Clitoral hood#Stimulation

The clitoral hood is formed during the fetal stage by the cellular lamella. The cellular lamella grows down on the dorsal side of the clitoris and is eventually fused with the clitoris.

File:Clitoralhood.jpg

The clitoral hood varies in the size, shape, thickness, and other aesthetic aspects. Some women have large clitoral hoods that completely cover the clitoral glans. Some of these can be retracted to expose the clitoral glans, such as for hygiene purposes or for pleasure; others do not retract. Other women have smaller hoods that do not cover the full length of the clitoral glans, leaving the clitoral glans exposed all the time. Sticky bands of tissue called adhesions can form between the hood and the glans; these stick the hood onto the glans so the hood cannot be pulled back to expose the glans and smegma can accumulate.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

File:EdSim Clitoris anatomy.jpg

The clitoral glans itself is very sensitive and its direct stimulation, such as in cases where the hood is retracted, is often not enjoyable.{{cite book | title =Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity | publisher = Cengage Learning | year = 2009 | pages = 118 and 252 | access-date = 23 June 2012 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5f8mQx7ULs4C&q=The+glans+clitoris&pg=PA118|isbn =978-0-495-60274-3 | first = Janell L. | last = Carroll| quote=The clitoral glans is a particularly sensitive receptor and transmitter of sexual stimuli. In fact, the clitoris, although much smaller than the penis, has twice the number of nerve endings (8,000) as the penis (4,000) and has a higher concentration of nerve fibers than anywhere else on the body... In fact, most women do not enjoy direct stimulation of the glans and prefer stimulation through the [hood]... The majority of women enjoy a light caressing of the shaft of the clitoris, together with an occasional circling of the [clitoral glans], and maybe digital (finger) penetration of the vagina. Other women dislike direct stimulation and prefer to have the [clitoral glans] rolled between the lips of the labia. Some women like to have the entire area of the vulva caressed, whereas others like the caressing to be focused on the [clitoral glans].}} Females with hoods covering most of the clitoral glans can often masturbate by stimulating the hood over the clitoral glans; those with smaller, or more compact, structures tend to rub the clitoral glans and hood together. The clitoral hood provides protection to the clitoral glans, analogous to the foreskin on the penile glans.

{{See also|Clitoral hood reduction|Clitoral hood piercing|Clitoris#Modification}}

File:New vertical clitoral hood piercing.jpg]]

In most of the world, clitoral modifications are uncommon. In some cultures, female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced as a rite of passage into womanhood, is perceived as an improvement to the appearance of the genitalia, or is used to suppress or reduce female sexual desire and pleasure (including masturbation).[https://books.google.com/books?id=DljvifEwf34C&dq=engaging+cultural+differences+chapter+11&pg=PA216 Link text], "Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies," Chapter 11, Schweder, et al., 2002.{{cite book |last=Momoh |first=Comfort |author-link=Comfort Momoh|chapter=Female Genital Mutation |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVjIP0RfVAMC&pg=PA5 |title=Female Genital Mutilation |editor-last=Momoh |editor-first=Comfort|pages=5–12 |publisher=Radcliffe Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-85775-693-7}}{{cite web |last=Koroma |first=Hannah |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act77/006/1997/en/ |title=What is Female Genital Mutilation? |date=30 September 1997 |work=Amnesty International |page=2 |access-date=25 April 2010}}{{cite web |title=Female genital mutilation |publisher=World Health Organization (WHO) |orig-year=2008 |year=2012 |access-date=August 22, 2012 |url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/index.html}} During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, FGM was performed on many children in Western countries, including the United States, to discourage masturbation and reduce diseases believed to relate to it.{{cite journal |last=Duffy |first=John |date=October 19, 1963 |title=Masturbation and Clitoridectomy: A Nineteenth-Century View |journal=JAMA |volume=186 |issue=3 |pages=246–248 |pmid=14057114 |doi=10.1001/jama.1963.63710030028012}}{{cite journal |author=Rodriguez, Sarah W. |year=2008| title=Rethinking the history of female circumcision and clitoridectomy: American medicine and female sexuality in the late nineteenth century |journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences |volume=63 |issue=3| pages=323–347 |pmid=18065832 |doi=10.1093/jhmas/jrm044 |s2cid=9234753}}

One modification that females sometimes choose is to have the hood pierced and insert jewelry, both for adornment and physical pleasure. Though less common, other females opt to have their own hood surgically trimmed or removed so as to permanently expose part or all of the clitoral glans.

Regarding the clitoral prepuce in non-primate mammals, there is a similar structure typically referred to as the clitoral sheath, which is homologous to the penile sheath in male mammals.{{cite book |last1=Kitalyi |first1=A. |last2=Owen |first2=E.|last3=Jayasuria |first3=N. |last4=Smith |first4=T. |publisher=5m publishing |year=2020 |title=Livestock and Wealth Creation: Improving the Husbandry of Animals Kept By Resource-Poor People in Developing Countries |page=337 |isbn=978-1-91045-577-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e9jsEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT337}}{{cite book |last1=Hodges |first1=Frederick Mansfield |last2=Denniston |first2=George C. |last3=Milos |first3=Marilyn Fayre |publisher=Springer US |year=2007 |title=Male and Female Circumcision: Medical, Legal, and Ethical Considerations in Pediatric Practice |page=19 |isbn=978-0-58539-937-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0EyBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19}}

• Frenulum clitoridis: a frenulum below the clitoris
• Prepuce (disambiguation)

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web

|url = http://ect.downstate.edu/courseware/haonline/labs/l41/020102.htm

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20160310142333/http://ect.downstate.edu/courseware/haonline/labs/l41/020102.htm

|archivedate = 10 March 2016

|title = The Female Perineum: The Vulva}}

{{Women's health|state=collapsed}}

{{Female reproductive system|state=collapsed}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clitoral Hood}}

Hood

Category:Vulva