New research out of the Netherlands done by Ju Young Lee has given us our most detailed map yet of the nerves of the clitoris. There’s a good splash of articles about this right now, many of which acknowledge that this research has come 28 years later than parallel research on the penile nerves, the ways medical research has generally overlooked the clitoris, and the benefits of this new information, like:
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- Better potential outcomes for pelvic surgeries, including reconstructive and gender affirmation
- Greater understanding of clitoral function, which can better inform medical care
There are new diagrams, someone crafty made what looks like an acrylic 3D rendering, I’m betting there will be earrings soon.
Educator Anne Hodder-Shipp has something to say about it. Fair warning: they drop the F bomb a few times.
Learn more about Anne’s work at http://annehoddershipp.com
If you are entering clinical practice now or soon, the basic anatomy of half your future patients is now better understood, but only by those of us who take in the new data. The maps your textbooks used may have been wrong. The training that shaped the providers who trained your attendings were probably built on our former understandings, which are made of incomplete information, reinforced by a culture that disincentivizes asking harder questions.
Please, remember that checking the clitoris is part of a gynecological health screening. We try not to touch the clitoris directly because it is so sensitive, but you can put your index fingers on either side of the clitoris and push the hood back towards the patient’s head to make sure you can visualize it and that the hood isn’t adhered to the glans. (Or like it said in an article I read during my rabbit hole research, “gentle bilateral cephalad preputial retraction.”) Try saying that five times fast!
What you find depends on whether you look — at the patient in front of you, and at the research landing on your desk.
Medicine will always be revised. Whether you find that exciting, burdensome, or some of both — decide now to be a clinician who notices.