- Measuring my vulva.
First off, need to find my urethra.
My vulva looks a bit different to this vulva.
Easy, easy. Oh, I really should have trimmed the pubes.
This is not gonna be very scientific.
Ah! No!
I need a breather.
Oh my God, I just peed.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to my channel.
So, today, we're doing a bit of an experiment.
And I'm going to be trying to measure my vulva.
And all of the different little things
going on down there.
That's right.
Pants off, tape measure.
Mirror.
Vulva measuring.
This video was inspired by a chapter in a book that I read
a few years ago, called "Bonk: The Curious Coupling
"of Sex and Science" by Mary Roach.
And there's a chapter in it called
"The Princess and Her Pee, the Woman Who Moved Her Clitoris
"and Other Ruminations on Intercourse Orgasms."
So this princess in question is Marie Bonaparte,
and in the 1920s, she did some very serious
scientific study.
Because she was pretty miffed that she couldn't orgasm
through penetrative intercourse.
And she had a theory as to why,
which had something to do with the distance
between her clitoris and her urethra.
So Marie Bonaparte's clitoris was three centimetres away
from her urethra.
But you can't just have one,
so she did a whole study
and she measured 243 women's vulvas.
She also interviewed some of them
and asked if they had a normal reaction during intercourse.
Which is actually quite sad,
because I think that she just thought
that she was really broken,
because she thought that having an orgasm
during vaginal penetration was a normal response.
And Marie Bonaparte actually ended up having surgery
to move her clitoris closer,
and was apparently disappointed with the results.
But in this paper that she published in 1924,
so almost a hundred years ago,
she split her participants into three separate categories.
So the first category was the longest distance,
and this was over 2.5 centimetres,
and this accounted for 21% of her participants.
And these people claimed that they were incapable
of orgasm during penetrative intercourse.
Next is the shortest distance,
and this was under 2.5 centimetres,
and this accounted for 69% of her participants.
And these people were almost guaranteed orgasm
during penetrative intercourse.
However, as Mary Roach notes in "Bonk,"
this isn't the same as modern data that we have,
that says that around 20 to 30% of CIS women
can orgasm from penetration alone.
And Marie Bonaparte's final category
was the people whose distance was 2.5 centimetres exactly,
and this was 10% of her participants,
and these people could go either way.
It was context dependent whether or not they could orgasm
through penetrative intercourse.
So this distance between the clitoris and the urethra
is called the clitoral urinary meatus distance.
Or as I'm going to refer to it as CUMD.
But the real question and purpose of this video
is how big is my CUMD?
Which category am I in
and does this correlation hold up for me?
So I think that I am in that context dependent category.
Because for most of my sexual life,
couldn't orgasm from penetration alone.
But in recent years, I have,
and I can count the occasions on one hand.
Although, now that I'm thinking about it,
I don't think it was ever a penis.
I think it's like hands and toys.
Mm, so maybe I'm in that first category.
But we are not stopping there,
because we are measuring more than just my CUMD.
A UK study from 2005 documented the variation
in size and shape of different vulva features.
There were 50 participants,
women between the age of 18 and 50.
There was no info about whether these women
were CIS or trans, so I'm just assuming
that they were all CIS women.
The average age was 35 and a half.
37 of the women were white.
Five were asian, six were black.
One Latin American and one mixed-race.
Three of them had never been sexually active,
whatever that means.
29 had not given birth.
18 had given birth.
And 11 of them were on some kind of hormones
like the contraceptive pill.
What they found was that there was
no statistically significant association
between any genital measurement and their age,
ethnicity, whether they'd given birth or not,
hormone use, or sexual history.
I am also going to measure
all the different parts of my vulva
that they measured in this study and compare.
So here is my very basic drawing of a vulva.
I think it needs some pubes.
And I'm gonna give it a bit of a tinge
of the ginge in the minge.
If you know what I'm saying.
So they measured clitoral length.
So
that would be
here.
And the range was five to 35 millimetres.
They measured clitoral width.
And this was three to 10
millimetres.
This is gonna be chaos.
They also measured the CUMD.
So clit to urethra, woop.
And this ranged from 16 to 45 millimetres.
Next we have the outer labia length.
So from here, whooo.
Down to here.
And we're in centimetres now,
the range here was seven to 12
centimetres.
Then, our inner labia length,
which is
here, errrrrrr,
to here.
This is chaos.
And we're back to millimetres apparently,
and the range here was 20 to a hundred.
Next.
They measured the inner labia width.
Here to about here.
Which ranged from seven to 50.
Millimetres.
Boop.
And finally, perineum length.
So that is from here to your butthole.
Boop.
And the range here was 15 to 55 millimetres.
Can you see this?
Be right back, while I make this a bit clearer.
I hope that's a bit clearer,
but now, on to the thing
that you probably actually clicked on this video to see.
Measuring my vulva.
So, I've got no knickers on.
I've got a mirror in front of me.
I can see my vulva.
I have got clean hands.
I have a notepad and a pen with me
to write down my measurements.
I have my tape measure.
And I have this diagram in front of me.
There's a picture of a vulva
and all of the lines of like, where they measured.
However, my vulva looks a bit different to this vulva.
And I'm like, I'm gonna need to like,
spread it out, you know?
In order to like, even see stuff.
Like, it looks like someone is like,
pulling on this, but then obviously,
if you pull on things, then it changes the measurements.
I don't know, this is not gonna be very scientific.
This is just going to be whatever I can do.
Let's start easy.
Is it easy? I really should have trimmed the pubes.
'Cause they are getting in the way.
Let's do, first up, clitoral length.
'Cause that I can see.
So I'm just gonna go from like,
basically, where I can feel like,
erection tissue, basically.
So like, from the top to the glans.
Like, to the head.
That's what I'm going to do.
Here to here.
Come on.
Ah! No!
So you know this bit of metal on the end?
Just got a pube stuck in it.
Right, it's basically over two centimetres.
Clitoris is 22 millimetres long.
Fantastic.
Next.
Clitoral glans width.
Okay, so, how wide are you?
Do we just go its widest point?
I don't know which bit of it I'm meant to measure,
but whatever, 10 millimetres.
So clitoris to urethra, this is the big one.
This is the one where we're like,
"Can I orgasm through penetration?"
Is it penetration alone,
or like penetration at all?
I don't know.
Okay, first off, need to find my urethra.
Oh my God, my legs are already hurting.
Just give them a stretch.
Things are in the way.
I think I need to do the like, legs out situation like this.
Right, but now I'm using both of my hands
to balance myself.
We're gonna have to engage the abs.
Engage the core! Oh my God!
Legs, abs engaged.
I wasn't expecting this to be a workout.
Honestly do not know where the fuck is it?
Oh my God, I just peed!
Where did I pee from?
Ooh, I found it.
Hello friend.
Oh wow, my urethra is like right on top of my vagina.
That is so close.
That is ridiculous.
How I never noticed this before?
Oh my God, my legs. I need a breather.
Fuck it, the only way that I can see the end of my
clit and my urethra at the same time
is by pulling on everything.
I think about three centimetres.
But that's with it all stretched.
See if I can stretch it width ways but not length ways.
So that I can get like, a good measurement.
See, that's more like two now.
Shall we just say two and a half? Fuck it.
Right, more to go. Next.
The outer lips length.
So according to my image,
this is measured from the top of the clitoris,
the like, top of where like,
your erectile tissue begins,
all the way to
the beginning of the perineum,
so like, below the vagina.
I can like, this one's gonna be easy.
I can see.
Six centimetres.
Right, and then, inner lips length.
So this one looks like it's like,
from the head of the clitoris
instead of like, the top bit of the clitoris.
To just under the vagina.
But I think I should be able to see where the lips
begin and end.
But again, like, all scrunched up like this,
two centimetres.
Maybe.
Let's try and do clit urethra again.
It's basically, like, the same.
Yeah, clit urethra is like two and a half centimetres.
And then it's just like, a bit further.
That's like three, okay. Three.
Now, inner lips width.
Which I actually, I don't know what
their situation is.
It looks like it's just kind of from
the edge of the lip into like, the middle bit
where everything is.
But what I want to do, so this might not be
what this is at all,
is I wanna measure each of my inner labia separately.
Because one is really long.
And so actually, that's what I want to measure.
That's what I'm curious.
And I'm gonna stretch it.
So this part isn't the same as the study,
but this is just for my own curiosity.
So, it's my left one, it would seem, that is the long one.
Ooh, what's happening?
So you are about two and a half centimetres.
The left one,
our long friend,
ooh, like, five.
Maybe not five, maybe more like four.
Yeah. Four.
Almost double.
Right, then, finally, oh my god, we've made it.
Perineum length.
So, this is, do I need to find my bum hole?
Luckily, my bum hole is out of use.
That is, I think about, two centimetres.
20 millimetres.
I did it.
I'm gonna go wash my hands.
Wasn't that fun?
So, let's see what the situation is.
My clitoral length was 22 millimetres.
I mean, in the middle.
Bam.
The average of the people in the study was 19.1.
So I'm a bit above average in my clitoral length,
but who knows if I was even measuring it correctly at all?
Next up, the clitoral glans width.
The average of this was 5.5 millimetres.
I measured 10.
Which is at the upper range here.
So, big clit gal is what conclusion I'm drawing from this.
Right, next, my CUMD. The CUMD.
I actually measured two and a half centimetres,
so 25 millimetres, which is smack bang in the middle
of Marie Bonaparte's study.
The average in this study was 28 and a half.
So here I am with my 25.
But as you saw,
measuring that was not the easiest thing in the world,
so who knows if this is even accurate?
Next, we have the outer lips length.
Woosh.
The average in the study was 9.3 centimetres,
and I was a 6.5.
Whoa! But the range started at seven.
Do I have a really small vulva?
Or am I just measuring incorrectly?
We're putting it on there.
6.5.
Small vulva, big clit.
Yeah.
Next was the inner labia length
and the average was 60.6 millimetres.
And I was 30 millimetres.
So actually, more evidence for the fact
that I've just got a small vulva.
I am a small person though, so perhaps.
Where are we? Here.
So I am 30.
♪ I'm turning 30 ♪
Okay, next, the fun bit.
How do my inner flaps do in terms of their width?
So the average here was 28.1 millimetres.
My left one, the shortie, was 25 millimetres.
Boom.
And then my long one was 40 millimetres.
Oh yeah.
So one is average, and one is on the longer end.
What a good time.
And finally, that sweet, sweet perineum.
That gooch, baby.
The average was 31.3 millimetres,
and mine was 20 millimetres.
Again, with that like, small, compact vulva area.
Just a thought, a theory, a hypothesis.
Because I've got a smallish vulva,
maybe that is why it was difficult
for me to measure everything.
Because it's all so compact.
It's like, compact, everything is hidden away,
and then flaps, just like poking out the middle,
just like, getting in the way of everything.
But there we have it.
Not to scale. My vulva.
Oh, what a good time.
So my CUMD measurement puts me smack bang in the middle
of Marie Bonaparte's study,
where it is context dependent whether or not
I can orgasm through intercourse.
Which is kind of true.
However, I feel like I have the potential to,
I feel like I have the capacity.
But I haven't unlocked that part of myself yet.
Do you know, there's just like,
more sexual evolving to do.
I haven't reached my final form.
But I feel like the potential
to reliably orgasm through intercourse
is there for me.
Just not quite got there yet, but it's fine.
It's fine, we got time.
But obviously, Marie Bonaparte's study
was done in the 1920s.
However, Professor Kim Wallan did a study in 2010
to see if her findings stood up
against modern statistical analysis.
So he took her raw data
and he took some other raw data from a 1940 study
at the Kinsi Institute,
and took a look.
Does her theory hold up?
And it turns out, it did.
There was a strong correlation
that the shorter the CUMD,
there was a greater likelihood
of being able to orgasm during intercourse.
However, CUMD did not matter
in terms of orgasm during masturbation.
However, I have more questions about that,
because is that through only penetrative masturbation?
Or like, penetrative and clit?
Or just clit?
Like, what kind of masturbation are we talking about here?
But why?
Why does a shorter CUMD mean
that you are more likely to orgasm through intercourse?
Well, there are some hypotheses as to why.
A shorter distance means that you're more likely
to get direct penis clitoris contact during penetration,
and a shorter CUMD might also indicate
that the internal clitoris is pressed up
more closely against the vagina.
So there we have it, I hope you enjoyed this video.
I hope you enjoyed this mess.
If you are going to measure your own vulva at home,
I would highly recommend trimming your nails beforehand.
Thanks for watching, and thanks so much for my Patrons
for making these videos possible.
And I'll see you in the next one.
Bye!
(upbeat music)