Advice

Where does the flow go?

Nathan
Question

What happens to natural female lubricant (or any other moistness) after intercourse? I have asked many of my friends (both male and female) this question and no one can provide a sufficient answer.
All the information I have so far been able to glean on the subject is that the vagina is a "self-cleaning organ." I'm not stupid. I can imagine what this means, but I would just like it explained a little bit more in depth than that. Any information you could supply on this subject would be deeply appreciated.

Anything that is in the vaginal canal after sex⁠ either dribbles out⁠, gets expelled or gets reabsorbed by the body.

Semen clots and becomes sticky within minutes of being ejaculated. But if you wait half an hour or so, the semen⁠ liquefies again. Then it is free to dribble out the vagina⁠ (whatever hasn’t made it’s way up the cervix⁠ already, anyway). Whatever is left over breaks down. The sperm⁠ die, and the body digests and absorbs the remainder.

Vaginal lubrication can also simply dribble out if it is in excess. But it can just as easily be reabsorbed. Vaginal lubrication is actually made from blood plasma filtered through many layers of vaginal tissue. It is mostly water, some salts, small proteins and viral particles that are small enough to make it past the filtration (like HIV).

While gravity helps remove the fluids, gentle muscle contractions during orgasm⁠ as well as general movements (like sitting up, shifting positions, walking, etc.) can push the fluids out the vagina.

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    If we’re going to think of our genitals as big, any one of us, given the small range between them, we should think everyone’s genitals are big. We also need to accept that it’s ignorant or misinformed to think, presume or suggest that penises are big but vaginas are small, because we really are all about the same size. If thinking big is better for one sex, it’s also got to be better for the other. So, if you or someone else is going to go on about some big penis, you’d best get just as excited about the idea of a big vagina, and make having a big ol’Vagowski just as cool. And if you’re all hung up on the idea that the vagina be as small as it can possibly be, or is such a small thing, then you’ve got to accept that penises are small, too.