In a recent article, Wallen and Lloyd (2008) conclude that clitoral structures are not under direct selection and state that the data on clitoral length variation instead support suggestions that female orgasm in humans is not adaptive; by adaptive they seem to mean subject to selection rather than only subject to natural selection. Their conclusions are reached because (1) in comparison to mal...

Proper gender assignment to a neonate born with ambiguous genitalia is a social emergency of the newborn period. Once an appropriate sex assignment has been made, the next critical step is performance, if needed, of a reconstructive procedure in a timely fashion. In an attempt to evaluate our experience with this unique group of patients, we have retrospectively reviewed the course of 69 childr...

The evolutionary significance of the female orgasm is unclear. Adaptationist accounts seek to ascribe a positive fitness benefit to females that achieve orgasm during vaginal intercourse, spawning theories that propose the female orgasm is an adaptation to bipedalism, communal life, pair-bond formation, insemination efficiency, and mate quality assessment, among others (reviewed in Lloyd 2005)....

INTRODUCTION Female Genital Plastic Surgery, a relatively new entry in the field of Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery, has promised sexual enhancement and functional and cosmetic improvement for women. Are the vulvovaginal aesthetic procedures of Labiaplasty, Vaginoplasty/Perineoplasty ("Vaginal Rejuvenation") and Clitoral Hood Reduction effective, and do they deliver on that promise? For what reaso...

A rare cause of clitoral hypertrophy in a child is neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Although evaluation, including karyotype and hormonal studies, is necessary to exclude ambiguous genitalia, the diagnosis of neurofibromatosis as a possible cause of clitoromegaly may help avoid lengthy and sometimes invasive interventions.

INTRODUCTION Research indicates that (i) women's orgasm during penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI) is influenced by fitness-related male partner characteristics, (ii) penis size is important for many women, and (iii) preference for a longer penis is associated with greater vaginal orgasm consistency (triggered by PVI without concurrent clitoral masturbation). AIMS To test the hypothesis that vag...

BACKGROUND The effects on sexual function of surgical removal of parts of the clitoris are unknown. For infants with intersex conditions and ambiguous genitalia being raised female, this surgery is often undertaken in early childhood. Our aim was to assess the effects of surgery on sexual outcome in this population. METHOD We did a cross-sectional study to which we recruited 39 adults who had...