That elusive sexual will-o'-the-wisp, the G spot, has been found. It just wasn't where anyone had looked.
It's the first anatomic evidence of the G spot, which has been the subject of controversy for decades, according to Adam Ostrzenski, MD, PhD, of the Institute of Gynecology in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Despite intense interest, previous research has not found the structure -- largely, Ostrzenski wrote online in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, because surgeons have been looking in the wrong place.
The G spot, Ostrzenski reported, is a sac-like structure, measuring 8.1 mm in length, and made of what appears to be erectile tissue, and it's located in the dorsal perineal membrane of the front vaginal wall.
On the other hand, other experts said Ostrzenski had made several errors in the paper, which cast doubt on his claims.
In what he told 51˶ was a "critical commentary" in the journal, Barry Komisaruk, PhD, of Rutgers University in Newark, N.J., and others challenged the validity of the finding.
"We submit that the author's claim to have discovered 'the' G spot does not fulfill the most fundamental scientific criteria," Komisarul and colleagues wrote.
Among other things, they argued, Ostrzenski gave no histological evidence that the tissue is erectile and "assumes that the tissue is normal; he does not even entertain the possibility that it is pathological."
Ostrzenski found the structure after careful, layer-by-layer dissection of the anterior vaginal wall of an 83-year-old woman who had died of head trauma.
Surgeons making repairs usually dissect the anterior wall only to the level of the pubocervical fascia, he noted. But since there have been no reports of a structure that could be the G spot in that region, he hypothesized it would be found higher up.
And indeed, he reported, there it was – on the superior surface of the dorsal perineal membrane, about 16.5 millimeters from the upper part of the urethral opening.
Ostrzenski described the structure as having a "bluish grape-like composition" with three distinct parts – a head, middle, and tail – with a rope-like vessel emerging from the tail into the surrounding tissue.
The G spot has been the topic of intense discussion for decades -- called the fount of sexual pleasure for women by some and dismissed as a mirage by others.
"The absence of the identification of the G-spot as an anatomic structure created considerable controversies," Ostrzenski argued.
Pinning it down, he concluded, could have an important "potential impact on the practice and clinical research in the field of female sexual function."
But Komisaruk and colleagues argued that the most Ostrzenski can claim is to have "identified a possible anatomical constituent" of the G-spot, whose existence, they add, is "a still scientifically unresolved issue."
Other gaps in the paper, they said, include evidence that the tissue is not glandular, whether it is innervated, and whether the rope-like vessel is vascular or ductal.