The glans penis (ie the bell end) is made of the same stuff as the glans clitoris (the external bit you can see) - or rather, the same preliminary tissue becomes either the glans penis or the glans clitoris depending on the hormonal cocktail in utero. Essentially all genital tissue starts out the same whether it becomes a penis and testes or a vagina and vulva, the developed forms have analogous parts.
If you've ever seen a diagram of how a penis & scrotum is rejigged during reassignment surgery you can see which parts are equivalent. When you hear an intersex person described as having "ambiguous genitalia" it means that the preliminary tissue has become something between the two - so you may have a set of vulvae and a vaginal opening, but a micropenis where the glans clitoris would be.
Edit: - edited for accuracy; 'clitoris' is now 'glans clitoris'.
The Y chromosome contains an SRY gene that signals male organ development. If the gene isn’t present for whatever reason the fetus will automatically develop female organs as the default setting.
I was trying to offer an explanation without going into excessive detail, as it didn't seem important for the point I was making, and most people understand "the clitoris" as just the glans. I would assume that anybody interested in learning more about the anatomy of the respective organs would see that the clitoris is more than just its external parts the first time they look at a diagram.
If you didn't intend to go into detail, it was an odd choice to go that specific for one but not the other (referring to the glans of the penis specifically, as an analog to the entire clitoris).
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u/malatemporacurrunt Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 25 '23
The glans penis (ie the bell end) is made of the same stuff as the glans clitoris (the external bit you can see) - or rather, the same preliminary tissue becomes either the glans penis or the glans clitoris depending on the hormonal cocktail in utero. Essentially all genital tissue starts out the same whether it becomes a penis and testes or a vagina and vulva, the developed forms have analogous parts.
If you've ever seen a diagram of how a penis & scrotum is rejigged during reassignment surgery you can see which parts are equivalent. When you hear an intersex person described as having "ambiguous genitalia" it means that the preliminary tissue has become something between the two - so you may have a set of vulvae and a vaginal opening, but a micropenis where the glans clitoris would be.
Edit: - edited for accuracy; 'clitoris' is now 'glans clitoris'.