Where Do I Pee From? (How to Find Someone's - or Your Own - Urinary Meatus / Urinary Opening / Pee Hole) --
Female hypospadias, as you know, is a condition in which the urinary opening (meatus) is NOT on the outside of the body where it is supposed to be (between the vagina and the clitoris), but is instead inside the vaginal opening. It may be inside near the opening of this "urogenital sinus" or it may be farther up in the vagina. Depending on your daughter's age, she can find her urethral opening / urethral meatus herself or you can do it if it's not too far up.
She needs to be sitting/lying naked in the bathtub or in a basin. Confirming your results in Stage 2 has to be done when she has enough urine in her bladder to be able to urinate.
The tools you need are (1) lamp, (2) flashlight, (3) old towel or T-shirt, and (4) camera (protect from urine); plus (5) mirror and (6) magnifying glass if you are doing this on yourself.
STAGE 1 (camera only, no urinating): (a) Shine the flashlight hands-free at the vaginal opening. (b) With one hand, spread the labia. (c) With the other hand, take photos. If you have a non-digital camera (35 mm, disposable), get the film developed and examine the photos before you continue this search (don't use a mail-order developer; take it to a 1-hour photo center where you know a woman will be developing the film; explain that you're not taking obscene pictures). (d) If you see something that looks like the tip of a "little penis" inside the vagina, it's probably the opening of the urethra. (If you see nothing at all, then the opening is too far back in the vagina for you to see and you need professional help to find it.)
Verify your findings as follows:
STAGE 2 (take photos of the urine stream):
(a) Shine light on the vagina. (b) Spread open the labia. (c) Tell your daughter to urinate a little bit if she is old enough to cooperate with that. (If she's too young, you can't use this method. You should get professional help to find the meatus.) Have your towel ready to catch the urine. (d) Tell her to urinate a little, but enough to create a stream. As she urinates, keep the towel in place with one hand and take photos of the urine stream with the other hand so you can later look at them and see (without worrying about getting wet) where the urine came from. (e) Repeat "d" till you have enough photos.
With these pictures you can see where to insert the catheter.
For other women reading this post who have no external urinary opening, you can follow these instructions to find your own elusive "Number 1" urinary hole ... inside Number 3 the vagina (Number 2 is your anus). If you have no camera, you can use a magnifying glass and a hand mirror to get a better look while shining the flashlight hands-free on your private parts.
Hi I am to a mother of a daughter with these issues. I’m not sure if you will ever see this but I’ve been searching all over the internet for someone else going through this. We were sent home with catheter today. It’s so overwhelming. If you are willing to connect with me and chat about this condition I’d be more than grateful to exchange email.