In this video, we're going to be talking about the vagina. So the vagina is the female organ of copulation, and it is essentially a tube that extends from the cervix all the way to the body exterior. The vagina, of course, will provide a pathway for the delivery of an infant as well as the passage of menstrual flow out of the body. If we look down here, we have, just like we've been looking at, our uterus there. Below the cervix, we have the vagina there. So I will label that as our vagina. Alright.
The vaginal wall consists of 3 layers. First up, we have the adventitia, and this is the fibroelastic outer layer. You may have heard the term "adventitia" before. It usually describes the outermost layer of tubular organs, so it's used pretty commonly in anatomy for that. Our next layer is the muscularis, and this is a smooth muscle middle layer that will contract a little bit to help potentially expel a baby during childbirth. Finally, we have the mucosa, which is an inner layer marked with transverse ridges that can help to stimulate the penis.
So if we look over here, we have a kind of zoom-in of the vaginal wall, and we have this layer of advanced tissue that's our fibroelastic tissue, which can help the vagina expand. This is obviously very useful for the birth of a baby, but also for inserting things into the vagina as well. We have that muscular middle layer, and then we have this inner mucosa here. We'll label that as our mucosa. This mucosa is made up of a stratified squamous epithelium, which allows it to stand up to a lot of friction.
Now, the vagina itself does not have any glands but it is lubricated by the cervical mucus glands dripping down into it, as well as mucosal fluid from the vaginal walls. This lubrication tends to be quite acidic, which helps protect the vagina from infections and bacteria. However, it does become much more alkaline during certain parts of the uterine cycle. So, around the time of ovulation, this lubrication becomes much more alkaline, which allows sperm to pass through the vagina unscathed. It also tends to be alkaline in younger females, which is why teenage girls are often more predisposed to getting sexually transmitted infections compared to older females.
Our last part of the anatomy here is the vaginal fornix, which is basically a recess or an arch-like structure toward the upper end of the vaginal canal surrounding the cervix. "Fornix" is a term used in anatomy to usually refer to some kind of arch-like structure. So, you can see the vaginal fornix here and here. It's like a little dip that comes up toward the cervix there. So, we'll label that as the fornix. Alright. That is the anatomy of the vagina, and I will see you guys in our next one. Bye-bye.