How well do we truly understand clitoral anatomy? An Irish maternity hospital's perspective

White, Maeve; Byrne, Hollie; Molphy, Zara; Flood, Karen

How well do we truly understand clitoral anatomy? An Irish maternity hospital's perspective

journal contribution

posted on 2024-01-04, 11:17 authored by Maeve White, Hollie ByrneHollie Byrne, Zara MolphyZara Molphy, Karen FloodKaren Flood

Background: The clitoris has long been ignored in medical literature and teaching, with the first paper describing its anatomy only published in 1993. It is essential that those working in women's health understand the anatomy of this important female sexual organ.

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge of the anatomy of the clitoris across five cohorts in a busy teaching maternity hospital in Ireland.

Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was devised, asking ten consultants, ten non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), ten midwives, ten midwifery students and ten medical students to name the anatomical parts of a 3D model of the clitoris.

Results: None of the 50 respondents could name all five labelled parts of the clitoris, and 38 of respondents could not correctly name one anatomical part.

Conclusions: It is evident that there is a lack of knowledge of the anatomical parts of the clitoris among the medical staff included in this study. This reflects a lack of adequate teaching in this area in both past and recent years. Despite this, we acknowledge that women's health and sexual health awareness is improving all of the time, and we hope that this study can highlight the need for reformed teaching in this area.

History

Comments

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: White M, Byrne H, Molphy Z, Flood K. How well do we truly understand clitoral anatomy? An Irish maternity hospital's perspective. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol. 2023, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/ajo.13758. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.

Published Citation

White M, Byrne H, Molphy Z, Flood K. How well do we truly understand clitoral anatomy? An Irish maternity hospital's perspective. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol. 2023