Chapter 5 Scene 3 After the cloud and rain

The woman awoke from the short sleep that followed sex, a familiar feeling waking up around her buttocks.She opened her eyes and glanced at the luminous numbers on the bedside clock.Forty-five minutes had passed since her partner ejaculated.Now she finally felt a surge of wetness in her vagina.The woman was still in a hazy half-sleep state, she hesitated and couldn't decide whether to get up and go to the toilet?Or bring the Kleenex?Or just let the fluid come out of your vagina and wet the sheets down your buttocks? In her half-asleep state, the woman thought of the summer seven years ago, when she had just graduated from high school and was about to start college.At the beginning of the long summer vacation, she met a college boy who was two years older than her.Within days of their acquaintance, they had sex, and they continued to do so for as long as they could.At first they used condoms, then she voluntarily took the pill.At the end of the summer, the woman and her boyfriend went back to their respective schools, and their relationship continued for several months, with each taking turns spending weekends together at each other's small apartment.They always spend their Sunday afternoons in bed enjoying sex.Both of them refused to get out of bed until the last minute.Finally, in a panic, I got dressed and rushed to the station to catch the last tram.Every time she walked out of her boyfriend's residence, she knew in her heart that soon, when she sat comfortably on the tram seat, a stream of sexual intercourse fluid would seep out of her panties.And she had to endure the wet and sticky feeling between her legs all the time.

Seven years later, the woman is now lying on her own bed, slowly waking up.She cheered herself up, stood up from the bed, staggered into the toilet, turned on the light first, and then sat on the toilet bowl and began to urinate.When she stood up and was about to reach for the handle, the woman glanced into the toilet and saw the white ball mixed with her urine.The woman was still not fully awake when she walked back to the bed. She vaguely felt that the main reason for her inability to conceive was that her body could not accept the sperm.However, this kind of thoughts disappeared in an instant. She went back to bed and lay down, and within a minute, she fell asleep again.But at least tonight, her sheets were dry.

After intercourse, after a considerable period of time, "reflux" will flow out of the vagina. Of all sexual problems, there is probably nothing more misunderstood and disgusted than "reflux".Reflux is an unpleasant substance for most women, and some even believe it contributes to their infertility. The "reflux" component comes from both men and women.The most important component is semen, almost all of which flow back from the vagina.Add to that the copious amounts of mucus secreted by a woman's cervix, and the cells that flake off the walls of the vagina when the penis twitches back and forth.However, the most numerous cells in the "reflux" are sperm, often in the millions.Most people think of "reflux" as the cause of soiled sheets, or fluid running down between the legs.It may not be easy to turn such stereotypes into positive ones.However, the purpose of my explanation of "reflux" here is to hope that everyone can understand that "reflux" is actually one of the important weapons in the hands of women in the race to reproduce.

I have a photo of a zebra family on hand with a stallion, a mare, and a colt that I've always loved looking at.The stallion in the photo has just ejaculated and is standing on its hind legs, with its front legs still on the mare's back.The pony, as if embarrassed, turned his face the other way, as a large amount of "reflux" was pouring out of his mother's vagina.In zebras, the female ejaculates most of her semen within minutes of fertilization.Compared with zebras, the "reflux" of human women cannot be as violent as zebras, nor can it be compared in terms of quantity.But according to my research on "reflux", human females are actually not much inferior to zebras.

The woman in Scene 3, after urinating, notices white balls of coagulation in her urine.If you are a woman, I hope you also take a mirror about 30 to 45 minutes after intercourse and try to observe the "reflux" flow during urination.This can't be done in a toilet bowl, so you're better off urinating in an empty tub.Squat down first.Use your hands to part the pubic hair and labia to the sides so that the urine can come out in a straight line.Wait until you can feel the "reflux" pooling in one place before urinating.From the side, you can see the urine coming out to the front of the urethra. At this time, please concentrate on the 1 inch below the urethra, contract the muscles hard, and you can see the "reflux" flowing out of the vagina ( If you are male, convince your partner to let you watch the "reflux" discharge).Whether you are a man or a woman, as long as you see this process with your own eyes, you will no longer suspect that the "reflux" is part of the semen from the man during sexual intercourse.

Among animals, human females and zebras are not the only ones who can emit "reflux". Others such as monkeys, rabbits, mice, sparrows, and even all female mammals and birds may have this ability.How do human women accomplish this action?First of all, I must explain two points to you: one is to introduce women's genitals in detail; the other is how the semen changes during the critical period within 30 minutes after coitus. Now, imagine you're a doctor and you're trying to diagnose a woman lying in front of you.The woman is lying on her back on the bed.First, you push her pubic hair to the sides, stretching the labia majora so you can see the vaginal opening.There is a small chamber inside the vagina, which is the vestibule.If you have good eyesight and can hold the labia minora wide enough, you will be able to see the urethral orifice, the exit from which she urinates, in the uppermost part of the vestibule.

Next, please insert two fingers through the opening of her vagina, gently and as far as possible.The first thing to notice is that the vagina is tightly wrapping your fingers.Because when there is nothing in the vagina, it is not a round tube, but a crack with two walls close together.Not only that, but the vagina does not go through the inside and outside like a tunnel.Most people think that the vagina is connected straight to the uterus, and the entrance is the cervix. This idea is wrong.Also, everyone thinks that the sharpshooter - the penis - can shoot semen directly from the cervix into the uterus, which is also wrong.In fact, the vagina is a dead end.Of course, there is an exit from the vagina to the uterus, but this pathway is not a straight line.To find this exit, you have to turn a ninety-degree turn.

Let us continue to observe the patient.Instead of taking your fingers out, turn your palms directly up, with the backs of your hands on the bed.The uterus is shaped like an upside-down pear, and it's right on top of the vagina, but it's possible that your fingers won't be able to reach it.At the narrow end of the pear is the uterus, which protrudes down the top of the vagina, leaving about an inch exposed.If your fingers are long enough, your fingertips may be able to touch the part of the cervix that emerges from the top of the vagina.There is a duct in the cervix, the vagina and uterus are connected together by this duct, and sperm must pass through this duct to enter the uterus.When a woman gives birth, this duct will show its amazing structure and elasticity, allowing the fetus to pass from here to the outside world.Now, let's focus on how thin the catheter is?And how does sperm get into the cervix?

The cervix is ​​not hollow inside.The catheter is filled with mucus, and if you put your finger in the vagina for a while, some cervical mucus will drip onto your finger.This slime is the most contributing part of a woman's "reflux," and we'll make it the star of this book.In order to understand human "sex," we must appreciate the beauty and wonder of cervical mucus.Cervical mucus also meets the complex needs of women.On the one hand, it is the last barrier to defend the female body, and it can also block the bacteria and pathogens that try to invade the cervix and uterus at any time.On the other hand, sperm depends on it to enter the uterus, and menstruation depends on it to flow out of the uterus.In other words, cervical mucus serves as a two-way filtering task.

When it comes to mucus, most people are a little disgusted with this dirty and sticky flowing substance, which may be because the mucus that everyone is most often exposed to is nasal snot.Cervical mucus looks and feels a lot like snot, but it's actually quite different.It is not only perfect in structure, but also an indispensable source of life for protecting women's health and exerting sexual vitality.Cervical mucus contains many fibrous tissues, and mucus seeps out through the passages between these fibrous tissues.Most of the passages are so narrow that sometimes only two sperm can pass side by side at the same time.Still, these pathways are the highways through which sperm travel from the vagina, through the cervix, and deep into the uterus.

Cervical mucus is mainly secreted continuously from the glands above the cervix, the part furthest from the uterus.Mucus trickles down the cervix into the vagina like a glacier.This glacier of mucus flows slower than sperm swims but faster than pathogens attempting to pass through the cervix.Therefore, bacteria and pathogens are all blocked in the vagina and cannot enter the cervix.The acidic fluid in the vagina will kill them all.During a woman's period, blood is added to the mucus, making it harder for bacteria and other foreign pathogens to pass through the cervix—very important for women, because the lining of the uterus is especially vulnerable during menstruation. Cervical mucus appears to have no effect on sperm, but in fact it plays a pivotal role in a woman's fertilization strategy.As we mentioned in Scene 2, why do women have sex during non-fertile periods?The reason is to confuse men.Post-menopausal women also continue to have sex for many years, again to confuse men.They are to prevent their spouses from finding out that their reproductive life is over, and at the same time, to prevent their spouses from abandoning themselves and choosing younger and reproductive women.Facts have shown that it is still possible for women to become pregnant after amenorrhea.It is possible at least until age 57, and there have been reports of women as young as 70 becoming pregnant.The fact that women have sex even while pregnant is still to confuse men, but for a more specific reason (we'll leave that for Scene 17). Women's bodies must always maintain a state of balance. They must allow sperm to enter the body while keeping germs out.Obviously, in a state where sperm are easy to survive, germs are also extremely easy to survive.For pregnant women, sperm is useless, so all the sperm they get during sexual intercourse will be excreted together with the "reflux".A pregnant woman's cervical mucus does its best filtering, keeping sperm alive and doing its best to keep germs at bay.But outside of pregnancy, a woman of normal sexual ability sometimes needs some sperm, so their cervix has to relax a little bit of its defense against germs in order to allow sperm to pass through easily.Just as the need to pass sperm through the cervix varies throughout a woman's life with her menstrual cycle, so does the cervical mucus, which acts as a filter. During a woman's lifetime, sperm is of little use during periods when a woman is less fertile, such as the period other than around ovulation, and during menopause.However, even during this period, if the sperm can enter the body, the woman will benefit more or less, because these sperm will survive until the next fertile period begins, and they will also be responsible for the next batch of newborns entering the body. Several effects on spermatogenesis (for this we will illustrate in Scene 17).However, women have less benefit from storing sperm in the body during the less fertile period, so their cervical filter (the cervical mucus) is still working hard to keep sperm out during this period and This prevents germs from invading.When the ovulation period is approaching, the sperm passing through the cervix will gradually increase the women's interests. At this time, the cervix will open up to the sperm and become a state that can easily pass through.The cervix decides whether to allow sperm to pass according to the difference between fertile and non-fertile periods, and it also regulates the natural filtering function of cervical mucus. During a woman's frequent and prolonged non-fertile periods, cervical mucus can become difficult to pass.The passages between the ducts in the mucus become narrowed, and even if sperm can enter the mucus, they cannot pass between these passages.Moreover, even if the sperm crosses this barrier, its swimming speed will be greatly reduced.During this period, the flow of cervical mucus is very slow, but still sufficient to keep germs out.Conversely, during a woman's short fertile period, the cervical mucus changes: it becomes more hydrated, it becomes more stretchy, and the passage from tube to tube becomes wider .Sperm and germs can easily pass through the mucus during this period. During a woman's conception, the biggest difficulty for sperm to enter the cervix is ​​that the passage from duct to duct in the mucus has not yet become quite clear.At this time, in order to remove the obstacles between the pathways and to fight against the risk of bacterial infection, the secretion of cervical mucus will increase a lot more than usual.Only in this way can the old cells and bacterial remains in the female cervix be excreted.Women feel wetter than usual during this period and may also see a clear, sweet-smelling discharge on their panties. While changes in cervical mucus bring benefits, they can also cause trouble.Because changes in the mucus let the woman and her spouse know when she is fertile.In response to this, the uterus sometimes secretes an unexpectedly large amount of mucus, more than is needed to assist the passage of sperm.This phenomenon starts one week before the ovulation period and continues until two or three days after the ovulation period ends, and it may happen at any time.Therefore, even though we can infer a woman's fertile period from the state of cervical mucus, since the period of mucus secretion is too unpredictable, this does not affect the strategy of women to conceal their fertile period. In other words, cervical mucus is designed to serve as a filter for sperm.Regardless of the stage of the menstrual cycle, women can enhance the filtering function of mucus by blocking the passage between the ducts in the mucus.The more barriers between pathways, the better the mucus filter.There are three factors that cause obstruction of the passage between catheters: one is blood, fibers and the residue left by menstruation; the other is white blood cells; the third is sperm.These barriers usually block the passage for days, but eventually they are pushed relentlessly into the vagina by the glaciers of mucus, and then disappear.Cervical filtration is the most powerful weapon a woman has against a man, as we will discuss in later chapters of this book. Even after cervical mucus has flowed into the vagina, its job is not quite done.The mucus continues down the vaginal walls and forms a thin film on them.Some of the mucus drains to the outside of the vagina, making the woman feel her outer labia "wet."Most of the mucus will remain on the vaginal walls in preparation for the next intercourse, and it will linger for several days even if there is no next intercourse.Finally, when a woman becomes aroused during foreplay, her vaginal walls start to "sweat".This "sweat" by itself does not lubricate the vagina.But when it mixes with the old cervical mucus, it can produce extremely effective lubrication.At this stage, the vagina is ready for penetration and intercourse. So far, we've covered the basics from intercourse (penis insertion) to vaginal "reflux".But in order to make it easier for everyone to understand, let us change the internal medical examination method that we used in the past.I will now begin with a video taken by attaching a fiber-opticendoscope to the underside of a man's penis prior to sexual intercourse.We're going to use the eyes of the penis to see what happens.In order to make it easier for me to explain, please assume that you are also in it.Let's say you're having sex with your spouse in a face-to-face position, with a video camera attached to the tip of your erect penis (or your spouse's penis if you're a woman).On the wall in front of you, there is a large TV screen so you can see upcoming movies. First, the penis is aimed at the vagina and squeezed in. Then, the vaginal wall is stretched, and the penis is all squeezed in. At this time, you will find that there is a distance in front of the camera, and the end of the vagina cannot be seen.If the penis continues to move forward slowly, you will see an object protruding from the top of the front of the vagina, which is the cervix.It has a dimple-like hole in its center, and at the moment, it looks like a pink anemone with all the surrounding tentacles cut off.But it also produces various changes as the course of sexual behavior changes. The thrusting action of the penis begins, at which point you can watch on the screen as the walls of the vagina close together as the penis recedes.The walls of the vagina are only stretched when the penis is pushed forward.When the penis is fully inserted, you can see the end of the vaginal wall and the protruding cervix.The penis thrusting action continued non-stop and the penetration shots on the screen began to change.A small chamber begins to form in the deep part of the vagina, which is slowly filled with air, and the small chamber is very lubricated because of mucus.Next, a more dramatic change occurs, as the cervix begins to lengthen and gradually descend.Gradually, its shape no longer resembles a sea anemone, but more and more like a wider pink trunk.Finally, the front of the penis on the screen reflects the front wall of the "elephantstrunk" of the cervix.The tip of this trunk may have touched the bottom of the vagina, but we can't see that. The "elephant trunk" may temporarily stay at the bottom of the vagina in preparation for the orgasm of sexual intercourse.Then, the penis begins to ejaculate, and the semen sprays directly above the front wall of the "elephant trunk", and then slides down to the bottom of the vagina, while gradually forming a pond (sem pool) at the bottom of the chamber.The cervix now descends from the top of the chamber into the pool of semen, and no matter how you look at it now, it is like an elephant trunk sucking water. After about 1 minute, the ejaculation ends and the penis gradually shrinks.Immediately after the penis is withdrawn, the vaginal walls close.The penis is expelled, but the pool of semen remains deep in the vagina.As the penis shrinks and recedes, our camera loses its support, and now the TV screen before our eyes is plunged into darkness.But it doesn't matter anymore.Now important changes are going on in the female body, but all this is happening in the world of chemistry and the world of microscopy. First of all, the earliest sign - the moment the penis starts to withdraw, which we may also see on the TV screen - is that the semen pool starts to freeze, and the semen in the pool gradually loses water and becomes a bit like jelly shape.Next, the sperm begin to leave the semen pool.Their destination is the pathway in the cervical mucus.Sperm can only reach their destination through the interface formed by cervical mucus and semen.Please think of the cervix as a real elephant trunk, which is protruding into a large pool of semen.The elephant's trunk is filled with mucus.And when the mucus hits the semen, it doesn't dissolve or mix into the semen.On the contrary, there will be more specific phenomena at this time. The interface between cervical mucus and semen at the entrance of the "elephant's trunk" is not flat.The semen becomes shaped like a "finger" and moves towards a wider passage in the mucus. After a short distance, the "finger" enters the "elephant trunk" and continues to push upwards, and finally reaches the cervical mucus , These "fingers" are like the fingers on a rubber glove, and they will be divided into many branches.Sperm then leave the semen and begin to swim furiously back and forth inside these "fingers", and then flow from the "fingers" into narrower passages.We'll detail these sperm later, but for now, we're going to focus on "reflux." After the cervix penetrated into the semen pool, after a few minutes, the "elephant trunk" began to retract to its original position at the top of the vagina, and its shape was changed back to the original sea anemone by the "elephant trunk".The cervix has now left the semen pool, so all the way for the sperm to travel upwards is cut off.After the entire cervix exits the semen pool, the remaining sperm in the pool will either be excreted or die prematurely.Fifteen minutes after ejaculation, the pool of semen that had been solidified gradually softens and becomes more liquid-like.Soon, an invisible muscle movement began to occur unconsciously, and the semen, mucus, sperm in the cervix, and cells peeled off from the vaginal wall were all mixed together.This mixture will all end up in the vestibule of the buttocks.On average, the above-mentioned process is usually completed within 1 hour after ejaculation, but it is also possible to discharge "reflux" within 10 minutes or two hours later.Before this, no matter whether the woman is standing, walking, or urinating, there will be no "reflux" flow out.And when the "reflux" gathers into the vestibule of the abdomen, not to mention standing, walking or urinating, even coughing or sneezing may cause this unexpected liquid to be discharged.In any case, even if a woman is sleeping, her "reflux" becomes very fluid within two hours, and sooner or later it seeps out and stains the sheets. The amount of "reflux" varies, but on average, it contains about half the amount of sperm that was sent into the body during ejaculation. The amount of sperm in the "reflux" depends on the filtering function of the female uterus.About 1 out of every 10 ejaculations, all sperm are expelled.Rarely, when the cervix is ​​poorly filtered, all the sperm delivered by ejaculation remain in the woman.The percentage of sperm counts that remain in a woman's body is no accident.In the vast majority of cases, sperm count is controlled by a woman's body, not by the cervical "filter".Every time you have intercourse, a woman's body decides how much sperm to keep and how much to release.As for how they decide, and why do they do it?We'll leave that for later.The filtering capacity of the cervix will play an important role in our lifetime and that of our spouses, but we do not intend to discuss it in this section.