The other week, the ladies on “The View” got into a debate about the existence and “alleged” location of the G-spot. Considering all the lip service (ha!) given to the G-spot in women’s mags, we thought we’d gotten beyond all this. Apparently not. The View gals referred to a Yahoo.com article that claimed it doesn’t exist! (We think this is what they were referring to.) Sadly, there just isn’t enough serious medical research on the topic or serious discussion in popular media about actual anatomy for everyone to be on the same page. But there is enough to give us confidence we know what’s up, so we’re here to set everyone straight. (Barbara Walters, call us!):

AN INTRO TO THE G-SPOT

The “G-spot” doesn’t refer to a magic button that’s guaranteed to transport all women everywhere to orgasmic bliss every time it’s pressed; nor does it refer to your (or your girlfriend’s) own personal sweet spot (whether it’s in the vagina or the armpit). No, the G-spot is a particularly sensitive area that’s stimulated by applying pressure to roof of the vagina — and provoking it may or may not lead to orgasm and/or female ejaculation. Like almost everything about sex, it depends. (You’ll find G-spot enthusiasts arguing this point, claiming that all women can enjoy G stim and ejaculate, but the research we’ve seen on the matter — this is one study, for example — says it ain’t so. Besides, we think that’s just too much performance pressure to put on a sista).

THE “DISCOVERY” OF THE G-SPOT…

We have the ’80s to thank for shoulder pads, Wham!, and the term “G-spot.” Before then, research on the area was pretty flimsy. In the ’40s, prominent sex guru Alfred Kinsey found that most ladies who dug having their vadge tickled, dug it most on the vadge’s top wall. But since Kinsey was all about the clitoral head, he didn’t send out any press releases on the matter. The ’50s gave us good old German gyno Ernst Gräfenberg, the first modern scientist to identify the erotic potential of the urethral sponge, as felt through the top wall of the vagina. But the world was only ready for one orgasmic revolution, and Kinsey’s clit won out. It wasn’t until the early ’80s that a pair of sexologists, John Perry and Beverly Whipple, picked up where Gräfenberg left off, replicating his findings and finally giving this hot zone a name in honor of Ernst: The G-spot.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE G-SPOT?

If you want to talk about the G-spot, we’ve got to talk about the urethra. Oooh, fun. The urethra is the slender tube which carries urine (tinkle) from your bladder to your urethral meatus or opening (peepee hole), which, if you’re a chick, is usually between your clit and vaginal opening. The urethra runs just above the roof of your vaginal canal, kind of like a ceiling pipe, and is surrounded by erectile tissue called the urethral sponge, sort of like outer insulation. This sponge houses a number of “paraurethral” (meaning near the urethra) and “periurethral” (meaning around the urethra) glands and ducts which secrete and expel fluid (or female ejaculate) respectively. While the G-spot has never been anatomically mapped by a body of medical professionals who can agree, it’s popularly known as the part of the urethral sponge which may be felt through the ceiling of the vagina, approximately one-third to one-half of the way in — it’s usually an oval area or ridge (sometimes called the “G-crest”) about the size of a elongated dime or quarter. (However, some consider the G-spot to actually be the entire urethral sponge.) When you’re aroused, the urethral sponge fills with blood and its glands fill with fluid, causing the area to swell and firm up — which is why many women (or their partners) are only able to locate the G-spot once they’re, you know, good and ready.

The urethral sponge (G-spot if you’re nasty) is also sometimes — controversially — called the “female prostate.” Check it out: Fetuses, whatever sex they’re destined to become, all start out female. It’s not until the 7th or 8th week of gestation when the Y chromosome kicks in for the boys. The same embryonic tissue that eventually develops into the prostate gland in boys is what eventually becomes the para- and periurethral glands in girls. New research suggests that the female urethral sponge with these glands and ducts is not just leftover tissue, but is actually its own working organ with similar functionality (i.e. it enables female ejaculation in some women).

HOW DO YOU STIMULATE THE G-SPOT?

You or your partner can do this: Lie lie on your back (you can pull your knees up or place a pillow under your bum for better access), and insert one or two fingers about two inches in and up, as if you were aiming behind the pubic bone.  You’re feeling for a rough, ridged area on the front or upper wall of the vagina, about the size of a stretched-out coin. Remember, the G-spot actually sits behind this wall – again, it’s the spongy tissue that surrounds her urethra (a.k.a. the female prostate). Since you’ll be pressing on the urethra (and in the vicinity of the bladder), it’s only natural that you might feel like you have to wee when you do this. If you urinate first, then you’ll know you can ignore this feeling and you can keep on G-spotting. Once there, curve your fingers in a “come hither” gesture and massage the area firmly and steadily. Some women find this sensation downright uncomfortable and can’t get past the resulting “urge to purge”. But others actually require this kind of stimulation for orgasm, or even ejaculate as a result of it.

We hope that helps!

For more on the G-spot and sexual anatomy, check out our books “The Big Bang” and “SEX: How to Do Everything”, from which some the above was excerpted.