In Search of a Perfect G

New book's theory hits the commercial spot

G is for Graefenberg, Ernst, a German gynecologist and sex researcher.

Spot is for what he reported discovering in some women in the course of research into birth control methods in the 1940s: a patch of erectile tissue in the front wall of the vagina, directly behind the pubic bone, that acts something like a second clitoris. G spot is for the new book about that odd finding, published amid considerable commercial hubbub: a first printing of 150,000 hardback copies by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, and deals with six book clubs.

The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality makes the case for the existence of a bean-shaped erogenous zone in women; when this spot is stimulated by deep pressure, it produces vaginal orgasm, distinctly different from clitoral orgasm. The spot amounts to a "female prostate gland," say the three authors, Alice Kahn Ladas, a New York psychologist; Beverly Whipple, a registered nurse and sex counselor in southern New Jersey; and John D. Perry, a Connecticut psychologist.

Why has the spot remained undetected for so long? Autopsies are not likely to reveal it, claim the authors, because most autopsies are performed on older women, whose G spots may have atrophied. Gynecologists generally miss it because testing for sexual sensitivity in the vagina is not part of diagnostic procedure or medical ethics.

To make their case, Whipple and Perry examined more than 400 women who had signed consent releases permitting direct stimulation. The authors claim that the G spot was stimulated in all the women examined. But in part because the evidence for the G spot is anecdotal and testimonial in nature, rather than based on direct anatomical or tissue culture studies, the U.S. gynecological community is skeptical about the authors' claims.

Dr. J. Jones Stewart, a Pasadena gynecologist, says that while general vaginal responsiveness is a fact, he is not convinced that a G spot exists. Indeed, he says, patients who have had that section of the vagina removed in surgery report the same sexual sensitivity they had before the operation. Says he: "They've misinterpreted the response as a great discovery. The response has been there all the time and has been recognized for hundreds of years. It is not due to an anatomical switch that can cause excitement." Dr. Kermit Krantz, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, believes that lovers aiming for the so-called G spot in fact are hitting a more general nerve area around the weak sphincter muscle of the vagina and the cavernous tissue of the urethra. Says Krantz: "I would like to know on what anatomical basis the G spot is explained. Have they made biopsies of it?" The authors, he thinks, have drawn a conclusion based on inadequate evidence. Adds Krantz: "We shouldn't make claims without anatomical basis. But if they find it, bully, I'd like to know about it." Says Atlanta Gynecologist Dr. Michael Wolfson: "The theory is a bit farfetched."

Dr. Malcolm Freeman, a sex therapist and professor of gynecology at Emory University in Atlanta, disagrees: "It's very clear that the spot exists. Some women have a small tissue buildup, a remnant of prostate vestige." He adds that the authors' additional claim--that a stimulated G spot may secrete a fluid--should serve to alleviate the anxiety of women who notice unexpected secretions during orgasm. "In the years before I was aware of the G spot," he says, "I saw about one patient a year who came to me very anxious because she seemed to be urinating during orgasm. She usually thought she needed bladder repair, but the patient was urged not to worry; there was no dysfunction."

Still, the evidence in the book is less suited to convince most professionals than it is to produce a new hunt for high-tech sexual pleasure, and possible frustration. "A lot of women are going to be upset if they can't find it," says Midge Wilson, a social psychologist and a firm believer in the G spot. Adds Marriage Counselor Marion Holtzer of Chicago: "It's going to be like the Grail." Concludes Therese Baker, chairman of DePaul University's sociology department: "It's less interesting whether the Grafenberg spot is there than that people want to search for it." That is what The G Spot's authors surely can bank on.

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