Microanatomical variability of small glands of the vaginal vestibule during the ovarian-menstrual cycle

Abstract

The aim of the work was to obtain morphological data on the structural variability of the size parameters of small glands of the vestibule of vagina in women of reproductive age in different phases of the ovarian-menstrual cycle.

Material and methods. Microanatomical methods have been used to study small glands of the vestibule of vagina in women of reproductive age (23 cases). The glands were examined depending on the state of the ovarian-menstrual cycle. After fixing the material in neutral formalin and subsequent alcohol at the level of the middle third of the vestibule of vagina, transverse sections were performed with further staining with hematoxylin eosin, picrofuxin by van Gieson, and Craigberg staining.

Results. The structural analysis showed that the small glands of the vestibule of vagina have a structure typical for the glands of the mucous membranes of internal organs. By the type of secretion, all small glands of the vestibule of vagina are mucous. Structural parameters of small glands of the vestibule of vagina significantly change during the ovarian-menstrual cycle. In girls and women of the first period of adulthood, the dimensional parameters of the glands are maximal in the phase of secretion, they are minimal in the desquamation phase and occupy, in the main, an intermediate position in the proliferative phase.