When a woman is aroused, she has pleasurable feelings in her genital region. The vagina gets up to wide. It can get bigger with more stimulation. During sexual intercourse, the man's penis is placed in the woman's vagina. The vagina is warm and soft, and it places pressure on the man's penis. That can feel good for both partners and usually makes the man have an orgasm after repeated thrusts. For orgasm in women, the vagina has significantly fewer nerve endings than the clitoris, and therefore rubbing or applying other consistent pressure against the clitoris is usually needed to help the woman have an orgasm. During the man's orgasm, he ejaculates semen from his penis into the vagina. The semen contains sperm. The sperm can move from the vagina into the uterus to fertilize an egg and make a woman pregnant.
The G-spot may be a highly sensitive area near the entrance inside of the human vagina. If stimulated, it leads to a strong orgasm or female ejaculation in some women. Some doctors and researchers who specialize in the anatomy of women believe that the G-spot does not exist, and that if it does exist, it is an extension of the clitoris.
During birth, the vagina acts as a pathway for the baby to leave the mother's body. The vagina is very elastic and stretches to many times its normal diameter during birth.
Sperm needs to be deposited at the top of the vagina near the cervix and fertilize the ovum (egg) if pregnancy is to occur. In a normal childbirth, babies come out through the vagina.
Breast
The breast is an organ on the lower chest region of humans and other primates. Humans have two breasts. Both boys and girls have breasts at birth, but during puberty, the breasts on women become larger and more visible. The breasts have mammary glands that produce milk. Breastfeeding is letting an infant drink breast milk.
Men also have breasts. They are built the same way as those of women, but are much smaller and underdeveloped. Men cannot use their breast for breastfeeding. Their breasts will usually not produce milk, but might become larger and produce milk during some diseases or with some hormonal medical treatments.
Girls develop breasts during puberty due to sex hormones, mainly estrogen.
The appearance and size of the breasts of a woman may vary due to genetic factors, and the amount of fatty and connective tissue. Hormones also play a role.
Estrogen promotes the growth of mammary glands and ducts, while progesterone induces milk-producing cells to develop. Prolactin and oxytocin stimulate milk production. Oxytocin also causes milk to be spurted from a lactating breast.
The two breasts usually are not equal in size — one may be larger than the other, but this is common.
During menopause, as levels of estrogen decrease, tissue in the breasts reduce as well, and the breasts may start sagging. A study showed that breastfeeding does not cause sagging. Factors that do influence sagging are the size of the breast (before the first pregnancy), number of pregnancies, body mass index, smoking, and age.
The center of the breast is the nipple. The areola is a circular area around the nipple. The breast contains mammary glands. Each breast has 15 to 20 milk ducts. Ducts carry the milk produced by these glands to the nipples. After a woman has a baby, her breasts undergo lactation — the production of natural milk.
Feeding babies milk is called breastfeeding or "nursing".
The breasts of a woman also play a role in human sexual behavior. They are one of the most visible or obvious female secondary sex characteristics. They play an important role in sexual attraction of partners. They can also give pleasure to the individual. When sexually stimulated, the size of the breasts increases, venous patterns across the breasts become more visible, and nipples grow harder. During sexual intercourse, it is common practice to press or massage breasts with hands. Breasts are sensitive to touch as they have many nerve endings. Oral stimulation of nipples and breasts is also common. Some women can achieve "breast orgasms". In the ancient Indian work the "Kama Sutra", marking breasts with nails and biting with teeth are explained as erotic.
Pregnancy
Pregnancy is when a female mammal has an unborn baby inside her. During pregnancy, a female is called "pregnant". A human pregnancy is about 38 weeks long, from conception to childbirth. Usually the mother has one baby at a time. Sometimes the mother has two babies at one time. Two babies are called twins. The mother can have three or more babies at one time. This does not happen very often in humans.
Pregnancy usually starts after a woman has sexual intercourse with a man. Her ovum (or egg) and his sperm (seed) come together and form a zygote (fertilized egg) inside her.
Some people have trouble becoming pregnant. This is called "infertility". Women and men with infertility may take drugs or have surgery to help a pregnancy start. Some people use treatments that are not natural, like in vitro fertilization, to become pregnant with the help of a doctor.
When the woman's egg and the man's seed come together, it makes one cell called a "zygote". The zygote grows into an embryo, which grows into a fetus. When the fetus is ready, the baby is born.
Human pregnancy is divided into three parts called "trimesters". A trimester is about three months long. During the first trimester, the woman might feel ill in her stomach. She might have to urinate often. During the second trimester, the woman's abdomen starts to stick out. During the third trimester, her abdomen sticks out even more, and she becomes even heavier.
At the end of a full pregnancy, the woman's body pushes the baby out through her vagina. This is called "delivering a baby" or "giving birth". Mothers can get help for birth from a midwife, nurse, or doctor. In some places, mothers give birth at home. In other places, mothers give birth in a hospital. Mothers who are ill or hurt may need to go to a hospital.
Giving birth can hurt a lot at the end. In hospitals, a doctor or midwife can give drugs to the mother to reduce the pain.
If the baby cannot be pushed out, then a doctor can cut the mother open to take the baby out. This operation is called a Caesarean section.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women says that pregnant women must be given time away from work or equal welfare for her baby without losing her job (Article 11).
Sometimes there are problems with pregnancies. A miscarriage (spontaneous abortion) is when the baby dies before it is born. A stillbirth is when the baby is dead when it is born. There are also diseases caused by pregnancy.
Sometimes, women die from giving birth. In developed countries, this is much less common than it used to be. Every year, about 500,000 women die from giving birth, while about 7,000,000 mothers have big problems from giving birth. For example, giving birth can tear the mother's body and cause an obstetric fistula.
A pregnancy can also stop without the baby being born. This is called abortion. Doctors can do things that will stop a pregnancy. Such an abortion is called "induced abortion". Countries have different laws about induced abortions. Some countries allow it, and others do not. In some countries, it is allowed, but only for certain reasons, such as the pregnancy resulting from rape, or a doctor saying that the pregnant woman might die if the pregnancy is not stopped. People also have different opinions about abortion. Often, these are influenced by religious beliefs.
There are a few diseases that can kill a woman or make her very ill if she has a baby. Having abortions could save the lives or health of these mothers.
A pregnancy test is something that women use to tell whether they are pregnant. The woman urinates on the stick. If the woman is pregnant, a plus sign or two lines will appear on the stick. If the woman is not pregnant, then a minus sign or one line will appear on the stick.