While driving a year or so ago, social psychologist Rotem Kahalon began thinking about the words women use to describe their vagina.

Well, it wasn’t out of nowhere. Kahalon had been listening to a podcast on women’s health where a gynaecologist noted – almost in passing – that she was often surprised by how even older women refer to their genitalia using euphemisms such as “down there” or “pee-pee”.

“This remark struck me as potentially meaningful: it seemed likely to reflect how women perceive and relate to their genitalia, with possible implications for health-related behaviours and sexual pleasure,” said Kahalon, who’s an assistant professor in the faculty of medicine at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel.

For instance, does using more anatomically correct language like “vagina” or “vulva” increase your enjoyment of sex? What effect does using dirty talk like “pussy” have on body image? And what about our mothers and grandmothers, who on the whole, vastly prefer “privates” or “pee pee”?

Turns out, the terms you use to describe your nether regions (there’s a euphemism for you) matter deeply.

For starters, the researchers found that using playful or childish terms in your day-to-day – “pee pee,” “hoo-ha,” “vajayjay” – tended to report more negative feelings about their genitals.

“These terms were also linked to a more negative perception of partner’s oral sex enjoyment, greater use of vaginal cleaning products and higher openness to labiaplasty,” said Tanja Oschatz, who studies women’s sexuality at Johannes-Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany, and co-authored the study.

Meanwhile, using vulgar terms during sex – “pussy,” “cunt” – is connected to a more positive sexual experience, Oschatz told HuffPost.

“Interestingly, using the word ‘pussy’ in sexual........

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