Re-Imagining the Clitoris, an Illustrated Guide

10 min readMar 7, 2023

“I had no idea this is what we look like, there’s so much clitoris!”

*anonymous friend, also me, 10 years ago.

These 3D anatomical illustrations have been about 5 years in the making since I finished my masters in 2018. While studying at the University of Glasgow I based my thesis on the incredible anatomical journals of Dr Helen O’Connell (1998, 2005 & 2008), who did the first detailed anatomical studies of the clitoris since Kobelt in the 1840s (no joke). At the time I created a very rudimentary version of these models, however my skills, and technology, have evolved. I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned over these few last years and Dr O’Connell’s suggestion for how to properly include the clitoris in our scientific and cultural literature.

There is a saying that ‘research is me-search’ and for me that’s 100% true. These images are for my younger self that looked at diagrams I saw at school, in legitimate books, that did not match my body. It takes a lot of courage at a young age to believe your body over books, courage I didn’t have, I assumed that I was wrong and not the books, too afraid to properly explore myself.

During my studies I was also kindly supported by the Glasgow Institute of Health and Wellbeing, who’s nationally representative surveys on sexual and relational health in the UK showed that relational health correlates closely with physical health. These learnings later spurred me to train as an intimacy coach in order to learn about how our relationships; our culture, our interpersonal connections, and earliest experiences, shape our intimate lives and the sensation we can tolerate.

While researching my thesis I tried to make sense of the role of the clitoris, pleasure, sexuality and sense of self. It’s sure this taboo around pleasure and female sexuality was the key reason why the clitoris had been suppressed from scientific literature for so long, but how to write it back in? I still don’t know but I am still passionate about bringing its clever anatomy fully into public understanding. For me answers in this department come from outside academia and science, into the intuitive, the felt sense and spiritual. For example I’d recommend the work of Barbora Coralles, google her work on ‘breath and energy orgasms’; how to raise orgasmic energy internally, without any self-touch. I look forward to a world with a more expanded and positive view of sexuality.

Due to the historical taboo of female pleasure, throughout history the clitoris has been “lost and rediscovered ‘’ various times to academia, and until O’Connell’s work the most influential work on the clitoris was done by Kobelt, 1840s, and De Graf in the 17th Century. This lead to textbook inaccuracies Dr Helen O’Connell, an Australian Urologist, set out to correct in a series of journals; 1998, 2005 and 2008, of the distal vagina (the lower section near the vaginal opening), urethra and clitoris.

In 1672 De Graf wrote,

“We are extremely surprised that some anatomists make no more mention of this part than if it did not exist at all in the universe of nature”

The work by De Graaf in the 17th century seems to be the first comprehensive account of clitoral anatomy.

Kobelt wrote of his work:

“In this essay, I have made it my principal concern to show that the female possesses a structure that in all its separate parts is entirely analogous to the male; I scarcely dare to expect the same sort of success as in my studies of the male, as all previous attempts of this nature have always come to naught because our knowledge in regard to these female structures is still full of gaps.”

— acknowledging that the scientific community was not interested in his work on the clitoris.

“Clitoracy” is a term coined by artist Sophia Wallace, who too dreams of a world that is literate in the ways of the clitoris.

Here are Dr O’Connell’s findings and suggestions for a more clitorate world:

1. The clitoris must be shown in at least 2 angles, to display its 3D structure.

In particular, cross-sections of the female pelvis, the legs and bulbs of the clitoris get left out, showing only the glans and body. Midwifery textbooks I’ve noticed are notorious for barely including the clitoris, usually only imaging the glans or external part of the clitoris, despite being an important part of the birth canal and a key organ in ‘‘sexual function’’.

2. Displaying the Clitoral Complex as a ‘unified entity’.

The clitoral complex is a ‘unified entity’ comprising the clitoris, distal vagina (the lower section near the opening) and urethra.

“The distal vagina is a structure that is so inter- related with the clitoris that it is a matter of some debate whether the two are truly separate structures. The same relationship applies to the female urethra. Though in anatomical terms it is possible to dissect one structure fully from the other, the three structures (distal vagina, clitoris, and urethra) share blood supply and innervation. During sexual activity these structures, with their overlying highly vascular skin (the vulva), respond as a unit though they do not respond uniformly to stimulation.” (O’Connell, 2008)

The front wall of the vagina is barely distinguishable from the urethra (my 3D models should display the ‘flush’ positioning of urethra and vagina, I’ll be revising them). The front walls of the urethra are wrapped by the clitoris. Anatomists think this vaginal-clitoral-urethral link is responsible for the “g-spot”.

“Ultrasonic studies have correlated the focus of female sensitivity with the external urethral sphincter. It is possible that this focus is the erectile tissue itself as it wraps around the distal urethra and vagina.” (O’Connell et al, 2005)

In English; there is no magic ‘spot’ or button, but the convergence of the erectile tissue of clitoris around the urethra and vagina, combined with their shared neurovascular supply.

“ Findings in cadavers and on MRI did not reveal any additional structure separate from the bulbs, glans or corpora of the clitoris (clitoral body or glans), urethra and vagina that could be regarded as the G spot” (O’Connell et al, 2005)

3. The clitoral complex (urethra, distal vagina & clitoris) is analogous to the male penis - not just the clitoris.

In utero we all have the same vulva-like genitals until week 9, then, depending on your chromosomes, your genitalia diverges into either a penis or continues to develop as vulva and clitoris. However a small percentage of people are intersex and will not be so binary.

I haven’t done a comprehensive review of all anatomical textbooks, but I know in my own one, that I used to complete my masters in Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy, never displayed these three structures together as a ‘unit’. Neither did I see a dissected anatomical example of the complete clitoris, like I did for every other organ and structure. I’m not shaming the University of Glasgow, I think that is a fairly universal trend, given the historical treatment of the clitoris. We like to think that science is impartial and rationally objective, when in reality science is also made up of humans who are fallible and subject to the taboos of their culture.

The shared origins to the penis, is important to note anatomically and demonstrates how important the structure is. However my one word of caution in terms of comparing the penis to the clitoral complex, is that it can be interpreted as holding up the male organ as the standard for what is important, also the sensation experience of the penis and clitoris is somewhat different. I can recommend “Urban Tantra” by Barbara Coralles if you’d like to know more on the differences and similarities of pleasure in binary M & F bodies.

4. Stop calling the clitoral bulbs “vestibular bulbs” as they belong to the clitoris.

Still too often textbooks refer to the clitoral bulbs as ‘vestibular bulbs’, assigning them to the ‘vestibule’ of the vagina, rather than as part of the organ clitoris. The equivalent is instead of saying the “palm of my hand”, saying instead a ‘round protrusion at the end of my wrist’, while not totally wrong, it is a bit weird, inconsistent and confusing.

The clitoral bulbs are made of erectile tissue that are analogous to the penis, and the clitoris experiences similar erections.

5. The Vagina, and vaginal tissue is not a uniform ‘tube’

The vagina is often depicted as a ‘tube’ (I’m guilty of this too!), the area lower down, near the vulva, has different muscle tissue from the higher-up section, near the cervix. The upper and lower areas develop from different structures in utero.

“There is no uniformity to the vagina, the distal vagina having distinctly different properties to the proximal vagina, reflecting their different developmental origins from the urogenital sinus and Mullerian duct…There is also substantial variation in the structure of the walls. For example, the lateral [side]walls are very different from the posterior [back] vaginal wall.” (O’Connell et al, 1998)

6. The general importance of the clitoris as a sexual organ, the importance of pleasure.

These suggestions scratch the surface of what anatomy and public understanding could be about female anatomy and experience. Below I’ve outlined a few topics I’ll explore further in time. Hit me up in the comments if there’s one you want to see next, or if you are a company working with the female body and want great pioneering original content.

Clitoral Nerve endings and blood supply, I hear disturbing stories of women undergoing routine surgeries and losing clitoral sensation due to clitoral anatomy being ineptly taught (see the work of Jessica Pinn). This isn’t something I’ve studied myself but I would like to dive further in. “An extensive review of the literature indicates how seldom sexual function and its preservation are considered in the outcomes of these operations”. (O’Connell, 1998) — though regarding operations around the vagina and urethra. Labiaplasties are increasingly and worryingly becoming more commonplace and from younger ages, they are often advertised as simple and risk free, this is not the case. Loss of sexual sensation is a genuine risk, as the labia is steeped in nerve endings and is essentially a wrapping for the clitoris and wonderful anatomy below the skin’s surface. Gynodiversity do an amazing job of displaying the incredible variation of the vulva.

The Clitoris’s role in childbirth. Given, to this day, the full clitoris is rarely included in midwifery textbooks, I think it’s essential to ask ourselves what effect that has on our understanding of childbirth. While collectively childbirth is assumed to be universally painful and often traumatic, some women also experience births that are joyful and pain free or orgasmic. Women are starting to use clitoral vibrators in birth to ease labour pain. A study of French midwives reported ecstatic births at 0.3%, though OG midwife, Inna May Gaskin conducted an informal study of her own acquaintances, of 151, 31 reported some degree of ecstatic births. If this is a reality for some birthing people, why aren’t we studying this? why aren’t we exploring how to bring this experience to more women, is the shame around the female body and sexuality so great?

There is also an incredible study collected by a group of Australian midwives that research the parallels of birth and sex (there are many and run on the same hormones). Female sexuality is only just really starting to be valued (in the modern western world, many ancient cultures revered female sexuality) by both society and medicine, no wonder this area of understanding is still in the dark ages.

Female pelvic anatomy when aroused: My second part of this visual series is I will make an animation describing what happens to this anatomy when aroused (spoiler: lots!).

How the male and female genitalia is analogous, which parts mirror each other in the binary male/female parts, again head to “Urban Tantra” by Barbara Coralles if you’re curious. This is a wonderful demonstration in how all bodies are built for wonderful pleasure and connection, though there are differences in how the sexes and genders can access and experience these treasures.

Sometimes I do get overwhelmed by all the work still to be done to improve our lot as humans, however I’m also deeply optimistic about the future as I see the new projects across the world from our understanding of developmental trauma (how our early years affect our mental health and sense of self) to the data and collective knowledge of the body and human connection. Insert the works of Gabor Mate and Esther Parel here.

Thanks for reading.

References:

Barbara, G., Facchin, F., Meschia, M. and Vercellini, P., 2015. “The first cut is the deepest”: a psychological, sexological and gynecological perspective on female genital cosmetic surgery. Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica, 94(9), pp.915–920.
Pfaus, J.G., Quintana, G.R., Mac Cionnaith, C. and Parada, M., 2016. The whole versus the sum of some of the parts: toward resolving the apparent controversy of clitoral versus vaginal orgasms. Socioaffective neuroscience & psychology, 6(1), p.32578.
Pauls, R.N. 2015, “Anatomy of the clitoris and the female sexual response: Clitoral Anatomy and Sexual Function”, Clinical Anatomy, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 376–384.
O’connell, H.E., Eizenberg, N., Rahman, M. and Cleeve, J., 2008. The anatomy of the distal vagina: towards unity. The journal of sexual medicine, 5(8), pp.1883–1891.
O’CONNELL, HELEN E., KALAVAMPARA V. SANJEEVAN, and JOHN M. HUTSON. “ANATOMY OF THE CLITORIS.” Journal of Urology 174.4 Part 1 (2005): 1189–1195. Web.
O’connell, H.E., Hutson, J.M., Anderson, C.R. and Plenter, R.J., 1998. Anatomical relationship between urethra and clitoris. The Journal of urology, 159(6), pp.1892–1897.
Carrellas, B. and Sprinkle, A., 2017. Urban tantra: Sacred sex for the twenty-first century. Ten Speed Press.