Neuroanatomy of the Clitoris

A plastic three-dimensional model of the human clitoris (pink). The quarter provides scale, indicating the real size of the clitoral anatomy.

There has been a lot of hype recently about a preprint describing the results of a study by Dr. Ju Young Lee and co-workers on the detailed anatomy of the clitoral nerves. The Guardian described it as the complete mapping of the clitoral nerves: “Almost 30 years after the intricate web of nerves inside the penis was plotted out, the same mapping has finally been completed for one of the least-studied organs in the human body – the clitoris.” It has also been the foundation for many posts on social media. The primary purpose of this post is to provide the link to the actual preprint on bioRxiv, which is an electronic repository where researchers in the biomedical sciences often post versions of their manuscripts before they are published in peer-reviewed journals. As such, the preprints found there current but haven’t been subjected to rigorous peer-review.

Dr. Nighat Arif has created an excellent description of this preprint for a general audience and posted it to Instragram. It is well worth watching, especially if the plastic model in the photo above does not look like a clitoris to you.

Much of the social media and news coverage of this preprint notes that clitoral anatomy has been under-studied, especially in comparison to the penis. However, I think it isn’t fair when social media figures represent this study as the first ever mapping of the nerves in the clitoris. This overlooks the work of Dr. Helen O’Connell and co-workers, who published a paper in 2005 based on careful dissection and imaging that described the nerves of the clitoris. To be fair, the preprint does provide a much more detailed mapping of the nerves of the clitoris using advanced imaging technology. It also highlights, once again, the 3D anatomy of the clitoris that is often unrecognized, especially the substantial fraction of the structure that is internal and therefore not appreciated by visual inspection.