Question: I am new and enjoy your website. I have a question that I have been worrying about. One day I took a mirror and look at my vulva and from some pictures I seen on this website, where the urinary opening is I do not urinate out that area, I urinate out the vaginal opening. Is this normal?
Answer:
The urinary opening is located very close to the vaginal opening and is closer
to it in some women than others. More so than the the illustrations on my
website reveal. On the website I do not have any photos that clearly show the
urethra being directly above the vaginal opening, at least not clearly. Keep in
mind the urethral passage is actually contained within the vaginal wall, it is
not a distinct anatomical structure. This is mentioned on the page about female
ejaculation. It is not unusual for the area around the urethral orifices to
be irregular shaped with skin tags and bumps. The urethral opening may be
concealed within these and be very small.
I would recommend climbing into the bathtub sometime when you need to urinate,
with a hand mirror, squat down so you can see your vulva clearly while holding
your labia open, and urinate while watching where the urine exists your body.
Simply rinse the tub when you are done, as long as you are healthy your urine is
not harmful. You may have to do this slowly a couple times to figure everything
out, it can be confusing and hard to see.
If urine is actually flowing out of the vagina it may indicate the presence of a Urethrovaginal fistula or Vesicovaginal fistula, an abnormal passage between the urethra or bladder and vagina.