And in the 38th edition of Gray’s Anatomy in 1995 it was introduced as just “a small version of the penis”.
A Melbourne urologist, Helen O’Connell, says the clitoris has been ignored by researchers for far too long.
“It has been deleted intellectually by the medical and scientific community, presumably aligning attitude to a societal ignorance,” she said.
The scans revealed in 3D the trajectory of the five complex tree-like branching nerves running through the clitoris in unprecedented detail, the widest 0.7mm across.
“This is the first ever 3D map of the nerves within the glans of the clitoris,” said Lee.
Lee and her colleagues show that some branches of clitoral nerves reach the mons pubis, the rounded mound of tissue over the pubic bone.
The mapping of clitoral nerves is likely to inform reconstructive surgery after female genital mutilation, one of the most extreme examples of cultural misogyny. »