After turning twelve, or thereabouts, women incur a monthly visitor. Because Aunt Flow comes calling each month, it can be easy to forget the true meaning of her visits. Aunt Flow, a.k.a. the Crimson Wave, is actually a shedding of the uterus’ lining after a woman’s body has prepared for pregnancy but no conception has taken place.

The blood that exits the body through the vagina is made up of red blood cells and womb tissue. This event lasts approximately three to five days. However, some women experience an especially heavy menstruation when it’s that time of the month. The cause of these episodes is attributable to a variety of factors. Menstruation does not cease completely until menopause takes effect, around the time women turn fifty-one.

Menstruation may be circumscribed to the realm of the female, but vaginoplasty surgery is not. Many transgendered and intersex individuals seek recourse in the procedure. Although the stereotype can prove irresistible to some, vaginoplasty isn’t just sought out by women that have been wooed by a promise of enhanced genital anatomy; the procedure is also used for the transformation of external male genitalia into the female sort. When the vaginal cavity is medically created, an “orchiectomy” is said to have taken place. After this step, it’s typical to see the simultaneous execution of a labiaplasty and the introduction of a neoclitoris. Nevertheless, individuals have the option of undergoing these procedures separately. One type of vaginoplasty consists of a penile inversion, where penis shaft skin is used to overlay the walls of a newly formed vaginal cavity.

Orchiectomy is sometimes performed as a way of lessening feminizing hormones’ side effects. After the procedure, a medicated patient’s prescribed hormonal dosage can be reduced. When biological men undergo this procedure, the testes are excised. While it’s proceeding, doctors are careful to rescue and preserve the scrotum’s skin — a vaginoplasty or labiaplasty may be requested in the future.

Returning to women, because aging induces a loss of muscle tone, it sometimes happens that the urinary bladder, uterus, and vagina end up with an altered physical displacement. These, by turn, are referred to as bladder prolapse, uterine prolapse, and vaginal prolapse. The same medical knowledge that underpins the procedures described above, are also used to ameliorate the last medical conditions in older women.

Sam Walters is a writer living in Los Angeles. Her writing appears in print and online.