well why is the man’s urethra in the penis instead of under it, huh????
im kidding. while genitals are made from the same clay, the structures end up quite different, and start differentiating before 10 weeks of pregnancy. for example, what becomes the scrotum in males becomes the labia majora in females. you can kind of imagine if you sealed up the vulva, the urethra is enclosed and would need a longer tube to eliminate urine
Some people have urethras that pass through the clitoris. I don’t remember why it happens. While they start out the same, male and female anatomy both require active development. It’s why “we all start out as female” is a bit of a misconception.
For reference: the male equivalent to the clitoris is that little corner at the edge of the seam on the underside of the head of the penis. It’s not just the entire head of the penis.
Men can be born with the urethra not fully extending and terminating mid shaft or closer to the ballzak it’s called hypospadias. Making it similar to what the ladies have, but yeah… Biology…
That’s a good question. I imagine it has something to do with separating the nerve endings required for contractual orgasms from the passageway for urine. It’s simply a matter of square inches vs square millimeters: men have room to spare.
Consider the clitoris as the head of the penis. The urethral opening in on the distal or ventral side of the penis. The penis is simply a column to advance the head and the urethral opening into the vagina during mating. Hence, the head and urethral opening have a benefit from the location.
There are conditions of malformations of the penis and urethra. These can result in lack of obvious genitalia and mistakes in assigning gender. Urological corrections vary but could include strategies such as removal of the corpus callosum (the erectile parts) and plastic surgery to assign female while providing ability to experience orgasm. Others would attempt to close the urethral into a tube allowing for male assignment. Often there are other malformations that reduce likelihood of functioning sperm in either case.
So the clitoris is not just the part that pokes out from under the hood like you mention. It also has structures that are internal. The urethral opening isn’t below it but between the majority of the clitoral structure.
There is a birth defect in males where the urethral opening can occur anywhere down the shaft, which would be structurally more similar to what females have.
We grow in the womb, not all from a base female but from a stage that can form into either. Structures are similar but not the same due to this!
Or be intersexed like me where the urethra was in the top of the space where the scrotum should’ve fused together, not at all connected to my penis. Which itself had a hood instead of a full foreskin and the foreskin I had was fused to the inside edges of the mostly-scrotum skin.
The position of the urethra is controlled by hormones or something like that during early development. It’s highly variable for women and can vary between just below the clitoris to a good amount inside the vagina.
Men just have usually a very different amount of these hormones, but even for them the position is variable, some have the opening at the tip of the penis, for some it’s more on the underside, and if there are larger abnormalies during development, even men can have the opening e.g. at the base of the penis or roughly where women would have it.
I think there is a condition where the urethra opening is not at the top of the penis. I wonder if it has to do with something screwy when the embryo went male
There is some confusion around this from the get-go.
The clitoris is actually quite large and isn’t just the tiny bump at the top of the vagina’s labia minora. It is also a large gland underneath the skin. When a clitoris turns into a penis the whole gland grows and expands, the urethral path grows with it.
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Oh shit, is that where it is?
So women can feel like they have the upper hand in a never ending game of “Marco Polo”
Honestly this sounds more like an evolutionary biology question than a sex ed question.
well why is the man’s urethra in the penis instead of under it, huh????
im kidding. while genitals are made from the same clay, the structures end up quite different, and start differentiating before 10 weeks of pregnancy. for example, what becomes the scrotum in males becomes the labia majora in females. you can kind of imagine if you sealed up the vulva, the urethra is enclosed and would need a longer tube to eliminate urine
Genetics are complicated
Some people have urethras that pass through the clitoris. I don’t remember why it happens. While they start out the same, male and female anatomy both require active development. It’s why “we all start out as female” is a bit of a misconception.
For reference: the male equivalent to the clitoris is that little corner at the edge of the seam on the underside of the head of the penis. It’s not just the entire head of the penis.
Men can be born with the urethra not fully extending and terminating mid shaft or closer to the ballzak it’s called hypospadias. Making it similar to what the ladies have, but yeah… Biology…
That’s a good question. I imagine it has something to do with separating the nerve endings required for contractual orgasms from the passageway for urine. It’s simply a matter of square inches vs square millimeters: men have room to spare.
They actually CAN be but it’s considered a birth defect 😬
School failed us both, anatomy’s wild isn’t it?
Consider the clitoris as the head of the penis. The urethral opening in on the distal or ventral side of the penis. The penis is simply a column to advance the head and the urethral opening into the vagina during mating. Hence, the head and urethral opening have a benefit from the location.
There are conditions of malformations of the penis and urethra. These can result in lack of obvious genitalia and mistakes in assigning gender. Urological corrections vary but could include strategies such as removal of the corpus callosum (the erectile parts) and plastic surgery to assign female while providing ability to experience orgasm. Others would attempt to close the urethral into a tube allowing for male assignment. Often there are other malformations that reduce likelihood of functioning sperm in either case.
Key words are “evolve from”. One evolves one way, the other… well, a different way. Not that hard and also you can look it up easily.
Magic
So the clitoris is not just the part that pokes out from under the hood like you mention. It also has structures that are internal. The urethral opening isn’t below it but between the majority of the clitoral structure.
There is a birth defect in males where the urethral opening can occur anywhere down the shaft, which would be structurally more similar to what females have.
We grow in the womb, not all from a base female but from a stage that can form into either. Structures are similar but not the same due to this!
Or be intersexed like me where the urethra was in the top of the space where the scrotum should’ve fused together, not at all connected to my penis. Which itself had a hood instead of a full foreskin and the foreskin I had was fused to the inside edges of the mostly-scrotum skin.
The position of the urethra is controlled by hormones or something like that during early development. It’s highly variable for women and can vary between just below the clitoris to a good amount inside the vagina.
Men just have usually a very different amount of these hormones, but even for them the position is variable, some have the opening at the tip of the penis, for some it’s more on the underside, and if there are larger abnormalies during development, even men can have the opening e.g. at the base of the penis or roughly where women would have it.
My stock answer would be the engineering of the female had to be such as to allow space to accommodate a human inside it
If you are a little more interested, I just learned this is anatomy class and I have some good diagrams that can show what exactly happens
a wild guess would be because women’s bodies are designed to pass a child through that area and men’s are not
Langman Medical Embryology 14th edition Chapter 16
Embryology is an endlessly fascinating topic. One of the best lecture series I’ve seen on this is free on youtube. Look up “Ninja nerd embryology”
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Um it’s not below it. The urethra is literally in the clitoris. The fact people don’t seem to know women pee from their clit area is insane to me.
I think there is a condition where the urethra opening is not at the top of the penis. I wonder if it has to do with something screwy when the embryo went male
There is some confusion around this from the get-go.
The clitoris is actually quite large and isn’t just the tiny bump at the top of the vagina’s labia minora. It is also a large gland underneath the skin. When a clitoris turns into a penis the whole gland grows and expands, the urethral path grows with it.