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Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time

109 pointsby oneitoday at 3:54 PM36 commentsview on HN

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waherntoday at 5:37 PM

> the clitoris did not even make it into standard anatomy textbooks until the 38th edition of Gray’s Anatomy was published in 1995.

This seemed surprising, as it hews too close to an annoying meme in feminism and history generally, that people in prior eras were idiots. And it turns out to be wrong. The clitoris was in Gray's Anatomy until 1947, when it was removed by the editor Charles Goss for the 25th edition. See https://projects.huffingtonpost.com/projects/cliteracy/embed... Indeed, the clitoris had been depicted in Classical medical books.

Why it was removed--and stayed removed for nearly 50 years--would make for an interesting story about mid-century culture, if not for a cynical throwaway comment, though it seems nobody knows Goss' actual motivations.

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ElijahLynntoday at 4:54 PM

Ironic, from reading the article it actually takes a while to find the research...

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.18.712572v1

>>> PDF with the images

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.18.712572v1...

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Shanktoday at 5:20 PM

Page 7 [0] of the report seems to indicate that FGM reconstruction actually seems to have negative outcomes post-surgery. I'm surprised by this. I'm also shocked to see how prolific FGM is too (230 million women?!).

[0]: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.18.712572v1...

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Fraterkestoday at 5:04 PM

Dumb question, why do “sensitive” spots on the body need more nerves? Couldn’t you just have the normal touch-sensing nerves and map signals from specific spots on the body to stronger/pleasurable qualia in the brain?

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echelon_musktoday at 6:59 PM

That 4chan pretends its Hacker News thread still lives in my head.

I still remember "Show HN: Clitly, my app for finding the Clitoris".

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wslhtoday at 6:43 PM

I remember that Matteo Realdo Colombo (1515-1559) [1] described the clitoris. There is a novel about the story [2] which was the finalist on one of the top Spanish literary prizes [3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realdo_Colombo

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Anatomist-Federico-Andahazi/dp/038549...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premio_Planeta_de_Novela

metalmantoday at 6:44 PM

I know I have assisted in mapping out the full network of nerves of the clitorus, not that it was put quite that way, but the sentiment was there.

lentoutcrytoday at 3:59 PM

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casey2today at 6:15 PM

[dead]

mock-possumtoday at 4:39 PM

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codeducktoday at 4:30 PM

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luxuryballstoday at 5:58 PM

“Hey Jarvis…”