44 | New Scientist | 21 May 2022microbiome are not deadly. They mostly affect
quality of life, sexuality and relationships.
Yet researchers in this field told me that’s
not something that funding bodies care
about as much. I kept getting this really sad
answer: that women’s quality of life doesn’t
matter enough to prioritise this type of work.
So, the short answer is that I hope this will
take off, but it may be a while before we get
past these biases.When thinking about some of the roles of the
female sexual organs other than reproduction,
animals can teach us a lot, can’t they?
Yes. The real chapter where I got into animals
was the vagina chapter, which was surprising
to me because it started out as a book on the
science of vaginas, so I thought that this would
be a central human chapter. But there was so
little research on what is happening to the
vagina and vulva during different stages of a
person’s life. Really basic stuff wasn’t there, like
the shape and size of most vaginas, or how the
vagina and surrounding organs bounce back
after a vaginal birth. So I resorted to animal
research. I followed an incredible evolutionary
biologist, Patty Brennan, who is illuminating
vaginas throughout the animal kingdom,
starting with ducks and moving on to dolphins
and snakes. Her work sheds a lot of light on
why we have these gaps in knowledge in the
first place, and why scientists have shownhyena clitoris, but there are also bright red,
swollen baboon vulvas and there are clitorises
in really unexpected animals. So, some of
these features are clearly not being shaped by
a reproductive need, by sperm needing to get
to the egg. They are being shaped by other
forces, like pleasure and bonding and same-sex
sexual interactions. Thinking outside the box
about animal genital evolution can spur us to
ask new questions about ourselves.I think, for a lot of people, research on the clitoris
seems almost frivolous. Why does all this matter?
Understanding the anatomy, vasculature
and location of the clitoris is important
for procedures that are really important
to women’s lives. One of them is gender
affirmation surgery. That surgery has really
evolved over time to be more about trans
women’s experience with their own bodies,
rather than just making a hole for penetrative
intercourse. Our new understanding of the
clitoris also shows us that there is this huge
subterranean network of erectile tissues
beneath the surface of the vulva, and that can
be important for those who have experienced
genital cutting – to think of their anatomy as
being whole and interconnected and that they
didn’t necessarily lose something that they felt
they had lost. There is also the advent of
surgical restoration that tries to lift up some of
the buried clitoral tissue and place it back so it
is exposed. This technique relies on knowing
the true anatomy and extent of this organ.
More broadly, having this knowledge can
change your relationship with your body,
which, in turn, changes how you communicate
about your health and body to medical
providers, a sexual partner or friends.I certainly learned a lot about my body, so thanks
for that! Did you learn anything about yourself?
Oh my god, yes. I mentioned that I had a really
obnoxious vaginal infection that was very
uncomfortable. At the time, I had all these
feelings that I would end up encountering in
the book again and again, of shame, and this
frustrating obscurity of my own body, where
even my gynaecologist didn’t know what was
AL going on. I had previously thought that I knew
BE
RT
O^ S
IBA
JA^
RA
MI
RE
Z/A
LA
MY
“ There are so
many fascinating,
wacky types of
female genitals
in animals”
this consistent lack of curiosity about what
the female reproductive tract is doing in
comparison to the male.Right, because there are all these animals
that have weird penises, but no one’s asking
about the vagina.
It’s so simple that it just seems like it can’t be
the reality that nobody thought to look at the
other half, but that’s what Brennan found. For
instance, she was dissecting dolphin vaginas
and she realised they have a huge clitoris
that looks similar to the human clitoris – it
has a similar shape, erectile tissue, large nerves
and appears to be functional and pleasurable
for dolphins. There are so many fascinating,
wacky types of female genitals in the animal
kingdom. Everyone knows about the giantThe vulva is
celebrated during
Spain’s annual
Pride parade
in Madrid