Your belly button (navel) has no active purpose after birth, serving only as a scar from the umbilical cord that nourished you in the womb, but it remains a crucial anatomical landmark, an entry point for minimally invasive surgery, and holds aesthetic and cultural significance, with remnants of fetal structures still connected internally.
Your belly button marks the spot where your umbilical (say: um-BIL-ih-kul) cord was once attached. This cord is a soft, bendable tube that carried nutrients — vitamins and minerals — from your mother to you, back when you were in her belly (womb). A belly button is also called a navel.
Umbilectomy is belly button removal surgery, often used for medical reasons, such as to remove an umbilical hernia to treat cancer or frequent infections. For some, however, it's an elective procedure used as part of body modification to reflect personal identity and individuality, according to J.
Dr Christopher Hollingsworth of NYC Surgical Associates explained to Lad Bible that often, despite inducing the feeling of needing to pee, touching the belly button actually stimulates the lining of the stomach, so that you think you need the loo, even though you may not.
The navel region is an erogenous zone with heightened sensitivity that when touched by the finger or the tip of the tongue can produce erotic sensations.
7 Parts Of Your Body You Shouldn't Touch With Your Hands
The intestines are the internal organs that lie directly behind the navel. The abdominal organs have a protective fat layer called the omentum draped over them. The abdominal cavity is covered by peritoneum, with the muscles, fascia, fat, and subcutaneous tissue forming the other layers beneath the skin.
What causes a belly button to smell? Most belly buttons are indented and act as a trap for sweat, dead skin, and dirt. Few people wash their belly button with soap, so germs can develop. The presence of dirt and bacteria in the belly button is the most common cause of a belly button smell.
Without getting in there and cleaning your belly button on the regular, the lingering gunk — e.g. dirt, sweat, dead skin cells, clothing fabric, and bacteria — can collect and "cause odor or even an infection," says Dr. Goldberg.
If you're gently pulling out some lint, you're fine — there's no reason to leave that stuff in when you find it.
The main reason for this is that the belly button provides the shortest distance from the skin to the inside of the abdominal cavity. Additionally, it is relatively easy to hide the incision inside the belly button.
It's scar tissue left over from where the umbilical cord joined you to your mother's placenta when you were in her womb. Just like fingerprints, no two belly buttons are alike. All the nourishment going to the baby and all the wastes coming out passed through the belly button, via the umbilical cord.
It's important to clean out your belly button at least once a week.
This simple tapping exercise encourages deep relaxation, promotes peristalsis, and stimulates abdominal organs like the stomach, liver, and colon, supporting detoxification and digestion.
Grab a Q-tip and mild soap.
Before going in, swab the Q-tip with soap and water; Dr. Chacon says it's best to use “mild, fragrance-free soap” to avoid irritating the navel's sensitive skin.
Since your navel is pretty far from your nose, if you can detect an odor coming from it, that's something you should investigate. Even if you don't smell it but others close to you can, you should take action.
To minimize bacteria and extract anything else that may become trapped in there, experts recommend a weekly hygiene routine. Simply dip a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol or plain soap and water and gently clean the area once a week, and dry pat as you normally would after a shower.
With their other hand, they'll push on your belly. This helps them feel your uterus, ovaries, and cervix. It may also allow them to detect if you've developed fibroids. It may be slightly uncomfortable, but it shouldn't hurt.
The space below contains the bladder, rectum, and part of the descending colon. In females, the pelvis also houses the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries.
Pressing on your stomach is a way to find out if the size of your internal organs is normal, to check if anything hurts, and to feel if anything unusual is going on. Looking, listening, and feeling are all part of a physical exam.
Clitoris. It's common knowledge that the clitoris is one of the most sensitive spots on a woman's body. The clitoris is the most powerful of all female erogenous zones. It has 8,000 nerve endings that ultimately make it the powerhouse of pleasure.
Belly button: Again, no amount of time you spend in the shower can help you clean the belly button completely. It has about 2000 plus varieties of bacteria and given its hidden and warm nature (compared to the rest of the body temperature), they are ideal for bacterial growth.
Risks of Touching or Playing with It
If hands are not clean, bacteria can enter the navel. This can cause infections.