Consider this: In over five million years of human evolution, only one organ has come to exist for the sole purpose of providing pleasure – the clitoris. It is not required for reproduction. It doesn’t have a urethra running through it like the penis, and thus, does not urinate. Its sole function – its singular, wonderful purpose – is to make a woman feel good!!
Sadly, it is precisely because the clitoris has no function apart from female pleasure that science has neglected to study it as intricately as the penis. In my last post I wrote about Princess Marie Boneparte and her revolutionary work on the female orgasm. There was however, one piece of pertinent information she was lacking that science had not yet discovered: the true size and scope of the clitoris.
Try asking the next person you encounter to tell you where the clitoris is located. Having posed this question to others many times myself, I’ll guess that the majority of answers you receive will sound something like, “It’s that small bulb at the top of my lips,” or, “That’s the button up under the hood.” Although these responses aren’t exactly wrong, the interesting truth is that the majority of the clitoris is actually within the pelvis – that is, it’s far more internal than external. Even most of the women I coach, women who are generally worldly and well-informed about their own bodies, react with a combination of fascination and confusion when I explain that their clitoris extends deep within them.
The scientific name for the external “little button” or “bulb” is glans. Not to be confused with glands, glans simply refers to a small circular mass. This little structure contains approximately 8,000 sensory nerve fibers; more than anywhere else in the human body and nearly twice the amount found on the head of a penis! From reading her work, it’s clear that Marie Bonepart mistakenly thought that the clitoris was completely comprised of the glans; and because it is super sensitive and all anyone can see of the organ, her confusion is mirrored by most women today. The fact is, though, that most of the clitoris is subterranean, consisting of two corpora cavernosa (corpus cavernosum when referring to the structure as a whole), two crura (crus when referring to the structure as a whole), and the clitoral vestibules or bulbs.
The glans is connected to the body or shaft of the internal clitoris, which is made up of two corpora cavernosa. When erect, the corpora cavernosa encompass the vagina on either side, as if they were wrapping around it giving it a big hug!
The corpus cavernosum also extends further, bifurcating again to form the two crura. These two legs extend up to 9cm, pointing toward the thighs when at rest, and stretching back toward the spine when erect. To picture them at rest, imagine the crura as a wishbone, coming together at the body of the clitoris where they attach to the pubic symphysis.
Near each of the crura on either side of the vaginal opening are the clitoral vestibules. These are internally under the labia majora. When they become engorged with blood they actually cuff the vaginal opening causing the vulva to expand outward. Get these puppies excited, and you’ve got a hungrier, tighter-feeling vaginal opening in which to explore!
What does all this mean? Well, for starters, we can finally end that age-old debate of vaginal vs. clitoral orgasms.
In 1953, Kinsey wrote: “The vagina walls are quite insensitive in the great majority of females … There is no evidence that the vagina is ever the sole source of arousal, or even the primary source of erotic arousal in any female.”
Then in 1970, Germaine Greer published The Female Eunuch, which scoffed at Kinsey’s theory. She wrote, “It is nonsense to say that a woman feels nothing when a man is moving his penis inside her vagina. The orgasm is qualitatively different when the vagina can undulate around the penis instead of a vacancy.”
Interestingly, they’re both right. The vagina is not the sole source of arousal, though to stimulate the inner clitoris you can greatly do so by manipulating, displacing, and exploring the vagina with a penis or other apparatus.
Many women can bring themselves to orgasm without ever inserting anything inside of themselves. They are causing their internal clitoris to become erect and likely stimulating their glans, bulbs, and crura by rubbing themselves on the outside. The corpus cavernousum is the additional erectile tissue encompassing the vagina, and greatly erogenous when stimulated internally.
Let’s also remember, female orgasm is not solely about the clitoris and vagina either. It is far more complex and also involves the workings of multiple nerves, tissues, muscles, reflexes, and mental effort. Some women can think themselves to orgasm. Others can orgasm simply by flexing their pelvic muscles. Considering all the components involved plus the variability of human beings and their anatomies, it’s extremely important to remember no two people are the same. What works for one woman may not work for another. In other words, it’s all custom under the hood.
What really blows my mind is the plethora of misinformation that exists in textbooks, professional medical guides, and on the internet. Take for example, in one of my undergraduate textbooks titled Understanding Human Sexuality, the clitoris is depicted merely as just the glans. The sad fact is it wasn’t until the 1990’s that researchers began using MRI to study the internal structure of the clitoris. By then, the intricate details of the penis were already well known.
Urologist Helen O’Connell of the Royal Melbourne Hospital set out to better understand the microscopic nerve supply to the clitoris using MRI, something that had already been done for men with regard to their sexual function in the 70s. In 1998 she published her findings, informing the medical world of the true scope and size of the clitoris. Yet ironically that same year, men in America began popping Viagra to cure erectile dysfunction.
In 2005 The American Urological Association published one of Dr. O’Connell’s reports on clitoral anatomy. The report itself even states, “The anatomy of the clitoris has not been stable with time as would be expected. To a major extent its study has been dominated by social factors … Some recent anatomy textbooks omit a description of the clitoris. By comparison, pages are devoted to penile anatomy.” The report also mentions how seemingly impossible it is to understand the internal structure of the clitoris with just one diagram. Several are required to truly get a comprehensive understanding of it.
Alas it wasn’t until as recent as 2009, French researchers Dr. Odile Buisson and Dr. Pierre Foldès gave the medical world it’s first complete 3-D sonography of the stimulated clitoris. They did this work for three years without any proper funding. Thanks to them, we now understand how the erectile tissue of the clitoris engorges and surrounds the vagina – a complete breakthrough that explains how what we once considered to be a vaginal orgasm is actually an internal clitoral orgasm.
Dr. Foldès has been performing surgery on women who have suffered from clitoral mutilation, restoring pleasure to over 3,000 circumcised patients. He also gets passionate about the lack of study with regards to the clitoris:
“When I returned to France to treat genital mutilation, I was amazed that they were never tried. The medical literature tells us the truth about our contempt for women. For three centuries, there are thousands of references to penile surgery, nothing on the clitoris, except for some cancers or dermatology -and nothing to restore its sensitivity. The very existence of an organ of pleasure is denied, medically. Today, if you look at the anatomy books that all surgeons have, you will find two pages above. There is a real intellectual excision. “
So there you have it. As if all the repression, cultural influences, guilt, childhood imprints, and fear of being our true selves center stage in society weren’t enough, we also have the politics of medicine keeping us in the dark. The great news is that researchers like Dr. Buisson, Dr. Foldès, and Dr. O’Connell are paving the way for greater knowledge … and greater pleasure!
Hope springs … internal!
Now for something a little less serious and more fun! Here is a video of artist and sex educator, Betty Dodson, drawing the internal clitoris. Note: the glans are accidentally labeled “glands” in the video, but remember the proper term is glans!! Enjoy!
-Ms. M
V
December 13, 2011
Best article ever. It has explained a LOT. E-mailing this to my husband. 🙂 We’ve got some things to discuss. lol
Katherine Marion
December 14, 2011
GREEN TANTRA shared this … on their facebook page. So very fascinating and certainly the inner truth of a HERstory that no many are aware of.
I look forward to later, delving further into your penetrating writing. Pardon the pun – could not resist.
Thank you for empowering all of us with your truth.
Pussy Kat and her stream of dreamy creamy consciousness
morningsong
December 14, 2011
Thank you for the excellent article! Who knew?
AddyB
December 15, 2011
my mind….is blown.
my (sex) life and understanding of my body has been revolutionized.
SO MUCH makes sense now!
One of your american friends
December 15, 2011
HERstory? Is that like HISstory (minus an S?)
Matt Wissemann
December 15, 2011
Hi, thanks for the beautiful read. So I guess now what I would like to know is how does a male stimulate the internal clitoris more effectively?? Sometimes my partner never reaches climax while I do. Stimulating these areas much more so she can have an orgasm during sex would be really nice to know. Thanks.
f
December 31, 2011
Massaging the pubic mound – the bony part of the pelvis above the clit – especially the very small central notch on the bone there – can be very stimulating as well as some pressure on the space between the mound and the navel (more of the clitoral structure is under there). I read this in Good HouseKeeping of all places! Also having your partner raise her head – as if to look at you- while she’s on her back also will concentrate sensation and increase arousal,
Andrew Gemkow
December 16, 2011
Great article. Although the clitoris has a biological function for which author may not have been aware, or omitted for sake of topic consistency.
The female orgasm effectively triggers contractions of the cervix; which creates a siphoning or “pump” effect that draws semen into the uterus. Pleasure? Yes. Function? YES! Contraception aside, great sex makes more babies! 😉
AlchemistGeorge
January 17, 2012
I think this was believed to be true many years ago, but has been disproved in a couple of different way, most recently via advanced imaging techniques. The 1997 book ‘Sperm Wars’ contains a thorough discussion of this.
artselina
December 16, 2011
Brilliant! thank you makes so much sense! espec wi the pic-diagrams THank you! xx
Judy
December 16, 2011
Well! That’ll put the snap, crackle, pop in your Rice Krispies!
Martin
December 16, 2011
Great article and diagrams. It is amazing how things that were known hundreds of years ago get “lost” in modern medicine – like female ejaculation. I am sure the extent of the sensitivity of that region was known as well as experienced (!) in the past. Practices like good tantric massage and healing can re-awaken that whole region; particularly when it has been de-sensitised by trauma.
noah mclaughlin
December 17, 2011
Fantastic and informative. Thank you!
vanessa
December 18, 2011
Ok, as scientist myself, I now understand why I feel a giggling sensation when I need to pee. I don’t know if other women feels the same, but I will assume that when bladder is full it has contact with the corpus cavernosum giving some kind of internal pleasure. Wow, I feel like if I’ve discovered something amazing, thanks.
MelodiousMsM
January 16, 2012
I will go ahead and say, me too! ; ) Thanks for your comment!
wing
December 18, 2011
Seeing the full shape of the internal clitoris makes me have a lot of questions about how this could possibly force us to rethink the topic of female ejaculation.
Sacha Jacobson
December 20, 2011
Thanks for posting this. It is always great to have important information to spread to the masses. Good point Andrew. Sharing!
Misha
December 21, 2011
Hallalejah, finally the world opens it’s eyes to reality. Hopefully we can open the modern woman’s perception of her own sexuality being….part of her being, not something bestowed upon herself by another. I have always been able to achieve orgasm simply by “tension and release” of the structure of internal muscles located inside my pelvis.
sruthi
December 24, 2011
hey… you totally rocked. I have read all these stuff in different places so I know it must have been difficult to get it to one article.
could you do one thing? create a bit shorter version. most people I know won’t read the entire thing. too long and needs more than the ordinary internet attention span. 😛
if you want this to reach more people, create something that captures the essential points and give this page as a link in that article. just a suggestion.
Amber
December 24, 2011
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this! I had absolutely no idea. Thank god I found out now, at 30, and can teach my daughter as she grows up.
It’s so true that a woman’s mind plays a key role in her sexual pleasure and orgasm, and I believe that just knowing all of this, knowing that my body and my clitoris are more than I thought possible, is going to up my pleasure factor tremendously.
Again, thank you! This is majorly making the rounds on my friends facebook posts today.
Jessica
December 27, 2011
There’s this psychologist/researcher from Scotland who’s done studies saying that clitoral orgasms aren’t “true” orgasms and that people who have clitoral orgasms are mentally unstable. He said that true orgasms are vaginal and are triggered by the vagus nerve near the cervix. He said that women unable to achieve this kind of orgasm are sexually dysfunctional. 😦
MelodiousMsM
January 16, 2012
I would suggest he has a meeting with Dr. Buisson and Dr. Foldes! Sounds to me like he is extremely threatened by female sexuality and anatomy. Freud had a similar theory (he too was a pscyhologist rather than an anatomist), and it has since been scoffed at, discredited, and disgarded by the medical world. Yes, female orgasms utilize many nerves (including the vagus nerve), the internal clitoris, muscles, and involuntary reflexes – orgasms are complex and therefore take many areas of deep complex understanding – something for which this Scottish fellow obviously doesn’t have the capacity.
marcusthemad
December 29, 2011
Well, hello insight! My dad’s a doc and I never knew… I like knowing this – I foresee certain improvements…
Cynthia Cusick
December 30, 2011
This is a fabulous article! So much of my artwork revolves around female maturity and sexuality, this new view of our sexual selves will find it’s form in my work in the future, for sure!
Trish Murphy
December 30, 2011
The video of artist at work is fine, but the excellent anatomical illustrations are not credited. Yikes! You would cite your sources, wouldn’t you? Always give credit to your illustrators, no matter what you are doing, please.
MelodiousMsM
January 16, 2012
Hi Trish,
I actually drew the sketches!
Cheers!
Ms.M
Ingrid McRae
December 30, 2011
What a wonderfully interesting atricle.
Absolutely brilliantly descriptive diagrams and well written report.
It seems many surgeons still think and view the clitoris in such a draconian way.
There are so many women out there that will benifit greatly from research such as this.
Lets just pray that in years to come we will beable to understand it in all it’s glory in the same depth if not more as we currently do about the male anaotomy and it’s “parts”.
Tessa Wanton
December 30, 2011
Fabulously insightful. Every woman (and man!) Should know this, just because this is an organ for pleasure doesn’t mean it has no validity. In fact, if mother nature has seen fit to evolve such an organ, doesn’t this warrant even more research as to why? Fascinating stuff on so many levels.
Chris Harmon
December 30, 2011
As a teen on a bus traveling for a hs track meet with a (very) full bladder.. I experienced my first true orgasm on the back of a bus with my bladder jiggling against my g spot/ internal clit- look ma- no hands!!!! LMAO
Fluxosaurus
December 30, 2011
Thank you for a wonderful article, the sagittal section is just so beautifully instructive.
Bren
December 30, 2011
I’m a Passion Parties consultant and the amount of education (along with fun of course) in my parties is MAJOR! So many women do not know their bodies… it’s my personal mission to educate women one party at a time. I think I’ll even print out the MRI pictures to show exactly what I’m talking about in my presentation! I’ve shared a link to this article with my whole team as well! — As a side note, it’s a well put article like this one, that makes me extra proud about what I do. I get silly looks when people find out I sell adult toys, lotions and potions – but for me, it’s way more about liberation and celebration of femininity. So glad there are blogs like this!!!! Thank you!
Gillian Maddigan
December 31, 2011
Thanks for this article it is brilliant. As a face reader, the lips and mouth in a face represent the sexual organs and trying to explain the correlation between the lips and the vagina is a challenge. Until a physical demonstration, of stimulating the point of sensitivity on the upper lip (this will vary depending on the quantity and quality of the tissue). The experience of the muscle, nerve and blood stimulation that occurs and responses you can achieve, if you are in tune with yourself or partner, is amazing. This article shows, to me, how the mouth plays a connective pathway between sexual or sensual stimulation without contact with the sexual organs. Thank you again
GentlesAndLadymen
December 31, 2011
Thanks for this article, which is relevant to everyone with internal genital organs, who are not all women. I am a cissexual gay man who plays with trans men. I have observed anecdotally that, as the exterior part grows and develops with testosterone therapy, internal structures also grow similarly, affecting (often heightening) sexual response. The internal length is also relevant to various types of metaoidioplasty (a type of transition-related genital surgery). I’d like to see some science around the new knowledge of the internal structure of this organ and how it, and the changes it undergoes with testosterone, affect trans men and their sexual response.
Donna
December 31, 2011
This article answers questions I’ve had for years and years! Thanks so much!
Dr Vivienne Cass
December 31, 2011
Thanks for the great article. Hope you don’t mind if I suggest that if anyone wants to expand on this information and how it can be applied to understanding women’s sexuality, as well as see further diagrams of the entire clitoris (externanal as well as internal) from various angles, they can find this in my book The Elusive Orgasm in the chapter ‘What is orgasm?’. Regards, Vivienne Cass
GodzillaRage
December 31, 2011
Maybe I’m just being silly, but do you think the internal structure of the clitoris explains the g spot?
Jamil El Andaloussi
January 1, 2012
No wonder why some women think themselves as frigid, with their visible clit being the tip of an iceberg begging to melt….
Colibri
January 2, 2012
I’m curious if you know how this expanded clitoris info relates to the “G” spot (is it a part of the clitoris somehow?), and also female ejaculation? Also, my nipples seem to have a direct beeline to my clitoris – what do you think the connection is there?
Miran Marti Min
January 2, 2012
Yes great article….amazing
meriza joly
January 2, 2012
Wow! thank you so much, I will share and keep this one close.
Arikia
January 3, 2012
Wow, thank you so much for posting. These images are the equivalent of seeing the first picture of Earth from outer space. It’s a shame it’s taken us this long to get here, but it’s going to be a whole new world from here on out.
Estella Howard
January 3, 2012
Clitoris my little pleasure button
You give me hours of fun and such relaxation
You put me to sleep and you wake me up
Clitoris my little pleasure button
Sandra
January 5, 2012
Fascinating – thanks so much for sharing this. I hope this information leads to more studies in the future. For example, I would really like to know why some women can experience orgasm with no direct stimulation of the glans, while others simply cannot.
AlchemistGeorge
January 7, 2012
Well done!
Not many folks dig back to Helen O’Connell’s work. Now I can’t find her original paper (of course) but I believe that she made her original discoveries via dissection, and that she found that some anatomy books pre-1900 were more complete (with regard to the clitoris) than those after 1900 – I wondered what social change(?) led to that loss? or decay? of information.
I’m still trying to identify all the other nerves around the vaginal sheath – I suspect that vagus nerve may come quite close to the vaginal sheath.
Dr Vivienne Cass
January 8, 2012
Well, it has been suggested (Blackledge) that in the 16th/17th centuries when the clitoris was first discovered, female sexual pleasure within marriage was ‘morally acceptable’ because female orgasm was thought to be essential for conception. So learning about the clitoris was considered mighty important. Sadly, from the late 18th century when this link between pleasure and conception was found to be false until 1998 when Helen O’Connell did her research (J of Urology) it became a no-go zone and was censored from discussion and medical textbooks. A sad but true part of medical history.
E. Manhattan
January 7, 2012
For a time in the very early 1970’s, when I was in college in Sacramento, California, the women I knew were passing around a slim paperback book, like a chapbook, which described the internal anatomy of the clitoris. It had diagrams like those accompanying this article, and a similar explanation of the then-current anatomists’ willful ignorance.
That was 40 years ago. I just assumed that women have known this stuff since then – it was certainly common knowledge among my friends back then. Among other things, the internal clitoral structure explains how anal intercourse can be so orgasmic for a lot of women, since it can directly stimulate one side of the clitoris if everything is in the right position. I’ve discussed it with other men who didn’t know about the structure over the years, but assumed their ignorance was the fault of gender-specific handing down of sexual information from older men to younger men.
It seems that knowledge hadn’t been passed around as widely as I assumed – it’s great if it’s finally getting more attention.
AlchemistGeorge
January 17, 2012
And there are a boatload of nerves around the anus – I believe it is the second highest concentration of pressure sensitive nerves on the exterior of the human body. And then there are nerves in the lining of the rectum.
Nick
January 8, 2012
Really interesting research here! But I echo the million dollar question – what does a person do to better stimulate this fascinating organ?
katrinapearl
January 8, 2012
This is really interesting. I had no idea!
Jeff Richard
January 9, 2012
My only argument is against the statement that the clitoris serves no other purpose than to provide pleasure. That pleasure, or release of dopamines and endorphines (and other great stuff) in turn reinforces behaviors attributed to the act of sex which is ultimately the act of procreation. I think the evolution of women having pleasurable sex has insured our continuance as a species. All hail the mighty clitoris!
Arinn
January 9, 2012
this is incredible!!
Martin
January 9, 2012
Thanks for great article
a.bul
January 9, 2012
Blah,blah,blah,sounds like something my wife told me when we where dating twenty-five years ago .
Rodney
January 10, 2012
Pleasure in a woman is also an incentive to have sex and therefore has a purpose.
clementine cannibal
January 10, 2012
thank you so much for this. clitoral and vulvar anatomical education is SO important!
Jeanne
January 12, 2012
Great article! I can’t thank you enough for sharing this. I’m shocked by how little I know about my own body!
JoreJj Z. (@JoreJjZ)
January 13, 2012
This is so beautiful both in terms of the video artistry at the end of the post and the depth and meaning of this discovery for all who read it. Thank you.
Emma G
January 15, 2012
Such an interesting read. Thank you.
Mona
January 15, 2012
This is the best article I’ve read in the longest time. Thank you!
Sean
January 16, 2012
oooooh, now i get it…
Sean
January 16, 2012
Awesome research. I came up with a few theories of my own now :>