They've FINALLY found it! Scientists create first-ever 'map' of female pleasure center that's confused men for centuries

Scientists have finally pinpointed the exact anatomy of a long-ignored female sex organ: the clitoris. 

The clitoris is considered a woman's sexual 'pleasure center.' Made up of a complex network of tissues and nerves, the tiny bulb is located at the top of the vulva - the outer part of female genitals - and extends inward.

Stimulating the clitoris is crucial for achieving orgasm for many women, but the area has long been understudied due to cultural taboos and the belief that it does not have a health-related purpose other than sexual stimulation.

While scientists mapped the penis' sensory nerves about three decades ago, the clitoris has largely been ignored.  

Now, researchers in the Netherlands have used high-energy x-rays to create detailed three-dimensional scans of two female pelvises, which revealed a network of branching nerves running through the clitoris. 

The team found that some branches of the clitoral nerves reach the mons pubis - the rounded mound of tissue over the pubic bone - while others extend to the clitoral hood, the external visible part of the clitoris. 

Researchers also identified nerves that stretch far beyond visible parts of the clitoris, reaching folds of the skin of the vulva called the labial structures. 

The findings contradict earlier research that showed the large nerves in the clitoris gradually diminished as they approached the inner parts of the organ. Instead, the new scans show the nerve endings are much longer than previously thought.

'This is the first-ever 3D map of the nerves within the glans of the clitoris,' Ju Young Lee, study author and research associate at Amsterdam University Medical Center in the Netherlands, told The Guardian. 

Researchers note the study addresses a decades-long gap of female sexual health knowledge.

This could potentially improve genital cosmetic procedures, gender-affirmation surgery and procedures that address damage from childbirth. 

Additionally, orgasms trigger a cascade of hormones like oxytocin, dopamine and endorphins, which can provide pain relief, reduce stress, improve sleep and boost pelvic muscle tone and bladder control. 

'Orgasm is a brain function that leads to improved health and wellbeing as well as having positive implications for human relationships and possibly fertility,' Helen O'Connell, a female urological surgeon in Australia who first mapped the anatomy of the clitoris in 1998, told The Guardian. 

O'Connell was not involved in the new study.

The study, which was published in the preprint server bioRxiv and has not been peer-reviewed, looked at two pelvises donated from deceased women who died at ages 59 and 69. 

The team used a particle accelerator device called a synchrotron to scan the pelvises.

A synchrotron uses powerful magnets to create bright electromagnetic energy, like a very intense x-ray. 

This helped researchers create a digital map of the clitoris. 

The scans revealed the full path of the dorsal nerve, which is the clitoris' main sensory nerve, carrying thousands of nerve fibers that elicit sexual arousal. 

The dorsal nerve branches off into the clitoral glans - the visible 'head' at the top of the vulva - and the V-shaped patch of skin and tissue covering the pelvic bone, known as the mons pubis. 

The study also found that a nerve called the posterior labial nerve extends not only to the labia but to the body of the clitoris, behind the clitoral glans. 

Lee told Smithsonian that the work may help inform surgical procedures. 

She noted that, for example, the dorsal nerve's extension through the clitoral hood and mons pubis 'implies that surgeries such as clitoral hood reduction may require more caution to avoid nerve damage.'

There are limitations to the study, such as only including two pelvic samples, both of which came from postmenopausal donors. The researchers also did not examine nerves beyond those involved in sensation.