at all anymore. My high school sex Ed course did not include any external female anatomy- we only covered the uterus, ovaries, and the menstrual cycle. Our innocent little minds couldn't be polluted by knowledge of female parts, especially those whose only function is pleasure. It's why my presentation always includes an anatomy lesson.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I grew up in a conservative family. I truly didn't understand sex/female anatomy until I was 15. I vow to not let my daughter go unaware as I did.

Uh oh . . . :blink:

Gotta chime in here because not all conservative families don't tell their children about sex/anatomy.

My kids were raised by conservative (oh the horrors) parents. :eek: They were told the facts of sex and their own anatomy when they were pretty young. We started off with just simple facts. But as they got older, we talked about wet dreams and masturbation and menstrual cycles and pregnancy.

As pre-teens, I got a poster from public health of close-ups of sexually transmitted diseases and hung it in our bathroom.

When my oldest was a senior, my 2nd was a sophomore, and my 3rd was a 6th grader, their conservative parents got pregnant with a surprise baby. The two oldest thought we were kidding . . . "you can fake sonogram pictures on the internet mom" or "you and dad still have sex?" . :lol2:

There are some great books out there for pre-teens too.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment