Anatomy of the clitoris: 3D images reveal its nerve system
Key takeaways
- New 3D images reveal the clitoris’s complex nerve network, highlighting long‑standing gaps in medical understanding of the female body.
- https://p.dw.com/p/5CDx VThe new images show the complex path of the dorsal nerve of the clitoris (yellow), the clitoris’s main sensory nerve.
- Take the penis, for example — the clitoris’s male counterpart.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
New 3D images reveal the clitoris’s complex nerve network, highlighting long‑standing gaps in medical understanding of the female body.
https://p.dw.com/p/5CDx VThe new images show the complex path of the dorsal nerve of the clitoris (yellow), the clitoris’s main sensory nerve. The clitoral glans is shown in gray.Image: Ju Young Lee et al., 2026Advertisement How big is the clitoris? Where exactly is it located? And how is it structured? If you’re unsure, you’re not alone. Many medical professionals struggle to answer these questions with confidence. This isn’t due to a lack of curiosity on an individual level, but rather a structural problem: Key organs of the female body have long been studied far less thoroughly than their male counterparts.
Take the penis, for example — the clitoris’s male counterpart. Both share the same embryological origin, contain erectile tissue, become engorged during arousal and play a central role in sexual pleasure. Yet most people can readily answer questions such as "How big is a penis?" or "How is it anatomically structured?" Those answers, after all, are standard material in biology textbooks.