The Great G-Spot Debate

Possibly my longest-ever 'Ask Eva Anything' post.

The G-spot Debate

The g-spot is named after a doctor named Ernst Gräfenberg, a German gynaecologist who first postulated in the 1950s that there might be a sensitive area in the vagina. Although Gräfenburg didn't offer any clinical evidence to support his theory, many books, magazine articles, and even scholarly journal studies have been published on the subject, many operating under the assumption that the g-spot exists. Despite this assumption, however, there is a great deal of debate in the scientific community regarding the g-spot.

Due to the fact that the g-spot didn't come into public consideration in 1951, the amount of study and evidence is limited. It may seem study remarkable that it is only within the past 50 years that doctors and scientists have begun to make serious study of this part of female anatomy!

Even Doctor Ruth says: "Until we get scientifically evaluated data, we cannot verify [the g-spot's] existence." Much of the evidence that we have of the g-spots existence remains anecdotal, and a great deal of relies on the connection between g-spot orgasms and female ejaculation.

In the words of Emmanuele Jannini, "It's ridiculous but true that we've waited till now to really know the female anatomy."

Vaginal Orgasms

For the purposes of this post, 'vaginal orgasm' refers to an orgasm as a result of vaginal stimulation/penetration, rather than clitoral stimulation. I'll be taking a look at the g-spot and what may cause vaginal orgasms, so I hope that helps clarify some things.

What is the g-spot?

Even here, the definition of exactly what the g-spot is varies from person to person. The general consensus is that the g-spot exists within the front (anterior) wall of the vagina, which is the side of your vagina closest to your bellybutton. According to Crooks and Baur, California, the g-spot about 1/3-to-1/2 of the way in from the vaginal opening.

Many people believe that the g-spot and the urethral sponge are one and the same. The urethral sponge is a cushion of tissue, located against the front wall of the vagina. The urethral sponge is composed of erectile tissue, similar to a man's penis or a woman's clitoris, and can swell when it becomes engorged with blood. During arousal, the sponge becomes swollen with blood, which compresses the urethra. Because the urethral sponge surroundes the urethra, many women feel an urge to urinate when the sponge is stimulated. If you've ever had that gotta-pee feeling, never fear -- the swelling of the urethral sponge actually helps to prevent urination during sexual activity, working with the PC muscle (that muscle you work doing your Kegels).

With continued stimulation of the urethral sponge, some women experience 'female ejaculation', which causes an expulsion of clear fluid. It is sometimes believed that this is the result of stimulation of Skene's glands. The Skene's glands are considered homologous with the prostate gland in men, and some believe that the Skene's glands produce a clear fluid that drains into the urethra. The clear fluid that is sometimes expelled is not urine, but it shares some common properties -- it is in fact composed of glucose, fructose (two natural sugars), prostate-specific antigent (a protein in male ejaculate, produced by the prostate glands -- this is believed to be produced by the Skene's glands in women), and very low levels of creatinine and urea, which are the two primary chemicals markers of urine.

However, it must be observed that not all women who experience vaginal orgasms also experience female ejaculation. This might be partially explained by one of the other primary views about the cause of vaginal orgasms, which does not involve the urethral sponge or the Skene's glands, or female ejaculation.

Some believe that the stimulation women feel when they have a "g-spot experience" is not the result of stimulation of the urethral sponge, but is actually a result of "clitoral arms", or clitoral crura. These exist to the left and right of the urethra, again near the urethral sponge, and extend toward the pubic bone. These 'legs' have two 'bulbs' upon which they rest. These bulbs are located around your inner labia, and the crura extend on each side above that, towards the clitoris. So many women who experience a vaginal orgasm but don't experience female ejaculate, may be experiencing an orgasm as a result of the stimulation of these clitoral legs. For this reason, some scientists believe that the g-spot doesn't exist, but rather that so-called "vaginal orgasms" are just a clitoral orgasm from another angle!

Does every woman have one?

While all women have a urethral sponge, and all women have vaginal crura, it is important to remember that everyone's anatomy is different. A scientist named Kermit Krantz dissected the genital regions of eight female cadavers in the 1950s, and found that there was "a great of variation in the way nerve endings are distributing throughout the different women's genitals." (from The Guide to Getting It On)

Does the g-spot or urethral sponge actually serve a sexual function for all women, or is this assumption a myth? Emmanuele Jannini of the University of Aquila, Italy set out to answer this question. Remember how I said that the urethral sponge was made of erectile tissue? Well, to find evidence of sexual activity in the urethral sponge and its surrounding tissues (the alleged 'g-spot'), Jannini and his team of researchers needed to find a biochemical marker of sexual function in the area -- in this case, they decided to look for PDE5, an enzyme that "chews up the nitric oxide that triggers erections." (In other words, it is my understand that if the erectile tissue is reaction sexually, it must become erect, then produce PDE5 to reduce the erection to normal.)

He and his team dissected 14 cadavers. These enzymes were, true to suspicion, clustered around the "g-spot", which confirms its role as erectile tissue. However, in two of the subjects, there was a much lower concentration of PDE5, and no Skene's glands at all. "For such women," said Jannini, "Having a vaginal orgasm is anatomically impossible."(editor's note: see my above comments about different sources of vaginal orgasms; in this case, I think that Jannini is correct that for women without Skene's glands and a small concentration of PDE5, an orgasm as a result of stimulating the urethral sponge and female ejaculation are impossible. Yes.)

In another study, eleven women were examined by two gynaecologists. They concluded that only four out of the 11 women had g-spots.

In another study, biopsies were taken from the g-spot area in four women -- but none of these revealed an increased number of nerve endings in the area.

Dr. Terence Hines, a professor at Pace University, concludes after a comprehensive review of research about the elusive area: "The G-spot will remain a sort of gynecological UFO: much searched for, much discussed, but unverified by objective means."

What can I do to locate or stimulate my g-spot?

As I said above, there is no firm evidence that every woman has a g-spot. However, because the Skene's glands are located deep within the vaginal wall, the only way to find out if you can tickle your urethral sponge and squirt, is to practice. Some women say that their g-spot (the area around the urethral sponge) feels a bit like a walnut within the vaginal wall, when they are aroused. As we learned, if you become aroused, this area may engorge with blood, and so you might feel a round bump. Some women say that their g-spot has a "rope-like" texture, a different feel from the rest of the vaginal wall. It is likely easiest to find this area when you are already aroused.

You may be able to locate your g-spot with your fingers, by inserting them into your vagina, and hooking your fingers towards your bellybutton. Or, have your partner insert their fingers into your vagina, and make a little 'come hither' wiggle.
There are vibrators with a special curve, for the purpose of helping women locate and stimulate their g-spot.

As for sexual positions, many women experience the most successful g-spot stimulation from doggie style/rear entry positions, or from woman-on-top positions, when they can lean back and rub the penis against the front wall of the vagina.

What if I don't believe I have a g-spot, but I still want to experience vaginal orgasms?

Remember: A Johnson and Masters study revealed that only 30% of women are capable of vaginal orgasms.The most sensitive parts of the vagina are near the opening. Remember those clitoral legs we talked about? Let those be your focus -- massage, rub, thrust between, and stimulate those legs. You may experience some pleasurable sensations, which might lead you to orgasm! Again, this is not successful for all women, as the clitoral bulbs and crura are not as sensitive as the clitoris itself.

I just want to orgasm from intercourse, I don't care how!

Consider putting your man in a 'high riding' missionary position. Sometimes referred to as the CAT position (CAT stands for Coital Alignment Technique), this technique doesn't allow for very deep penetration, but puts a lot of focus on your clitoris during intercourse, due to the 'high angle' of entry. A webpage at Estronaut, a women's health forum, explains it thus:
The man enters initially from between the woman's legs which are apart and slightly bent, but then lifts himself further up the length of her body so that his thrusts make contact with her clitoris. At the very same time the base of the man's penis is also being stimulated. By leaning to the right or left of her torso, the man can rest his weight partially on his partner and partially on whatever the platform is for this event. It is important for the man to relax his upper body. The woman can then wrap her legs around his, trying to extend the stretch of her legs so that her ankles are about at the height of his calves. With this position a woman can then begin to thrust her own pelvis, repeatedly making contact between her clitoris and the base of his penis. Basically this is a rocking back and forth in sync sort of thing with the focus on the clitoris and the base of the penis rather than being all about penetration.

Cultural Response to the G-spot

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, famed sexologist and one of my favourite people, believes that the cultural fixation on vaginal orgasm is a throwback to the male chauvanistic views in our sexual past. Dr. Ruth termed Freud “sexually ignorant” for saying that only mature woman have vaginal orgasms. If you are unfamiliar with Freud and his disciples, Freud maintained that clitoral orgasms were adolescent, psychosexually immature, and inferior, while vaginal orgasms were mature. According to the Seattle Times, Frued was of the opinion that the female orgasm should center on the reproductive tract, and that clitoral orgasms were "infantile." If women were incapable of "mature" (vaginal) orgasms, Freud declared that they were sexually frigid. This belief is as absurd as it is offensive. Nonetheless, it remained in the public consciousness that vaginal orgasms were deeper, a sign of female virility, and that there was some weakness in only being able to have a clitoral orgasm.

This, combined with a book published in the 1980s, lead the public to the idea that "Every woman has one!" You'll see this concept reinforced by women's magazines like Cosmopolitan and Glamour, despite the fact that scientific evidence does not lend much credence to the idea. Not only is this problematic for women who may feel incomplete because they don't have vaginal orgasms, but can lead to a great deal of frustration for their partners, as they have both been told, again and again, that "every woman has a g-spot."

Which is, in the author's opinion, a load of crap.

The moral of the story is that if you have a g-spot, you're perfectly normal. If you don't have a g-spot, that's normal, too. The emphasis placed on vaginal orgasms should not be something that shatters your self-esteem. In the immortal words of Dr. Ruth: "An orgasm is an orgasm."