2023-05-30 16:38:11
We know that a vagina is no longer the same after giving birth. But that teeth can even grow in it, no, we didn’t see that coming. What’s true?
Bizarre
Rarely have I been banging my ears like this morning. I was quietly folding laundry with a podcast on, when the chat suddenly took a very special direction. “Did you know you can get teeth in your vagina after giving birth?”
That would be because of the DNA that the baby leaves in you. For the rest of the day I can’t get the picture of a serrated bottom out of my head. Surely this must be a myth?
Read also: 6x facts about the vagina after childbirth
Scared man
Indeed, the vagina dentata (Latin for toothed vagina) appears in folktales of many different cultures. It even has its own code in the catalog for fairy tales and other stories, the so-called Aarne-Thompson index.
The image of a Jaws-like vagina symbolizes the man’s fear of the woman. Watch out, because before you know it she will castrate you! The venomous vulva also appears in modern art forms. So discovered in the movie Teeth a high school student that her vagina can do a special trick: bite off the cocks of the men who attack her.
Tooth lump
Has the pointy cat been relegated to the realm of fables? Not quite. A dermoid cyst can grow in the vagina. A cyst is a (usually harmless) lump that contains fluid or other material. With a dermoid cyst, that bump also contains structures that are normally on or in the skin, such as hair and teeth.
Such a bulge sometimes occurs in the ovaries, and in very rare cases also down under. There are worldwide less than ten cases have been documented. The pictures barely show a tooth, but for those who still want to shudder: a young Irish woman suddenly found two teeth in her underpants.
Read also: Gynecologist Claire Stramrood about tearing during childbirth
After the cut
Anyway, a biting vagina is pure scare tactics and a lump of teeth is extremely rare. Moreover, worrying about childbirth is unnecessary, because that does not cause such a dermoid cyst at all. It has been present throughout the woman’s life and slowly grows with her. This is because it is formed by the outer layers of embryonic skin cells. These are cells that can still grow into hair, teeth or skin glands. It often takes years before such a cyst is large enough to be noticed.
So why is there still a link with bars? Perhaps because cysts sometimes arise after childbirth, for example after a cut. Then the damaged tissue can accumulate under the skin. But often these are small bumps that do not cause any problems. And teeth? No, they certainly don’t.
Text: Jojanneke Bastiaansen – Image: Getty Images
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