In childhood, transversely oval 0.46–0.56 cm. (0.18–0.22″) In the virgin, rounded 0.20–0.50 cm. (0.08–0.20″) In prostitutes, transversely, oval 0.60–2.50 cm. (0.24–0.98″) In sterile married women, round 0.16 cm. (0.06″) In parous married women, transverse fissure 1.10 cm. (0.43″) After the menopause 0.81 cm. (0.32″) In the fully-developed woman, the ovaries undergo changes in size, shape, and consistency, these changes being dependent upon the age, the sexual functional activity, and the constitutional predispositions of the individual. The average length of the ovary is 3–4 centimetres (1.18–1.58″); the average width, 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.18″); and the average thickness 1 centimetre (0.39″). The surface of this organ gradually assumes a ragged appearance, from the scarred depressions caused by the great number of successive menstruations (ovulations)—sometimes the appearance produced resembles that of a mulberry. In the vagina at this sexual epoch, the surface of the anterior and posterior vaginal walls is rendered uneven and rugose by well-developed vaginal columns (_columnæ rugarum_), which feel almost as hard as cartilage, and project considerably above the general level of the wall; the transverse ridges (_rugæ_) run horizontally outward from the columns. By frequent copulation, the rugæ are partially effaced, and the columns themselves become flatter and softer; still, except in cases in which the genital functions are exercised to great excess, the vagina remains tense and rugose until after several children have been born, when it becomes soft, flaccid, and smooth. Even in women who have been accustomed to frequent intercourse, the narrowest portion of the vagina is still the orifice and the part of the passage lying immediately within the orifice, which can be constricted by the levator ani muscle; childbirth, however, brings about great and permanent distension of these parts also. The widest and most distensible portion of the vagina is the uppermost segment, the region of the fornices.