Viva La Vulva: Get to Know Your Internal Female Anatomy

Few of us look at our vulvas with any regularity. Perhaps even fewer have considered what self-knowledge and care of our vulva and vagina could mean for our long-term health, both physical and emotional.

This was the impetus behind our first ever Knowledge Series, hosted in the Fall of 2021 and led by a powerful team of experts over four weeks. During those sessions, we learned, shared and collectively vowed to seed a ‘new normal’ for dialogue around women's health and wellbeing.

Here are our key takeaways from this eye-opening series.

"Anyone who owns a vulva needs to be aware of what's happening down there."

As part of Nyssa's Knowledge Series: Viva La Vulva, NYC-based OB-GYN Dr. Lucky Sekhon explains why it's important to educate ourselves on our own anatomy and anatomical functioning.

With sex education in schools leaving a lot to be desired, we all need to take responsibility for our own body awareness.

All of the experts who participated in our Viva La Vulva series, emphasized just how important it is to develop an understanding of our anatomy. Dr. Lucky Sekhon spoke about this self knowledge within the context of preventative health checks, emphasizing that checking one's vulva and vagina is every bit as important as regularly self-checking one's breasts. We should also keep the pressure on our our elected officials and society at large to improve available information at a younger ages.

In the clip below, Dr. Sekhon explains why, just as with breast health, self-examination is so important:

Our biggest takeaway

Did you know that the uterus and ovaries aren't 'static,' but can move with time and gravity? Our ovaries actually hang from our Fallopian tubes and become heavier as we approach ovulation. They can even sometimes touch the vaginal wall, making sex near ovulation more painful than at other times of the month!

Dr. Sekhon explains this and other fascinating details of our internal anatomy much more effectively than anything we heard in school in the clip below:

The first session of our first ever Nyssa Knowledge Series blew our minds thanks to the knowledge of our experts who went above and beyond to create engaging, meaningful lessons.

All eight experts throughout the series really delivered talking about everything from basic anatomy (simple things most of us were never taught in school) to maintaining pelvic floor health and having better orgasms. We can't wait for our next one! In the meantime, be sure to check out the other available video clips from this first run.