Education - GSpot

G-spot

For something no bigger than a bean, the "G-spot" has caused a furor all out of proportion to its size. Its proponents claim it's a breakthrough discovery in female sexuality, a secret erotic hot spot largely unknown until the 1980s. Its detractors (including, to be honest, virtually all medically trained sex researchers) counter that it doesn't exist at all. Meanwhile, throngs of women have either discovered its sensuous pleasures or have given up, trying to find it and concluded that the whole thing is a hoax.

What touched off the ruckus was a 1982 book called The G-Spot and Other Recent Discoveries about Human Sexuality, by Alice Ladas, Ed.D., a Manhattan psychologist, Beverly Whipple, R.N., Ph.D., a sex researcher at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and John Perry, Ph.D., a psychologist and sexologist. These researchers had rediscovered a long - forgotten article, published in 1950, by the German obstetrician and gynecologist Ernst Grafenberg, M.D., in which he described a small area on the upper wall of the vagina that - in some women, at least - was so erotically charged that it could produce orgasms completely independent of clitoral stimulation. The tissue in this area, Dr. Grafenberg wrote, seems to be surrounded by erectile tissue like part of the penis and during sexual stimulation swells to the size of a dime.

The Grafenberg spot, or G-spot, as Dr. Ladas, Dr. Perry and Dr. Whipple called it, could be found directly behind the pubic bone, in the upper front wall of the vagina, about 2 inches inside the opening. Although its exact size and location varied, it could usually be found about halfway between the back of the pubic bone and the front of the cervix, near the neck of the bladder. If you imagine a clock inside the vagina with 12 o'clock aimed at the navel, they explained, the G-spot could usually be found somewhere between 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock.

Female Ejaculation

The three authors reported that many of the women who were sensitive to stimulation of the G-spot often ejaculated a clear fluid during orgasm - sometimes a few demure droplets, sometimes a gush of it. Although many of these women also felt the powerful urge to urinate just before orgasm, and some were convinced they were urinating during sex (much to their chagrin), these authors argued that this mysterious fluid was not urine at all.

Early chemical analysis of samples of this ejaculate showed it to be markedly different from urine and to apparently have components like that secreted by a man's prostate gland. These authors and others postulated that the fluid was produced by a group of ducts called the Skene's glands, located near the urethra, which evolve in the embryo from the same tissues that form the prostate in men and are sometimes referred to as the "female prostate." This theory, however, is still highly controversial (along with almost every-thing else about the G-spot). In fact, subsequent studies have found the fluid to be suspiciously urine like, after all.

So where does this "yes, it exists; no, it doesn't" controversy leave us? How could something so central to women's sexual response have escaped the attention of clinicians, gynecologists and ordinary lovers for so many centuries? Well, proponents claim that it didn't. Female ejaculation, they point out, was described by Aristotle and Galen as long ago as the second century A.D., and the seventeenth- century Dutch anatomist Regnier De Graaf described the "female prostate" in detail, noting that " . . . during the sexual act it discharges to lubricate the tract so copiously that it even flows outside the pudenda [external genitals]. This is the matter which may have been taken to be actual female semen. " Some primitive peoples, not knowing any better, were so familiar with female ejaculation that they named it. The Batam tribe of Uganda, for instance, had a custom called kachapati, or "spray the wall," in which older women taught young ones how to ejaculate.

Proponents also argued that the G-spot had remained largely undiscovered because (unlike the clitoris, which is a distinct, protruding organ) it lay deep within the vaginal wall and usually only responded to deep, firm pressure. (This may be part of the reason women sometimes feel orgasmic sensations during childbirth, they suggested, since the baby's head is applying deep pressure on the vaginal walls.) Even the late Dr. Alfred Kinsey missed it, they claimed, because during a series of famous experiments he had five gynecologists examine the genitals of over 800 women by gently stroking the vagina, clitoris and other areas with a surgical probe. Ninety - eight percent of these women could feel the probe when it touched the clitoris, but only 12 percent could feel its caresses inside the vagina, leading Dr. Kinsey to conclude - perhaps erroneously - that the vagina was not very sexually sensitive.

The Modem View

A decade after the G-spot made the rounds of the TV talk shows, physiologists and sex researchers have had time to take another penetrating look at the physiology of women's sexuality and to hunt for hard evidence of the elusive spot. But it's fair to say that the whole business still remains controversial. Some noted sex specialists, such as Loyola University psychiatry professor Domeena C. Renshaw, M.D., have concluded that, at least until better evidence is presented, "the G-spot must remain unacceptable as a scientific fact." Other researchers conclude that if it exists at all, the G-spot is not nearly as widespread as its proponents claim. One study of over 100 women found that only 10 percent had anything resembling such a secret erogenous zone. Then again, in another survey of 1,245 professional women, 65 percent reported that they had a sensitive area in their vaginas resembling the G-spot, and almost three - quarters of these women also said they'd experienced orgasms when it was stimulated.

Zwi Hoch, M.D., director of the Center for Sexual Therapy, Education and Research at Rambam Medical Center in Israel, lays out what seems to be a sensible bottom Me in all this. "Evidence in support of the 'G-spot'- defined as a discrete anatomical structure located on the anterior vaginal wall, which swells upon being tactilely stimulated - is inconclusive," he notes. "However, it seems reasonable to accept that women possess a zone of tactile erotic sensitivity on the anterior vaginal wall, which in many of them may extend to the entire anterior wall and to the posterior vaginal wall. And this is supposed to be news?

How to Find Whatever It Is

Anyway, whatever you call it, and whatever it is, it certainly wouldn't hurt to try to find it. Since it's difficult to locate while lying on your back, some investigators suggest that women try to locate the area while seated on the toilet. For one thing, the first sensation many women experience when the spot is stimulated is an urgent need to urinate. Try exploring the upper front wall of the vagina by applying firm upward pressure with a finger. With sufficient stimulation, the area may begin to swell, feeling like a small lump or bean to the touch. Some women also find that it helps if they apply firm downward pressure with the other hand on the abdomen, just above the public bone, at the same time.

During intercourse, many women report that it's easier to "hit the spot" if she's on top, so that she can control the targeting of the man's erect penis. Other women find that the rear entry position also works well. Some women say using a diaphragm, on the other hand, can interfere with G-spot stimulation.

If you discover that you're sexually sensitive in this area, consider it a new addition to your repertoire of erotic pleasure. But please don't conclude that you're neurotic, undersexed or inadequate if you can't find any such thing. As the good Dr. Kinsey said long ago, "There is nothing more characteristic of sexual response than the fact that it is not the same in any two individuals."