Recently, Dr. Ju Young Lee built upon the research of Dr. Helen O'Connell and created a complete 3D mapping of the nerves of the clitoris. What they found was extraordinary.
There are several complex tree-like branching nerves that innervate the mons pubis, clitoral hood, and skin folds of the vulva. And that's in addition to the 10,000 nerve endings on your clitoral glans.
Here we see the 3D rendering of the internal clitoris. The green and pink areas - the corpus cavernosum and corpus spongiosum - are the erectile tissue, the areas that fill up with blood when stimulated by touch or vibration (note that we have as much erectile tissue as a penis but it's inside the body).
The blue area - the venous network - is the vascular system - the veins, that carry the blood to the green and pink areas (the erectile tissue). Note the shape of the internal clitoris and how the wishbone shape cascades down on both sides of the vaginal opening.
The blue, red, pink, green, and yellow areas are distinct branches of the dorsal nerve that innervate different areas of the clitoral glans. If you look at section A, you see the complex nature of each nerve branch. Nothing peeters out; in fact, the nerve branches out and reaches more area.
This is my favorite part of the research. These orange strands cascading down past each side of your internal clitoris (the legs and bulbs of the clitoris) innervate your inner and outer labia. They start above the clitoral glans and extend down on either side of the vaginal opening.
How Can You "Begin" Sexually Without an Emotional Connection?
Can Marijuana Increase Libido?
Hi Betty,
I'm a 30 year old, self-employed female who has been in a long term (5 year) relationship with a man, two years my senior. We're both relatively healthy, attractive, and out-going. As can (probably) be expected, we have sex a lot more infrequently these days than we did in the first three years of our relationship, when we weren't running our own business, and things were still pretty new.
Is There Any Way to Make Your Penis Bigger?
Hi Dr. Dodson,
Thank you for this great site, for helping me stop feeling guilty about masturbation and becoming more comfortable with the size and the appearence of my penis. But i still have a question regarding size...You know that there are many websites that "address" the issue of penis size and make money by offering medication/ devices/ exercises to gain size.
Is the G-spot Part of the Clitoris?
Dear Dr. Betty,
I found an article in Discovery Health that referred to the g-spot as part of the clit. Since then I have found two more sources that support this claim; "I *heart* Female Orgasm" by Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller, and "She Comes First" by Ian Kerner. I'm so frustrated, because I'd like to believe these are reputable sources! Is this misinformation leftover from when the g-spot became popular, a case of overzealous clit-pride, or is there some truth to it?
R
Dear R,
Women Don't Get Me Hard...Am I Gay?
Dear Betty,
Since I was about seven or eight years old, I have masturbated with the thought of the naked women I saw on American Pie 3 or the thought of my crush. This continued and continued until now, which I am 17 years old. I have asked myself about my sexual orientation and I have literally freaked out about not wanting to be gay, even though, there have been no signs whatsoever throughout my childhood.
Can Masturbation Make Me Infertile?
Dear Dr Betty,
Does the Pill Block Your Orgasms?
Dear Dr. Betty:
I am a twenty-five year old female, who has been sexually active since the age of 16. Never once have I had an orgasm; not by myself nor with a partner. I have been in a relationship for over a year, with a man I believe is going to be my husband one day. He is the only person I have ever told about my inability to orgasm. I always thought I would die without experiencing an orgasm. And I was okay with that.
We Are All Quite Queer
I just ran over to Fifth Avenue to see if I could catch my old, old friend Gretchen who helped me type up the first orders that came in from Ms. Magazine requesting my booklet, Liberating Masturbation. She has been the grand martial for Gay Pride many years now. Although I missed her again, I did catch the NYPD queer cops marching behind the NYPD Marching Band. Wow! That took guts, NYC finest and gay?
F*cking Like a Feminist: The Responses
These are some of the responses I received after penning my essay Fucking Like a Feminist where I posed the question: What does fucking like a feminist mean to you?
Since Anti-depresssants Orgasms Aren't the Same
Dear Dr. Betty,