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Home › Articles › Your Body › At Your Cervix

At Your Cervix

A Lifetime of Cervical Health

By Shel Franco

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"Your cervix is so beautiful! It's purple. Do you want to see?" my midwife, Ann, asked with a smile.

See? How in the world could I see my cervix? I humored her and nodded my head.

Ann handed me a mirror, and she proceeded to coach me through the process of viewing my own cervix. It was ... interesting – a little bit more than I ever imagined knowing about my own body.

Five years later, I'm glad for that experience. After all, a small army has been looking and poking at my cervix for years. Why shouldn't I be included in that group?

Cervical health is important and not just in pregnant women. Don't you think it's about time you learned a thing or two about your cervix?

Preconception
According to Dr. Adelaide G. Nardone, OB/GYN and medical advisor to the Vagisil Women's Health Center (www.Vagisil.com), the cervix is part of the female reproductive system and is sometimes referred to as the "neck" of the uterus. "One of its functions is to provide an alkaline secretion favorable for sperm penetration," she says. "At the time of ovulation and or conception there are usually copious amounts of the 'sperm friendly' mucus at the cervix. It allows the sperm to 'swim' on up to the uterus and fallopian tubes so that they can meet up with the released egg."

If you looked at your non-pregnant cervix, it would probably resemble a rounded quarter. With a little effort, you might be able to see a hole or a slit in the middle. This is called the "os," and it is through this hole that sperm and menstrual fluid pass.

"In a [cervix which has never been through childbirth], the external opening or os is small and round," says Dr. Nardone. "It looks something like a doughnut with a tiny hole in the middle. After a vaginal birth this opening becomes a transverse slit and is referred to as a parous os."

Your non-pregnant cervix would most likely be pinkish in color. Its texture would vary.

Women who are actively trying to conceive often check their cervix and their cervical mucus for signs of fertility. Mucus that is clear, sticky and stretchy is considered "fertile mucus."

"I feel more in control of my health and more comfortable with my fertility since I started tracking my cervical changes," says Laurie Schultz* of San Jose, Calif. With the help of her partner, a speculum, a mirror and a flashlight, Schultz charts her cervical changes each month.

"It is so interesting that my cervix has moved around all this time without me knowing it," she says. "It opens, closes, changes colors and moves closer or further away. It's wild, and it tells me so much. Before, I really didn't know that anything was going on there. I discovered that I have little bumps on my cervix that come and go that are totally normal. I like that I know what IS normal for my body and that allows me to track ovulation."

Pregnancy

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