Dr. Steven Novella, writing in NeurologicaBlog, asks Is There a G-Spot?:
The existence of a G-spot – a special location in the female vaginal wall that is especially pleasurable – has been a raging controversy since it was first proposed about a half-century ago. Now a new study by British scientists concludes the G-spot is a myth.
Ernst Grafenberg, a German gynecologist, discovered what he believed was a “second clitoris” – a bean-shaped area of the anterior wall of the vagina behind the pubic bone – that could be stimulated to create a “vaginal orgasm.” The “G-spot” was then popularized by Beverly Whipple, who studied the G-spot and wrote popular books about it.
But the very existence of the G-spot remains scientifically controversial. The problem is that there is no clear anatomical and physiological correlate – although there are some tantalizing candidates.
Where is the G-spot?
If the G-spot exists then we would expect that there would be some anatomical clue as to it’s existence – specifically, and area of increased sensitivity should correlate to an area of increased nerve fiber density. The first person to address this issue was a colleague and skeptical friend of mine, Terry Hines, who published the provocative article: The G-spot: A Modern Gynecological Myth.
Essentially he reviewed histological sections of the vaginal wall stained for nerve fibers and found that there were no areas of especially high density – no G-spot. Those in the pro-G-spot camp took exception to his anatomical evidence.
Subsequent studies, however, have found that vaginal wall innervation is increased anteriorly and distally – corresponding to the general area of the alleged G-spot. So while there is no bean-shaped area of high fiber density (no “spot”), the G-spot part of the vaginal wall generally has more innervation.
Another study found that women with thicker anterior vaginal walls are more likely to report vaginal orgasms. So this lends some credibility to the notion of vaginally triggered orgasms, as, at least according to this study, there is an anatomical correlation.
What is the G-spot?
I have found two alternate hypotheses for what the G-spot is, other than a clump of increased nerve fiber density. The first stems from research looking into the electrical activity of the vaginal wall. Essentially researchers found that there is a steady wave of electrical activity in the resting vaginal wall, and this activity increased with pressure, for example during sex.
Read the complete piece, on NeurologicaBlog: Is There a G-Spot?:
