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Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor (olor)| pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | religion | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
More articles by Dr. Soucasaux: Anatomical drawings - Anovulatory cycles - Archetypal aspects of the female genitals - The breasts: some morphological aspects - Colposcopy - Comments on the corpus luteum and related aspects - Comments on some anatomical and symbolic aspects of the female pelvis - The curious relations between androgens and estrogens in women - Drospirenone Oral Contraceptives - Due to prohibition, Brazilian women don't have access to modern medicinal abortion - Endocrinology of menstruation - The Fallopian tubes - Female sexual response - The Gräfenberg Spot (G-Spot) - The Gynecologic Palpation (descendant of "The Touch") - Gynecological assistance: the three basic areas - Gynecology and Gynecologic Surgery - Gynecologist versus obstetrician: what lies behind the combination? - "Gyneco-obstetric-surgical" stubborness and the perpetuation of one of the greatest mistakes of women's medicine - Hypermenorrhea and/or Menorrhagia (Prolonged and/or Excessive Menstrual Bleedings) - Hypertrichosis, Hirsutism and Androgenic Manifestations in Women - Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKHauser) Syndrome - Menstrual toxin: An old name for a real thing? - Nature and the ovaries - On the Intimate, or Small-Scale, Mechanisms of Menstruation - On the Strange Nature of the Ovaries - Oral hormonal contraceptives (the "Pill") - The Ovaries: Some Functional and Archetypal Considerations - Peculiarities of the Female Genitals' Sensory Innervation - Physiology of menstruation - Polycystic ovaries syndrome - The Possibility of Becoming Pregnant, Its Implications for Women, and Abortion - Premenstrual congestion of the breasts - Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) - The Psychology of Gynecology part 1 (part 2) - Psychosomatic and symbolic aspects of menstruation - Psychosomatic gynecology - Some Details on the Function of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Ovaries Axis - Stanislav Grof's Perinatal Matrixes of the Unconscious and Women's Medicine - Symmetric Patterns in the Female Genitals - Thoughts on Female Sexual Psychology - Uninterrupted use of hormonal contraceptives for menstrual suppression: why I do not recommend it - The uterine cervix - Uterine contractility - The Uterus and the Female "Passive-Active" - Women's corporeal consciousness and experience - Women's Experience of the Breasts - Women's Undesired Pregnancies and Women's Right to Abortion and see his Art of Menstruation
Read a Spanish translation of this article and more Spanish translations of Dr. Soucasaux's articles: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Los riesgos de las duchas vaginales - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación - Sincronía menstrual y suspensión


The Gräfenberg Spot (G-Spot)

Dr. Nelson Soucasaux, Brazilian Gynecologist

The Gräfenberg Spot - the G-spot - remains one of the most mysterious subjects in the study of the female sexual response at the genital level. The question of the existence or the non-existence of the G-spot in, at least, some women, is a highly controversial subject which, unfortunately, has not received the deserved attention on the part of gynecology. One of the most interesting studies about it can be found in the book "Eve's Secrets - A New Theory of Female Sexuality," by Josephine Lowndes Sevely (Random House, Inc., New York, 1987). According to some anatomical studies, the G-spot seems to correspond to a part of the female urethra with many periurethral glands - glands around the urethra (see the drawing, below) -, erectile tissue (tissue that swells) and nerve endings responsive to sexual stimulation.

Periurethral glands can be usually found in the female urethra. These glands are situated along the urethral canal and release their mucous into its interior through very small ducts that open there. There are also the two widely known Skene's, or paraurethral, glands, that open directly into the vulva (the outer, visible parts of the female genitals), near the urethral opening. The erectile tissue is made of a kind of blood vessel capable of great expansion during sexual excitement, becoming exceptionally enlarged and tense. In women, there is a great quantity of erectile tissue in the clitoris, inside the labia majora and minora (the "lips" of the vulva that cover the vaginal and urinary openings), around the vulvo-vaginal opening and the lower third of the vagina. A very small quantity of this tissue can also be found in the vaginal walls and along the urethra.

According to some studies, in the part of the female urethra corresponding to the G-spot there would be a greater than usual amount of the already mentioned periurethral glands and erectile tissue, together with many nerve endings sensitive to sexual stimulation. The G-spot would be situated behind the anterior (front) wall of the vagina, along the urethral canal and, when stimulated, it would become swollen and able to trigger the orgasmic response. If you insert a finger into the vagina, some reports say, and press its front wall next to the urethra, the G-spot could not only be stimulated, but also touched if engorged enough as a result of the stimulation.

Nevertheless, despite several reports and some well-conducted studies, the existence of the G-spot remains a very controversial subject. It's possible that it can be only present (or fully developed) in a relatively small number of women. The female periurethral glands seem to correspond to atrophic embryonic remnants of the structure that originates the prostate gland in men.

A few reports state that some women - those perhaps endowed with a highly developed G-spot - produce a secretion by these periurethral glands during orgasm. This secretion would be the even more mysterious and usually denied "female ejaculation." Nevertheless, such cases seem to be very rare and difficult to prove. The great problem here is to establish the difference between this "mysterious" secretion and the normal vaginal lubrication resulting from sexual excitement and occasional release of urine during the orgasm.

I want to emphasize that all of this is still highly controversial and, therefore, it is not my intention here to take any personal position on the matter. I only hope that gynecology finally decides to investigate the subject with the attention it deserves.

Copyright Nelson Soucasaux 2001 (text and illustration)
_____________________________________

Nelson Soucasaux is a gynecologist dedicated to clinical, preventive and psychosomatic gynecology. Graduated in 1974 by Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, he is the author of several articles published in medical journals and of the books "Novas Perspectivas em Ginecologia" ("New Perspectives in Gynecology") and "Os Órgãos Sexuais Femininos: Forma, Função, Símbolo e Arquétipo" ("The Female Sexual Organs: Shape, Function, Symbol and Archetype"), published by Imago Editora, Rio de Janeiro, 1990, 1993.

Web site (Portuguese-English): http://www.nelsonginecologia.med.br

Email: nelsons@nelsonginecologia.med.br

NEWS | homepage | LIST OF ALL TOPICS | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor (olor)| pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | religion | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
More articles by Dr. Soucasaux: Anatomical drawings - Anovulatory cycles - Archetypal aspects of the female genitals - The breasts: some morphological aspects - Colposcopy - Comments on the corpus luteum and related aspects - Comments on some anatomical and symbolic aspects of the female pelvis - The curious relations between androgens and estrogens in women - Drospirenone Oral Contraceptives - Due to prohibition, Brazilian women don't have access to modern medicinal abortion - Endocrinology of menstruation - The Fallopian tubes - Female sexual response - The Gräfenberg Spot (G-Spot) - The Gynecologic Palpation (descendant of "The Touch") - Gynecological assistance: the three basic areas - Gynecology and Gynecologic Surgery - Gynecologist versus obstetrician: what lies behind the combination? - "Gyneco-obstetric-surgical" stubborness and the perpetuation of one of the greatest mistakes of women's medicine - Hypermenorrhea and/or Menorrhagia (Prolonged and/or Excessive Menstrual Bleedings) - Hypertrichosis, Hirsutism and Androgenic Manifestations in Women - Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser (MRKHauser) Syndrome - Menstrual toxin: An old name for a real thing? - Nature and the ovaries - On the Intimate, or Small-Scale, Mechanisms of Menstruation - On the Strange Nature of the Ovaries - Oral hormonal contraceptives (the "Pill") - The Ovaries: Some Functional and Archetypal Considerations - Peculiarities of the Female Genitals' Sensory Innervation - Physiology of menstruation - Polycystic ovaries syndrome - The Possibility of Becoming Pregnant, Its Implications for Women, and Abortion - Premenstrual congestion of the breasts - Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) - The Psychology of Gynecology part 1 (part 2) - Psychosomatic and symbolic aspects of menstruation - Psychosomatic gynecology - Some Details on the Function of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Ovaries Axis - Stanislav Grof's Perinatal Matrixes of the Unconscious and Women's Medicine - Symmetric Patterns in the Female Genitals - Thoughts on Female Sexual Psychology - Uninterrupted use of hormonal contraceptives for menstrual suppression: why I do not recommend it - The uterine cervix - Uterine contractility - The Uterus and the Female "Passive-Active" - Women's corporeal consciousness and experience - Women's Experience of the Breasts - Women's Undesired Pregnancies and Women's Right to Abortion and see his Art of Menstruation