Meer over de clitoris

MIND & MATTER
Clitoris more than just a little hill
Saturday, August 8, 1998
By Susan Williamson and Rachel Nowa

Penis envy may be a thing of the past. The clitoris, it turns out, is
no "little hill" as its derivation from the Greek kleitoris implies.
Rather, it extends deep into the body, with a total size at least
twice as large as most anatomy texts show, and 10 times larger than the average person realizes, according to new studies by Helen O'Connell, a urology surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

The clitoris earned its Lilliputian reputation, in part, because much
of its elaborate 3-D structure is on the inside, hidden by fat and
bone -- an anatomical smoke screen that has helped fool lay people and experts alike.

"There is a lot of erectile tissue down there that is not drawn in any anatomy textbooks, save perhaps a couple of really old dissections in the French and German literature," Dr. O'Connell says. "Just because you can'tsee the rest does not mean it isn't there."

Nor does it mean it is not important. Dr. O'Connell's detailed
descriptions of female sexual anatomy could help prevent impaired sexual function in women who have pelvic operations.

Dr. O'Connell first realized just how little was known about female
sexual anatomy when she was studying for her surgical exams in the late 1980s. Even now, she says, textbooks routinely recycle
decades-old, inaccurate illustrations of female sex organs, or omit
diagrams altogether. The written accounts also can lack a certain
something.

One text describes female genitalia as the same as the guys' only
turned inside out. Another describes it as the "poor homologue" of the male. And none of them -- not even the anatomists' bible, Gray's Anatomy -- describe in detail the nerves and blood vessels that go to the clitoris.

The study of men's sexual anatomy has fared slightly better. In the 1970s, modern microdissection techniques were brought to bear on the nerves and blood vessels that supply the penis. The information gleaned helped spawn "nerve sparing" surgery that reduces the risk of impotence after operations for diseases such as prostate or bladder cancer.

Helped by John Hutson, an expert on pediatric genital reconstruction at the University of Melbourne, Dr. O'Connell hoped to do the same for women's sexual anatomy. But as she started to map out the nerves, she realized it wasn't just the fine detail that was missing from the textbook picture of the clitoris. "I thought, Damn! I'm not sure the gross anatomy is correct, either."

Since then, she and her assistant, Robert Plenter, have dissected the bodies of 10 adult women, relying heavily on photography to capture the 3-D structure of the clitoris. She has described in detail the dorsal nerves (much bigger than in the anatomy books) that are believed to carry the sensory information on the first step of its journey to the brain, as well as the cavernosal nerves that probably control the smooth muscles of the clitoris, and the size of its blood vessels, enabling it to swell during sex.

According to her dissections, the external tip of the clitoris, or
glans, connects on the inside to a pyramid-shaped mass of erectile tissue, far larger than previously described. The "body" of the clitoris, which connects to the glans, is about as big as the first joint of your thumb. It has two arms up to nine centimetres long that flare backward into the body, lying just a few millimetres from the ends of the muscles that run up the inside of the thigh. Also extending from the body of the clitoris, and filling the space between its arm, are two bulbs, one on each side of the vaginal cavity.

Gray's Anatomy and other texts claim that the clitoris, unlike the
penis, is entirely separate from the urethra, the tube that connects the bladder to the outside. Dr. O'Connell disagrees. According to her dissections, the clitoris surrounds the urethra on three sides, while the fourth is embedded in the front wall of the vagina.

That layout makes sense if you think about what the clitoris has to do. Freud described it as a tool for arousing the rest of the female much as "pine shavings can be kindled in order to get a log of harder wood on fire." But the clitoris also helps squeeze the urethra shut during intercourse, perhaps stopping bacteria from making their way up to the bladder and causing an infection. The engorged bulbs of the clitoris also may help hold the walls of the vagina rigid, aiding
penetration.

So why have anatomists routinely got the clitoris wrong?

Part of the problem may be a Victorian prudishness about women's sexual organs. Then there's the fact that most of the clitoris is hidden inside, shielded by lots of fat and the arch of the pubic bone. Another obstacle to accuracy is that anatomical studies are usually done on the bodies of women in their 80s and 90s. Just as muscle and bone wither with age, so does the mass of erectile tissue in the clitoris.

This article is from New Scientist, a weekly science and technology
magazine based in London.

van http://yarchive.net/med/clitoris.html

Ben benieuwd wat jullie hiervan vinden. Dit zou de G-plek een uitloper van de clitoris maken, wat ik eigenlijk wel logisch vind klinken...

het is me wat... klinkt heel logisch allemaal

Dus de G, A, U en -weet ik veel wat- plekken zijn dus het resultaat van een grote vrouwelijke erectie? "Hoe groot is de jouwe?"

edit:
Om even serieus te reageren: Dit is nu eens goed onderzoek. Vaak hebben vrouwen na een baarmoederoperatie problemen met orgasmes en opgewonden raken. Vrouwen die geen sexdrive (meer) hebben, wordt verteld dat het tussen de oren zit terwijl dat dus niet het geval hoeft te zijn. Hopelijk verduidelijkt dit onderzoek een hoop seksuele problemen bij vrouwen.

Gha, dat wist ik lekker al.

[juno]

Paranoide schreef op 20-04-2004 @ 17:40 :
Gha, dat wist ik lekker al.

Geweldig toch, die vrouwelijke sex organen. En toch werken ze bij iedereen een beetje anders.

Ik heb het artikel niet gelezen, maar je zegt waar het over gaat en ik heb hier wel eens iets anders over gelezen. Ja, dat zou inderdaad een hoop verklaren