When it comes to sexual pleasure for women, the clitoris is the button to push (or stroke) for most women. This magic button is the small pink nodule made of smooth spongy tissue located slightly above the vaginal opening, at the top of the inner labia. The visible part is called the glans. It’s protected by a covering of tissue called the hood.
In a WomensHealthMag.com article, Laura Berman, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of OB/GYN and psychiatry at Northwestern University's medical school and author of The Passion Prescription said, “the clitoris is larger than it seems."
Only the clitoris glans can be seen. It is just the tip of an interior system of tissue that branches into two parts which can stretch inside the body for up to more than five inches. This wishbone-shaped structure of the clitoris’s spongy shaft extends up about an inch toward a woman’s pubic bone, and two three-inch arms called crura go down and back toward the pelvic bone.
In the article in WomensHealthMag.com, Helen O'Connell, M.D., an Australian urologist at Royal Melbourne Hospital said the clitoris is also connected to erectile tissue surrounding the urethra and extending up to the front wall of the vagina, where the enigmatic G-spot has been known to pop up.
In an WomensHealth.About.com article, Rebecca Chalker, author of The Clitoral Truth: The Secret World at Your Fingertips described the clitoris as having 18 parts. The internal parts, including “the muscles, blood vessels, and nerves… are essential in causing orgasm.”
The majority of women require clitoral stimulation to achieve orgasm. Unlike the penis, which produces a single orgasm, the clitoris allows women to have multiple orgasms.
The clitoris is highly sensitive. The tip contains around 8,000 nerve endings. That is more than any other part of the human body. Compare this with the penis, which only has some 4,000 nerve endings in a much bigger area.
The sensitivity of the clitoris parts may vary from woman to woman. For most, however, during arousal, the clitoris becomes engorged. It fills with blood and becomes harder and erect. As this happens, the clitoris will swell and the hood retracts to make the clitoris more accessible.
The size of the clitoris varies among women, although its location remains pretty consistent. It can be the size of a small green pea to something bigger than a child’s finger. They can be long, thin, wide flat, less prominent or more obvious.
Sources:
http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/sexuality/a/clitoraltruthin.htm
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2059.html
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0704.html
http://www.askmen.com/dating/love_tip_200/204_love_tip.html
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/info-for-teens/our-bodies/your-vulva-vagina-breasts-33818.htm
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/sex-and-relationships/keep-your-vagina-healthy?page=2
Reviewed May 31, 2011