These are photos from a 35 year old woman who has had four vaginal births (the last child was born 11 years ago). The couple is trying to conceive a fifth child, so they took the photos because it helps them to determine when she is ovulating.
You can see that her os (opening to the cervix) is a slit shape, which is how the muscle resumes after having dilated during her vaginal births. Also, the diameter of her cervix is larger than of a woman’s who has never given birth.
Her average cycle is 30 to 31 days with a 14 day luteal phase. In this cycle, she ovulated on day 17. Below are a few photos of her cervix; the day number is below each photo.
Day 14
Day 16
One day before ovulation
Notice os is open and cervical fluid looks gelatinous/fertile
Day 19
Two days post-ovulation
Day 23
Seven days post-ovulation
Os closed
Was this person gregnant when the final photo was taken???
Comment by Interested — April 4, 2009 @ 7:13 pm
No, she did not conceive this cycle.
Comment by beautifulcervix — April 5, 2009 @ 8:15 am
This is to congratulate your bold initiative which will be of tremendous use to the research community. Wish you all the best and hope you will succeed in your future such endeavours
Comment by Chandra Mohan — April 7, 2009 @ 7:14 am
Hi,
I found your website because I am trying to understand my cycle more as we are trying to start a family. I’ve seen my cervix a few times while getting colposcopies (I have cervical dysplasia), and noticed the slit shape of my os. I’ve never had children before, saw the pics of the woman who has had 4 vaginal births, and thought you may be interested to know the slit shape of my os. Great website, I wish you luck in all you do.
Comment by ea — May 9, 2009 @ 10:46 am
I would like to see a picture of a woman on her ovulation day. I will be ttc starting in Sept. and have picked up on the discharge clues but would like to witness ovulation.
Comment by ttc09 — May 18, 2009 @ 10:28 am
This is very informative! I’d love to see some pictures of a pregnant woman’s cervix, in the end stages. I am currently 33 weeks along and am wondering what a closed cervix versus a dilating cervix looks like.
Thanks for all your work
Comment by Amber — May 24, 2009 @ 9:53 pm
Hi,
Great website. I was recently told I had LSIL w/ positive HPV. I’ve been looking for pictures and info regarding the two. I wanted to know what are the dark red areas around her OS? According to the pictures mine should look like that.
Comment by Arizona — June 19, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
What type of photographic equipment did you use, its source and how much did it cost?
Thank You.
Comment by Gary Wayne Garcia — July 22, 2009 @ 2:23 pm
It would be great if you studied a cycle of a person who is trying to get pregnant. And show what the cervix and cervical mucous looks like when the person does conceive
Comment by natasha Glenn — July 24, 2009 @ 10:57 am
We used a digital point-and-shoot Cannon powershot SD900. But any digital camera with a good macro function would work fine.
Comment by beautifulcervix — July 26, 2009 @ 9:53 am
I’ve just experienced postcoital bleeding at nearly it’s worst. My gynocologist found the vaginal tear underneath my cervix and stitched it closed. Three days later, I started bleeding to where most of my time was spent on the toilet. It took a trip to the ER (via ambulance) to stop the bleeding and add more stitches. I would really like to see photos of this nature just so I (as well as other women) could see what bleeding during sexual intercourse could result in.
Comment by Rayne' McCoy — September 1, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
[...] you MUST check out The Beautiful Cervix Project created by a student midwife. This is an ode to being a woman, where cervixes aren’t objects [...]
Pingback by Love your cervix | Pregnancy News — October 26, 2009 @ 6:14 pm
hey great site i can use this when it come time to have the talk with my one year one in 9 years… i have a iud the merina it was neat to see a cervics in color with an iud… you should get some pictures of cervics with cervical cancer or the hpv spots… that would be helpful for me been diganosed since june of 2008 when i was 6 months pregnant had three copos since then have another coming up in feb… well let me know and good luck on your site this is great.
Comment by alexandria — November 7, 2009 @ 2:11 am
Wow, what a great reference guide to women like me who even after 3 vaginal births have really not given much thought to my cervix until now, as I have had LEEP procedure (CIN III) recently and the little sketch the doc. draws prior was not very informative at all. I too would like to see images of a HPV infected or Cancerous Cervix. Thanks very much.
Comment by Danni — November 30, 2009 @ 1:46 am
To Arizona,
The dark red area is a normal occurrence in older women/women who’ve had babies. The type of cells inside the cervix is different than those on the outside. In this woman, you can just see some of the inside type. Perfectly normal!
Comment by Kelsey — December 5, 2009 @ 1:45 pm