But, for now, we suggest taking it one step at a time. You’ve bought this book, and if you get pregnant from the information you find here, consider it a great bargain!
Chapter 2
What Does Anatomy Have to Do with It?
IN THIS CHAPTER
You may think that you know how to get pregnant. Doesn’t everybody? Not necessarily! In this chapter, we review basic male and female biology, educate you on the inner workings of your menstrual cycle, and explain how sperm is supposed to work. Then we unlock the secrets of conception and how sex is meant to get you to pregnancy!
Reviewing the Female Anatomy
Were you paying attention in Biology 101? You may have taken a quick peek at the film on the miracle of birth and announced loudly to all your friends, “Eww, gross, I’m never having kids!” And yet here you are, some undisclosed number of years later, wishing you had paid more attention back then. Don’t worry; we’re here to fill in the gaps in your reproductive education.
The human body has the basics and the accessories — just like at Macy’s! When you buy an outfit, you can be dressed with just the basics, but the accessories really pull your outfit together. When you’re trying to have a baby, the parts that you don’t see — the “accessories” — determine whether you can get pregnant.
A naked woman is pretty unrevealing from a reproductive viewpoint. You can’t see the organs that count in childbearing, so you can’t tell at a glance whether yours are present and functioning. Take a look at what should be inside every woman, starting from the outside and working your way ”inside.” (See Figure 2-1.)
Illustration by Kathryn Born
FIGURE 2-1: The female reproductive organs.
The vagina
The vagina mostly serves as a passageway, first for the penis to deliver sperm up near the opening of the uterus, and later for the delivery of the baby. If you have a very small vaginal opening, intercourse may be uncomfortable. If your vaginal opening is large, as it may be after having a baby, sex may be less pleasurable. Neither condition, however, has any effect on your ability to get pregnant.
The vagina secretes fluid during sexual arousal, making it easier — and a lot more enjoyable! — for a penis to enter the vagina. Sometimes (especially when you have to have sex at a particular time), the lubrication function may not work as well as it should. In these cases, you may need a personal lubricant. This is much better for your vagina than trying to have a “dry experience,” which causes abrasion of the vagina and will make intercourse that much more uncomfortable the next time.
Found at the entrance to the vagina, the hymen is a nonfunctional piece of circular tissue that has no physiologic function and very few nerve endings. This donut-shaped piece of tissue generally has one or more small opening(s) at birth and, as the baby girl grows, the tissue thins and stretches. While bleeding during a woman’s first act of intercourse is often described as “tearing the hymen,” in truth, by the time a girl reaches adolescence, the hymen is not usually a barrier to tampons or an erection. An imperforate hymen, one that has no holes, occurs in less than ½ percent of the female population and can be corrected with a very simple procedure to snip open the hymen. Women with an imperforate hymen will not have periods (amenorrhea), as the hymen can cause blood to back up behind the small opening. This blood can be forced back up into the fallopian tubes. Women with an imperforate hymen have a higher incidence of endometriosis, a disease that can affect your ability to get pregnant in several ways. (See Chapter 7 for more on endometriosis.)
The cervix
The cervix is the lower part of the uterus. It keeps the baby from falling out of the uterus when you’re pregnant because it’s a tight, muscle-like tissue. The cervix also guards against infection because it’s filled with mucus that forms a barrier between your vagina and the inside of the uterus. If you have an incompetent cervix, it means that the cervix doesn’t stay tight and closed when you’re pregnant but starts to open up from the expansion of the uterus and the weight of the growing baby. The hallmark of an incompetent cervix is painless, cervical dilation in the second trimester of pregnancy. An incompetent cervix is usually stitched with a suture called a cerclage. Issues with an incompetent cervix do not appear until the second trimester when the baby is larger, so a cerclage is not placed until the early second trimester at around 16–18 weeks.
The uterus
The uterus, or womb, is a pear-shaped organ designed to hold and nourish a baby for nine months. The uterus acts as an incubator for the pregnancy, allowing the child to develop to a stage that it can exist in the environment on its own. But the uterus also has to be structured for labor, which allows delivery of the child. So it has two functional layers: an interior lining for implantation and growth of the pregnancy (endometrium) and a muscular layer for labor (myometrium). Every month the lining of the uterus, called the endometrium, thickens to make a nourishing bed for an embryo. If you don’t get pregnant that month, the lining breaks down and is shed as your menstrual flow, or period.
Nonconformity is (usually) okay
Many women have a uterus that doesn’t conform to the standard upside-down
