21 May 2022 | New Scientist | 45to some anatomists instead. The answer I
got from Helen O’Connell, the researcher
who had specifically asked whether this was
a unique anatomical structure, was that yes,
there is a sensitive area in the zone that is
sometimes referred to as the G spot. But it’s
not a magic button, it’s the root of the clitoris,
where the bulbs and the arms combine and
wrap around the urethra and the front wall
of the vagina. There’s a lot of sensitive erectile
tissue there, and so for some people, it may
be associated with a different or more intense
sensation. Sorry if that takes away some of
the mystery, but, surprise! It’s just the clitoris.What is the most amazing thing that you have
discovered through your research?
My biggest wow was that there was more than
a decade of research finding that ovaries may
have the ability to make new eggs throughout
a lifetime. That completely went against
everything I was ever taught in reproductive
biology and just sounded so far-fetched.
I ended up spending a couple of years
looking into that research, spending time
in the lab where it was happening and looking
at the wild controversy swirling over it all, and
I came away understanding that there are
stem cells and regeneration in almost every
part of the body. That’s happening in the
ovaries as well. We don’t yet know to what
extent or exactly what these stem cells are
doing, but it seems absurd to assume that
human beings are one of the few animals
in which females don’t make new germ
cells, when we have found that it is almost
certainly happening in mice and fruit flies
and other species.
It might not have any immediate health
effect on me, a 33-year-old woman, but it
changed the way I relate to my body and
made me think of my ovaries less as
degenerating organs that “fail”, but as
hotbeds of regeneration and resilience.
And that makes me happy. ❚I go into the origins of thinking of the egg
as a passive damsel in distress and sperm as
the explorer, or how the vagina is considered
this passive organ and the penis as the active
component. So, once you know that those
biases exist, I think you can work to combat
them when introducing them.
There’s also always been a lot of mystery
around menstruation. If someone had talked
to me about the amazing science that was
happening in my body and why, I think I would
have felt a lot more empowered instead of
afraid. It’s not just blood, it’s stem cells and
immune cells and this amazing collection
of regenerative cells of the uterus, that are
like leaves on a tree that are supposed to fall
every season and then come back.I feel like I have to ask about the G spot because
some of New Scientist’s most popular articles
of all time are about it. Why are people so
obsessed with it?
I’d been told about the G spot in all these
women’s magazines, but it never felt true
to what I knew about my body. So I spokeISA
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a good amount about vaginas and vulvas, but
discovered I had no idea what was happening
in my own body. So that really got me into
the burgeoning world of vaginal microbiome
science, and that totally changed the way that
I think about my genitals. I love to think of it
as this microscopic world happening down
there, and that it’s working to keep me in
balance and keep me healthy. And I want to
protect it. So it gave me the sense of wonder
about my own body, whereas previously
the messages I was getting from society and
medicine were of shame, disgust and stigma.How do we change these messages, especially
for young women?
I think the first step for me was becoming
aware of those biases, because many of us
have that internalised shame and feelings
of dirtiness. But where does it come from?
Perhaps it is the way that we frame sex
education for girls, which is currently
more about how to avoid getting pregnant
or getting diseases, whereas for boys we talk
about pleasure and sexuality. In the book,Catherine de Lange is magazine
editor at New ScientistA visitor inspects
a display at the
Vagina Museum
in LondonNew Scientist audio
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