About Those Gooey Fluids in My Underwear

Why Making Sense of Vaginal Discharges Is a Life-Long Learning Curve

The Water-based Serum of Life — Detail — Collage by the author

There it was — a long white mark, gooey and soft in the middle, dry and flaky on the edges. My first encounter with cervical fluid left me in a state of confusion. I was probably 13 then, and every time I went to the restroom, I came face to face with new marks I didn’t know what…