Female Genital Self-Image 

I am collaborating with my doctoral student, Miranda Fudge, on research related to female genital self-image (FGSI). FGSI refers to women’s subjective thoughts and feelings about their own genitals. It is important to enhance our understanding of FGSI because research has shown that poorer self-image is associated with worse physical, mental and sexual well-being. Quantitative research suggests that, on average, women feel moderately positively about their genitals. However, little is known about how women view or describe their own genitals or the factors that they feel have contributed to the development of their genital self-image. 

We interviewed 20 women between the ages 19 of 35 about their FGSI. The women first were asked to indicate how strongly they agreed with the statement “I feel positively about my genitals” and then participated in a semi-structured interview. We have analyzed the information the women provided using qualitative content analysis and are preparing two manuscripts based on these results.

The goal of the first manuscript is to enhance our understanding of women’s thoughts and feelings about their own genitals. The goal of the second manuscript is to enhance our understanding of the psychosocial factors that influence female genital self-image.

Here are our presentations based on this work: