The Male G-Spot Has Finally Been Found

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0:43I'm Dr Rowan Hooper. I'm joined today by reporter Alice Klein. Hi Alice. Look, we've reported a lot on various claims about the female G-spot over the years. It's always been controversial, hasn't it? There are some doctors who still claim that it doesn't exist. And now there's this new study. It's painstakingly mapped out all the sensory nerves of the penis and revealed the existence and location of the male G-spot. Yeah, I mean, maybe this is unlikely to come as a surprise to penis owners, but it is the first time that it has been properly scientifically validated. OK, take us through what they've done here then, please.

1:21So some anatomists in Spain collected 14 penises from deceased donors. who had agreed to give their bodies to medical research. And they finally sliced them up, added some special dyes that specifically bound to their nerves, and then looked at them under a microscope so they could see all the patterns of sensory nerves within the penis. And if you like anatomy and histology, I do recommend having a look at this study because it goes on for 41 pages and it's very, very detailed. What, like salami slices? Very fine salami slices. Well, I think I'll take your word for how detailed it is. So, OK, they've got all these slices.

1:58What do they do next? Yeah, so they looked for the area that has the highest density of nerve endings because that tells you it's probably the most sensitive area and the one that's sending the most information back along the nerves to the brain. And they found that the most nerve-rich area of the penis was this triangular zone on the underside near where the head meets the shaft. And based on this, they said it should be considered the male G-spot. OK. And in case you're wondering what G-spot is, it's named after this gynecologist, Ernst Grafenberg, who in the 40s and 50s, he characterized this zone in the vagina, which he called the G-spot.

2:34So Alice, was there anything about this area, the nerves in this area on the penis that they're suggesting, you know, those particularly are involved in, you know, sexual pleasure rather than responding to movement or pressure or something more mundane? Yeah, so a lot of the nerve endings in this area were bundled into these specialized touch receptors known as Krauss corpuscles, which have previously been found in male and female genitals and the lips, incidentally. And they're known to mediate sexual pleasure. They're also very prevalent in the dolphin clitoris, which might explain why they're known for having a lot of sex.

3:12Wow. And a few years ago, I remember writing about this interesting study in mice that found that kraus corpuscles seem to be activated by the specific frequency of vibrations that are created by skin rubbing against skin during sex. And that appears to be how they mediate sexual pleasure. What? So is that, was that suggesting that mice feel sexual pleasure? Just as an aside here. I mean, I don't claim to be an expert on mouse sex. But I'll go so far as to say they seem to find it rewarding. And it needs to be rewarding because otherwise why would they do it? How interesting. So these Krauss corpuscles, well, as you'd expect, they seem to be conserved across many different, very different groups of mammals, which does make sense.

3:56All right, so it's been, you know, it's been nicknamed the male G-spot. Is there a proper anatomical name for it? Yes, it is technically called the frenular delta. Okay, not heard of that, frenular delta. No, I don't think many people have heard of it. And I think that speaks to this broader problem of how little we know about our intimate parts. Yeah. I mean, although, to be fair, I probably haven't heard the correct anatomical names from many parts of my body. So why is it called the frenular delta? Well, it was named in 2001 by a pathologist in New Zealand called Ken McGrath. And he called it a delta because it's shaped like a triangle.

4:38and it fits between the two V-shaped wings of the glands on the underside. And then the frenular part comes from the fact that the tip of this triangle is where the frenulum, that little skin bridge, connects the foreskin to the penis. And Maguire also referred to this area as the male G-spot, you know, back in 2001. But for some reason it didn't catch on. I don't know why. No one did a podcast about it then. You weren't around to do a podcast then. So 2001 is still kind of late to be describing something we're so intimately familiar with, which is kind of interesting as well. OK, so look, I guess even if you didn't know the anatomical name, the frenular delta, most men would be aware that this is a particularly sensitive spot.

5:26You know, do we need to have all these slices and 41 pages to document that? Yeah, I mean, it may be obvious to those of you with this anatomy. And the latest study has a quote saying that it may seem self-evident to anyone attuned to the sensations of their penis during sexual activity. But it's important to scientifically validate this, because if you look at medical textbooks, they generally say that the most nerve-rich and sensitive part of the penis is the glands, not this area that's outside of the glands. So there seems to be this discrepancy between what the medical literature is saying and people's lived experiences.

6:07And I should say that the glands has lots of nerve endings too, but just not as much as the frenular delta. That, it may seem self-evident, quote, just instantly reminded me of the famous understatement at the end of the, what was it, the 1953 DNA paper that says, it has not escaped our attention that the structure of the DNA immediately suggests a mechanism for its replication. So almost as good understatement as that. But yeah, look, it is important that this is documented because, you know, now you mention it, I do recall that textbooks often say that the glands is the most sensitive part of the penis.

6:45So the textbooks are wrong on this. And I wonder if that lack of recognition of the frenular delta, well, that could have quite negative implications for men's sexual health, right? Yeah, well, I interviewed a urological surgeon for this article, and surprisingly, she said she's never even heard of the frenular delta and its special sensory nerves. She says it's not something that they learn about in their surgical training, and they're often learning from books that were written a long time ago. They haven't really been updated that much. And that is potentially problematic because some of the surgeries that urologists do involve making incisions in the frenular delta area, which could potentially affect sexual sensations.

7:29Yeah. I mean, I'm really surprised that a urological surgeon hasn't even heard of it. That's quite problematic. So what kind of surgeries are we talking about? Well, male circumcision would be the most common one because some circumcision techniques involve of making incisions across the frenular delta to remove the foreskin. And sometimes the whole frenulum is removed from the area too. Sometimes they leave a bit in place. Sometimes they have the whole thing in place, but sometimes they take the whole thing. Yeah, so this would suggest you don't want to take the whole thing if you can help it.

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8:40Is there evidence, I mean I know it's really controversial, isn't it? The whole debate around circumcision, whether it dampens or changes sexual sensation. Yeah, well, I mean, it's controversial and it's also very difficult to study because it has to be based on self-report. But some studies have found that circumcised men experience less pleasure when their frenular delta is stimulated compared to those who haven't been circumcised. And there are others that have pressed these sort of tiny filaments into different parts of the penis and they have found that the circumcised penis is less sensitive, especially in the frenular delta.

9:17But then on the other hand, other studies haven't found any real differences in orgasm frequency or quality. So it's possible that the nerves of the circumcised penis somehow become rewired or compensate for any kind of nerve damage. Wow. But this is something we really don't know. That's just speculation. Yeah, yeah. But that is interesting, isn't it? Because it often would happen very young and there may be this opportunity for rewiring to go on. It's really interesting. But I guess this is really important information for people to consider or to at least be aware of if they're thinking about circumcision for themselves or their children.

9:51Yeah, and generally circumcisions are only performed for medical reasons here in Australia, like if someone's foreskin is too tight. And I think it's the same in the UK. But in the US, about half of male babies are still circumcised at birth. So I think this is something that parents should definitely know about when making that decision. You know, that we still don't know for sure whether it does affect sexual sensations. Yeah. And look, the fact that we're only just learning about this male G-spot, the frenular delta, it just echoes all this confusion there still is about the female G-spot, right?

10:29Is there anything anatomically homologous between these two areas? Well, the female G-spot is a bit more complicated because it's this sensitive area a few centimetres along the vaginal wall. But there aren't actually any clusters of sensory nerves in the vaginal wall at this location. And that's why it has been disputed for so long. But interesting, more recently, ultrasound studies have found that during female arousal, the internal structure of the clitoris, which is quite big and full of nerves, it engorges and presses against the vaginal wall. And so now some experts think that's probably what creates the female G-spot.

11:12So in other words, stimulating the female G-spot is really stimulating the behind of the clitoris. Okay, okay. But yeah, I think this latest study is really interesting because we always say that we know so little about female sexual anatomy. And that's true. But it turns out that there are also these big knowledge gaps when it comes to male sexual anatomy. So I think we could probably do better on both fronts. Great. Thanks, Alice. That's very well put. We'll leave it there. This is The World, The Universe and Us from New Scientist. I'm Rowan Hooper. do follow for more content it won't always be like this whether that's good or bad I'll leave that to you we'll see you soon bye for now