Men, everything you’ve ever known about sex and the female orgasm, specifically the elusive Gräfenberg spot, popularly known as the G-spot, is wrong. The life-long hunt for the “magic button,” which is believed to be the magical gateway to heighten a woman’s sexual pleasure, is nothing but quasi-mythical, one Italian scientist says. According to a recent study published in the journal Nature Reviews Urology, the “intimate area” that leads a woman to climax, is not a spot but a “sensitive area” known as the clitourethrovaginal (CUV) complex.

The G-spot became known as the “holy grail” of female orgasms in the 1950s by Ernst Gräfenberg, a German gynecologist who claimed there was an area on the vaginal wall that, when stimulated, may lead to an orgasm. Despite women experiencing sensitivity more generally along the upper vaginal wall, rather than in a definable spot, the fascination of the G-spot has led to tons of literature published on how to find the small dime to half-a-dollar-sized area.

Books like Orgasm Answer Guide by Beverly Whipple, a sexpert for more than 30 years, and other sexperts, have perpetuated the myth of the G-spot as a way to understand the female orgasm to help men strike it rich by finding the “pot of gold.” In a survey conducted by Ann Summers, a British retail company specializing in sex toys and lingerie, 55 percent of men admitted to having never found their partner’s G-spot and 36 percent said they didn't even know what it is.

The existence of a G-spot has been taken at face value, but the key to the female orgasm may not actually be a spot after all. "Until now, studies have talked about a 'G-spot.' But it's not simply a spot as has previously been thought,” Emmanuele A. Jannini, lead author of the study and a professor of endocrinology and sexology at Tor Vergata university in Rome, told The Local. "Compared to the male erogenous zones, it is much more variable and complex, and also varies from woman to woman depending on the hormonal cycle.”

Jannini and his colleagues, who sought to debunk the sex myth once and for all, have uncovered a larger intimate area for sexual stimulation in the female body. The Italian researchers believe there is a much more complex area that includes the complete reproductive system, including tissues, muscles, glands, and the uterus, that arouses women. The structure and interactions between the clitoris, urethra, and anterior vaginal wall have led this team to discover the CUV region. They consider it a “multifaceted morphofunctional” region that, when properly stimulated during penetration, could lead women to orgasm.

"We know (now) there is a much more complex than a simple, phantasmagoric 'point,'" Jannini said. He expressed to The Local he hopes the study will “hopefully forever” put an end to the talk about the location of the magical G-spot. The Italian researcher also emphasizes the vagina “must be respected” because it is not just a canal by which children are made.

The Italian study isn’t the first to suggest the G-spot is nothing but a "sex back." A 2012 study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found there was no evidence that suggests the G-spot exists. Dr. Amichai Kilchevsky, lead author of the study, and an urologist from the Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut reviewed 100 studies conducted over the past 60 years that show no conclusive evidence to support the existence of the erogenous zone. “Lots of women feel almost as though it is their fault they can't find it. The reality is that it is probably not something, historically or evolutionarily, that should even exist,” Kilchevsky said.

Finding the G-spot has been seen as an impossible feat, since it has to do more with a physiological change, rather than being an anatomical structure. However, men and women alike can rejoice that the G-spot does not exist, taking some pressure off. Whether you choose to still call it the G-Spot, the CUV region, or your overall vagina, it’s important to know what you like and how your body responds to it.

Source: Buisson O, Jannini EA, Rubio-Casillas A. Beyond the G-spot: Clitourethrovaginal complex anatomy in female orgasm. Nature Reviews Urology. 2014.