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What happens to your vagina as you age?

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/louie-ye-1465100">Louie Ye</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/martha-hickey-551323">Martha Hickey</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a> The vagina is an internal organ with a complex ecosystem, influenced by circulating hormone levels which change during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause. Around and after menopause, there are normal changes in the growth and function of vaginal cells, as well as the vagina’s microbiome (groups of bacteria living in the vagina). Many women won’t notice these changes. They don’t usually cause symptoms or concern, but if they do, symptoms can usually be managed. Here’s what happens to your vagina as you age, whether you notice or not. <h2>Let’s clear up the terminology</h2> We’re focusing on the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545147/">vagina</a>, the muscular tube that goes from the external genitalia (the vulva), past the cervix, to the womb (uterus). Sometimes the word “vagina” is used to include the external genitalia. However, these are different organs and play different roles in women’s health. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565381/original/file-20231213-17-grlu25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565381/original/file-20231213-17-grlu25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565381/original/file-20231213-17-grlu25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565381/original/file-20231213-17-grlu25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565381/original/file-20231213-17-grlu25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565381/original/file-20231213-17-grlu25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565381/original/file-20231213-17-grlu25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565381/original/file-20231213-17-grlu25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Diagram of female reproductive system including the vagina" /></a><figcaption>We’re talking about the internal organ, the vagina. <a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/female-reproductive-system-image-diagram-243154639">Suwin66/Shutterstock</a></figcaption></figure> <h2>What happens to the vagina as you age?</h2> Like many other organs in the body, the vagina is sensitive to female sex steroid hormones (hormones) that change around puberty, pregnancy and menopause. Menopause is associated with a drop in circulating oestrogen concentrations and the hormone progesterone is no longer produced. The changes in hormones affect the vagina and its ecosystem. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK564341/">Effects</a> may include: <ul> <li>less vaginal secretions, potentially leading to dryness</li> <li>less growth of vagina surface cells resulting in a thinned lining</li> <li>alteration to the support structure (connective tissue) around the vagina leading to less elasticity and more narrowing</li> <li>fewer blood vessels around the vagina, which <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2989746/">may explain</a> less blood flow after menopause</li> <li>a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-022-01083-2">shift</a> in the type and balance of bacteria, which can change vaginal acidity, from more acidic to more alkaline.</li> </ul> <h2>What symptoms can I expect?</h2> Many women do not notice any bothersome vaginal changes as they age. There’s also little evidence many of these changes cause vaginal symptoms. For example, there is no direct evidence these changes cause vaginal infection or bleeding in menopausal women. Some women notice vaginal dryness after menopause, which may be linked to less vaginal secretions. This may lead to pain and discomfort during sex. But it’s not clear how much of this dryness is due to menopause, as younger women also commonly report it. In <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6136974/pdf/nihms957122.pdf">one study</a>, 47% of sexually active postmenopausal women reported vaginal dryness, as did around 20% of premenopausal women. Other organs close to the vagina, such as the bladder and urethra, are also affected by the change in hormone levels after menopause. Some women experience recurrent urinary tract infections, which may cause pain (including pain to the side of the body) and irritation. So their symptoms are in fact not coming from the vagina itself but relate to changes in the urinary tract. <h2>Not everyone has the same experience</h2> Women vary in whether they notice vaginal changes and whether they <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/research/vitalmeno">are bothered</a> by these to the same extent. For example, women with vaginal dryness who are not sexually active may not notice the change in vaginal secretions after menopause. However, some women notice severe dryness that affects their daily function and activities. In fact, <a href="https://www.imsociety.org/2021/06/21/a-core-outcome-set-for-vasomotor-symptoms-associated-with-menopause-the-comma-core-outcomes-in-menopause-global-initiative/">researchers globally</a> are taking more notice of women’s experiences of menopause to inform future research. This includes prioritising symptoms that matter to women the most, such as vaginal dryness, discomfort, irritation and pain during sex. <h2>If symptoms bother you</h2> Symptoms such as dryness, irritation, or pain during sex can usually be effectively managed. Lubricants may reduce pain during sex. Vaginal moisturisers may reduce dryness. Both are available over-the-counter at your local pharmacy. While there are many small clinical trials of individual products, these studies <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8942543/">lack the power</a> to demonstrate if they are really effective in improving vaginal symptoms. In contrast, there is robust evidence that vaginal oestrogen is <a href="https://www.cochrane.org/CD001500/MENSTR_use-postmenopausal-women-creams-pessaries-or-vaginal-ring-apply-oestrogen-vaginally-symptoms-vaginal">effective</a> in treating vaginal dryness and reducing pain during sex. It also <a href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD005131.pub2/full">reduces</a> your chance of recurrent urinary tract infections. You can talk to your doctor about a prescription. Vaginal oestrogen is usually inserted using an applicator, two to three times a week. Very little is absorbed into the blood stream, it is <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31913230/">generally safe</a> but longer-term trials are required to confirm safety in long-term use beyond a year. Women with a <a href="https://www.menopause.org.au/hp/position-statements/the-use-of-vaginal-estrogen-in-women-with-a-history-of-estrogen-dependent-breast-cancer">history of breast cancer</a> should see their oncologist to discuss using oestrogen as it may not be suitable for them. <h2>Are there other treatments?</h2> New treatments for vaginal dryness are under investigation. One avenue relates to our growing understanding of how the vaginal microbiome adapts and modifies around changes in circulating and local concentrations of hormones. For example, a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29381086">small number of reports</a> show that combining vaginal probiotics with low-dose vaginal oestrogen can improve vaginal symptoms. But more evidence is needed before this is recommended. <h2>Where to from here?</h2> The normal ageing process, as well as menopause, both affect the vagina as we age. Most women do not have troublesome vaginal symptoms during and after menopause, but for some, these may cause discomfort or distress. While hormonal treatments such as vaginal oestrogen are available, there is a pressing need for more non-hormonal treatments. <hr /> Dr Sianan Healy, from Women’s Health Victoria, contributed to this article.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212198/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/louie-ye-1465100">Louie Ye</a>, Clinical Fellow, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/martha-hickey-551323">Martha Hickey</a>, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722">The University of Melbourne</a> Image credits: Shutterstock This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-to-your-vagina-as-you-age-212198">original article</a>.

Body

How do human eggs stay dormant and reproductively healthy for decades in the ovaries?

Human eggs form before birth and can remain reproductively viable for up to 50 years before they are fertilised. But how can they remain dormant and healthy in the ovaries for so long? According to a new study published in Nature, the answer lies in their altered metabolic activity – skipping the use of a key protein and enzyme complex (respiratory complex I). To generate energy in their dormant state and avoid creating harmful molecules that can damage DNA and cause cell death, human eggs instead use alternative metabolic pathways never before seen in other animal cell types. “Humans are born with all the supply of egg cells they have in life. As humans are also the longest-lived terrestrial mammal, egg cells have to maintain pristine conditions while avoiding decades of wear-and-tear,” explains lead author Aida Rodriguez-Nuevo, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Spain. “We show this problem is solved by skipping a fundamental metabolic reaction that is also the main source of damage for the cell. As a long-term maintenance strategy, it’s like putting batteries on standby mode,” she adds. “This represents a brand new paradigm never before seen in animal cells.” <h2>Altered metabolism in oocytes</h2> Human eggs first form in the ovaries during foetal development. During the early stages of maturation, immature egg cells (known as oocytes) are put into cellular arrest and can remain dormant for decades. During this period, the oocyte’s mitochondria – kind of like the batteries of the cell – still generate just enough energy to fulfill the cell’s needs. To investigate how they do this, researchers used a combination of live imaging and proteomic (large-scale study of proteins) and biochemistry techniques to investigate this energy generation in human and Xenopus (aquatic frog) oocytes. Interestingly, they found that the oocytes do not use a fundamental protein, known as complex I, that initiates the reactions that generate energy in the mitochondria of most other cells. In fact, complex I is virtually absent in oocytes. This allows oocytes to avoid creating molecules known as reactive oxygen species (ROS) – molecules containing oxygen that readily react with other chemicals. ROS are normal by-products of cellular metabolism but are harmful when they accumulate, damaging the normal function of DNA, proteins, and other cellular components, and eventually causing cell death. They are also associated with lower rates of fertilisation and embryo survival. Live imaging showed that neither Xenopus nor human early oocytes showed any detectable ROS signal. <h2>Implications for preserving ovarian reserves</h2> According to the authors of the study, this finding explains why some individuals with mitochondrial conditions linked to complex I don’t experience reduced fertility, compared to those with conditions affecting other mitochondrial respiratory complexes. This finding could also lead to new strategies to help preserve the human egg cell reserves of patients undergoing cancer treatment. “Complex I inhibitors have previously been proposed as a cancer treatment. If these inhibitors show promise in future studies, they could potentially target cancerous cells while sparing oocytes,” explains senior author Dr Elvan Böke, group leader in the Cell & Developmental Biology program at the CRG. The team plan to continue this research to discover the exact energy source that human egg cells use instead of complex I. “One in four cases of female infertility are unexplained – pointing to a huge gap of knowledge in our understanding of female reproduction. Our ambition is to discover the strategies (such as the lack of complex I) oocytes employ to stay healthy for many years in order to find out why these strategies eventually fail with advanced age,” concludes Böke. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/human-eggs-oocytes-dormant-metabolism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Imma Perfetto. Image: Shutterstock

Body

Musician sells artworks she created live on stage

Grammy-nominated pop star Halsey is doing her bit to support reproductive rights in the US, as she enters the world of fine arts. Currently on tour around America, Halsey has created five artworks while performing live on stage, with the pieces now for sale at Sotheby’s. All proceeds from the sales will benefit the National Network of Abortion Funds. The drawings are included in the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/contemporary-discoveries-4?locale=en">Contemporary Discoveries</a> exhibition, which features artists such as David Hockney, Andy Warhol, and Os Gêmeos. Halsey’s works are expected to fetch around $7,000 each, with bids currently ranging between $5,500 and $6,500. She created each piece on different nights of her Love and Power Tour, while singing an untitled three-minute song. Hand moving in tandem with the melody, Halsey swiftly brought to life on white canvas androgynous faces punctuated by primary colours. According to the artist, the paintings are meant to symbolise the individual energies of each audience. Halsey has long been an outspoken advocate for women's rights and reproductive healthcare access. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in July, she <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/my-abortion-saved-my-life-roe-v-wade-halsey">shared her personal experience</a> with a life-saving abortion procedure in an essay for Vogue. “I miscarried three times before my 24th birthday,” She wrote. “One of my miscarriages required ‘aftercare,’ a gentle way of saying that I would need an abortion, because my body could not terminate the pregnancy completely on its own and I would risk going into sepsis without medical intervention.” “Many people have asked me if, since carrying a child to term after years of struggling to do so, I have reconsidered my stance on abortion,” Halsey continued. “The answer is firmly no. In fact, I have never felt more strongly about it.” Image credits: Getty Images / Sotheby’s

Art

"Australian GeoGRAPHIC!": Hilarious echidna pic breaks the internet

A hilarious yet graphic photo of an echidna’s penis has shocked the internet after randomly popping up in their news feed. The photo was uploaded by Australian Geographic asking readers if they had ever seen an echidna’s penis before. The photo in question shows a four-tipped penis with scientists looking into why the mammal’s reproductive system is the way it is. “Have you ever seen an echidna’s penis?” the post read. “You’ve probably asked your friends this in jest, but scientists are working away at unlocking the mystery of the bizarre, four-tipped reproductive system. “Labelled one of the ‘weirdest penises of the animal kingdom’, it's bright red and has four heads. “Now there's a dinner conversation starter…” The internet’s reaction was lighthearted, with many in the comment section leaving funny remarks. <iframe style="overflow: hidden; border: initial none initial;" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fausgeo%2Fposts%2F10158869200833339&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="780" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> “Such prickly little buggers obviously they need all the help they can get,” someone joked. “Australian GeoGRAPHIC,” the best comment read. “I'm guessing it's for Russian roulette impregnation,” another commented. “I cannot unsee this. Scarred for life,” someone else joked. “Wears condoms. They fit like a glove,” another comment read. “If I were a female echidna, I’d shuffle away as fast as I could from this thing and if I couldn’t out shuffle it, I’d bury myself as quickly as possible,” someone wrote. Despite the funny comments, Australian Geographic linked back to a <a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2021/05/echidna-penises-why-theyre-so-weird/?fbclid=IwAR3kQEzjVHQDodmTLm7FbqgH7ixIxcm8V0UFNzIHx9xgXofvsqkJaCc2tHI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research article</a> about why echidna penises are weird. ”We’re not really sure why it looks so weird but we do know that they only use their penis for mating, not urine,” reproductive biologist Jane Fenelon said. “Because they don’t need it for urine, they had the freedom to make it much more elaborate and this is something you see in other species that only use it for mating.” Images: Australian Geographic

Family & Pets

AI-system promises better art reproductions – but not yet

<div> <div class="copy"> A team from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US is developing a new, deep learning-assisted system to reproduce art with a 3D printer to make more accurate, convincing reproductions. The system combines a process known as halftoning, which uses little dots of ink, and a layering technique that has 10 different colours, rather than the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black of 2D printers. This keeps the ink from blotting, which happens when too much is deposited on the printing surface, and it allows the printer to produce a wider range of tones. The technique, combined with a “deep learning model to predict the optimal stack of different inks”, results in “unprecedented spectral accuracy”, the team writes in a new paper, being presented this month at a <a rel="noopener" href="https://sa2018.siggraph.org/en/" target="_blank">computer graphics conference in Tokyo</a>. “If you just reproduce the colour of a painting as it looks in the gallery, it might look different in your home,” says Changil Kim, one of the paper’s authors. “Our system works under any lighting condition, which shows a far greater colour reproduction capability than almost any other previous work.”{%recommended 6743%} The researchers they hope the project will eventually make art more available, since “our reliance on museums to exhibit original paintings and sculpture inherently limits access and leaves those precious originals vulnerable to deterioration and damage”. “The value of fine art has rapidly increased in recent years, so there’s an increased tendency for it to be locked up in warehouses away from the public eye,” notes mechanical engineer Mike Foshey. “We’re building the technology to reverse this trend, and to create inexpensive and accurate reproductions that can be enjoyed by all.” The developers concede that there is still work to be done on the system, which they named RePaint, to truly render a van Gogh simulacrum. For starters, images like Starry Night use a cobalt blue that the ink library isn’t able to “faithfully reproduce”. But paintings – particularly oil paintings – are three-dimensional works. The brush strokes leave ridges and bumps that can reflect light, throwing off the rendering. Right now, the printer reads glossy reflections as white highlights, but the team has plans to incorporate recognition of “the rich spatially-varying gloss and translucency found in many paintings”. The system will learn to use surface reflection, rather than less colour, to reproduce the gloss. One other issue? Those glorious Monet water lilies look more like postage stamps, since the system’s reproductions are only a few centimetres across. The engineers are hoping to bring down the costs and time printing to accommodate larger reproductions. Image credit: Shutterstock  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=23508&title=AI-system+promises+better+art+reproductions+%E2%80%93+but+not+yet" alt="" width="1" height="1" />  </div> <div id="contributors"> This article was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/ai-system-promises-better-art-reproductions-but-not-yet/" target="_blank">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Samantha Page. </div> </div>

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