Push the button: what every woman (and man) should know about the clitoris

Did you know that the clitoris is the only organ in the human body built solely for pleasure, and that in some women it is up to 14 centimetres long? Find out more about yours with this updated user's guide

Back in the early nineties, Margi Clarke went out on the street for The Good Sex Guide and asked men to identify the clitoris on a diagram. Almost all of them failed, spawning a generation of jokes about men's ineptitude when faced with the female anatomy (What do a clitoris, an anniversary, and a toilet have in common? Men always miss them).

But, in reality, the clitoris is a complex beast, and new research on its shape and size may come as a surprise, even to women.

For centuries the clitoris was described as a nerve-rich nub about the size of a pea. And indeed, it is dense in nerves, with over 80,000 of them. But it wasn't until 1998, when Dr Helen O'Connell challenged the 'pea-sized' theory with her study of the clitoris, reported in New Scientist.

O'Connell discovered it was wishbone shaped, with erectile tissue surrounding the urethra on three sides. Rather than being the size and shape of a pea, O'Connell reported that the clitoris actually has two legs (or crura) which extend between five and nine centimetres into the pelvis, as well as two bulbs (called 'the bulbs of the vestibule') which lie to either side of the vaginal opening within the labia minora (inner labia).

She followed up this research in 2005, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) rather than dissection to study the clitoris, and reported similar findings.