What Doctors Discovered After Measuring The Vaginas Of 650 Women

Along with all the other body parts that women are made to feel self-conscious about, one of the more personal problems is a concern that their vagina doesn’t look quite right. 

An investigation undertaken in Switzerland has now put forward some interesting results, and with the sudden increase of women undergoing labiaplasty operations, it’s now more crucial than ever to reassure people that their body parts are totally normal.

Now get checking out how well people know their way around a uterus... 

Between August 2015 and April 2017, a team of doctors assessed 657 women who visited their outpatient clinic at the Cantonal Hospital Lucerne, and their research was then published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

One thing to note before we get into statistics is that all the women who took part in the study were white, with gynaecologist Dr Inês Vaz telling Refinery 29 that this is because "we don't have many women of colour in Switzerland, so we were unable to perform such a [diverse] study." 

The average labia minor measured at 4.3cm long, with the lengths ranging from 5mm to 10cm. The average length of the labia minor was 8cm long, with another large discrepancy in measurements from 1.2cm to 18cm.

As for the clitoris, the average measurement came through at 7mm in length, although some women had measurements as small as 0.5mm and others as large as 3.5cm. 

What’s important to remember is that none of the women in the study were deemed to have abnormal vaginas, despite the marked differences in their measurements.

Dr Vaz revealed that she hopes this study will encourage women to accept their body parts: “Being asymmetrical is normal, each vulva is different," she said. "The concept of 'big' and 'small' was created by the media. Women should think twice before they categorise themselves as 'abnormal'."