Scientists Just Made the Most Complete Map of the Clitoris’s Sensory Nerve Network. Here’s What They Found

Cultural taboos around female sexuality have hindered research on the organ. But a new study provides pivotal insights that can inform important surgeries and health care

Margherita Bassi | Daily Correspondent

April 15, 2026

Share

Copy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrint

Add as preferred source

One of the human body’s least studied organs is finally getting attention.

The clitoris is a sensitive part of the female body near the vagina that, when stimulated, can cause sexual arousal and orgasm. Many people are familiar with the clitoris’s external portion, called the clitoral glans, a bump located near the pee hole, or urethra.

However, the entire pleasure organ is bigger and more complex than what appears on the surface—and researchers have finally mapped out its sensory neuroanatomy in unprecedented detail. The findings, described in a study posted March 20 on the preprint server bioRxiv, could contribute to surgeries as part of reconstruction after genital mutilation or gender-affirming care. The work has not been peer-reviewed.

“There is a societal taboo attached to female sexuality. The taboo is an obstacle to conducting scientific investigation,” Ju Young Lee, a study co-author and a neuroanatomist at the Amsterdam University Medical Center in the Netherlands, tells Smithsonian magazine. “Much more awareness is required, starting with the knowledge that the clitoris is actually quite large.”

While the penis’s sensory nerves were charted roughly three decades ago, scientists are just starting to understand the clitoris. Past research suggests that the female organ is at least six times more densely innervated than the penis, but researchers’ understanding of the branching pathways of the main sensory nerve, called the dorsal nerve of the clitoris, remained incomplete.

So, Lee and her colleagues studied two donated pelvises from individuals who had died at ages 59 and 69. They used a particle accelerator called a synchrotron to scan the specimens with intense X-rays, which helped them create a digital 3D map of the organ’s complex neuroanatomy down to the micrometer scale.

The approach revealed the full trajectory of the dorsal nerve, which branches off into the clitoral glans, as well as the skin protecting it, called the clitoral hood, and the V-shaped patch of skin and fatty tissue covering the pelvic bone, called the mons pubis. Another nerve, named the posterior labial nerve, projects not only to the folds of skin around the vaginal opening—the labia—but also to the clitoral body, located behind the clitoral glans.

“This is the first-ever 3D map of the nerves within the glans of the clitoris,” Lee tells the Guardian’s Chris Simms.

The findings, which address a decades-long research gap, are especially important for survivors of female genital mutilation, which affects more than 230 million women around the world. Previous studies indicate that nearly a quarter of individuals who undergo reconstructive surgery after mutilation endure a decline in orgasmic experience after the operation. 

Additionally, the work can inform operative procedures after child delivery, gender-affirmation surgery and genital cosmetic procedures. For example, the dorsal nerve’s innervation of the clitoral hood and mons pubis “implies that surgeries such as clitoral hood reduction may require more caution to avoid nerve damage,” Lee tells Smithsonian.

The 3D map also challenges earlier research that suggested the main sensory nerve becomes smaller as it reaches the clitoral glans. Instead, the new work shows that the nerve displays intricate branching in the glans. The team’s results help “correct long‑standing gaps and misconceptions in our understanding of female sexual anatomy,” Caroline Pukall, who researches sexual wellbeing at Queen’s University in Canada and did not participate in the study, tells Smithsonian.

Still, the study has limitations. It involved only two pelvic samples, both of which came from postmenopausal donors. What’s more, the work didn’t examine nerves beyond those involved in sensation, such as the autonomic nerves that play a key role in arousal.

“It opens the door, but we need larger studies to really understand the full picture,” Alexandra Dubinskaya, a urogynecologist at Cedars-Sinai Urology who did not participate in the study, tells Smithsonian. “As a field, bringing this kind of knowledge into everyday practice and education has real potential to change how we care for women.”

Editor’s note, April 20, 2026: This story was updated to clarify researchers’ previous understanding of the dorsal nerve of the clitoris and the description of the clitoral body. It also corrected the number of nerve fibers in the clitoral glans.

Margherita Bassi | Read More

Margherita Bassi is a freelance journalist and trilingual storyteller. Her work has appeared in publications including BBC Travel, Discover magazine, Live Science, Atlas Obscura and Hidden Compass.