No one had ever seen it like this before.
The neuroscientist Ju Young Lee, from Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands, used a synchrotron X-ray source in France to scan two donated pelvises postmortem. What she found upends three decades of anatomy books: inside the glans of the clitoris are five nerve trunks that branch like the limbs of a tree, some reaching as far as the mons pubis.
Until now, it was believed that the dorsal nerve went dormant before reaching there.
The problem is that much of the clitoris remains hidden inside the body, surrounded by bones and other pelvic organs. MRI scans allow its general shape to be observed. Worse still, there are 20 times more studies on the glans of the penis than on the clitoral glans.
The delay is not insignificant, but this map—still preliminary and not yet peer-reviewed—could reduce the 22 % of women who lose sensitivity after reconstructive surgery for genital mutilation. It could also help prevent nerve damage in the vulva and loss of sensitivity during cancer surgeries and other procedures in the area.
That said, much remains to be discovered. The map was built from just two postmortem women’s pelvises, and the study has not yet undergone peer review. The researchers themselves consider this work more of a starting point than the definitive map of the clitoris.