The innervation of the foreskin is impressive. Genitally intact males know from personal experience that the foreskin is one of the most sensitive parts of the body. Consequently, for over a century, some of the most respected names in medical science have turned their attention to this part of the body. Anatomists have transformed this inner knowledge into careful scientific observations about the complex innervation of the foreskin. As the most richly innervated part of the penis, the foreskin has the largest number of nerve receptors, as well as the greatest variety of nerve receptors. These specialized nerve endings include Meissner's corpuscles, free nerve endings, end bulbs of Krause, corpuscles of Ruffini, Pacinian corpuscles, genital end bulbs, genital bodies, Merkel's disks, Golgi-Mazzoni corpuscles, and Vater-Pacinian corpuscles. These remarkable organs provide the foreskin with an amazing ability to detect the slightest sensations of touch, motion, temperature, and pressure. We are still unaware of all the facts about these fascinating structures. Future research may discover even more nerve receptors in the foreskin and help clarify what useful purposes they serve.

Erogenous Zones of the Foreskin

The foreskin is what's known as a specific erogenous zone. This means that it is richly equipped with a high density and concentration of specialized and sophisticated nerve receptors that convey pleasure. The only other specific erogenous zones on the male body are the conjunctiva of the eye, lips, nipples, perianal skin, and the head of the penis. The presence of specialized erogenous nerve receptors makes this part of the body especially important.

The primary zones of erotogenous sensitivity are the frenulum, ridged mucosa, the preputial orifice, and the external fold of the foreskin. All of these zones are orgasmic triggers. Continuous and gentle stimulation of any one of these areas can elicit pleasure, orgasm, and ejaculation.

How the Glans Compares With the Foreskin

Most people are surprised to learn that the glans penis is one of the least sensitive parts of the entire body. Obviously, this news may be worrying for circumcised males. The glans is insensitive to light touch, heat, cold, and even to pinpricks, as researchers at the Department of Pathology in the Health Sciences Centre at the University of Manitoba discovered. The corona of the glans contains scattered free nerve endings, genital end bulbs, and Pacinian corpuscles, which transmit sensations of pain and deep pressure. The glans is nearly incapable of detecting light touch.

The nerve receptors of the corona are designed to be stimulated through the medium of the foreskin. Direct stimulation of the glans of the intact penis is most pleasant when the stimulus mimics the moist, massaging action of the foreskin. The moving ring of pressure created by the lips of the foreskin and ridged mucosa stimulate the nerve receptors in the rim of the glans. While pleasurable stimulation of the frenulum and ridged mucosa is instantly perceived, sensation of the corona is slow and gradual. When fully stimulated, the erotic sensations felt in the corona are perceived as having a slow, warm, and rich quality. As nice as this is, it hardly compares to the erotic sensations generated by the foreskin. Circumcised males have been robbed of a normal body part. They have also been robbed of a normal level of sexual sensation. Just as a person whose lips were amputated could never really appreciate the sensations that lips can convey, so a circumcised male can never understand what his genitally intact friends experience. This helps explain why some circumcised males defend circumcision so vehemently. They have no idea what was taken from them and are psychologically unprepared to deal with their loss.

Isn't The Foreskin A Vestigial Organ Like The Appendix?

No. First of all, the appendix is hardly a vestigial organ. This myth was created back in the nineteenth century when medical science was too primitive to figure out the purpose of the appendix. Doctors back then were foolish enough to think that any organ whose function they were unable to understand was functionless and vestigial. Nowadays, we know the appendix to be an important part of the immune system, producing large quantities of lymphocytes and pumping them into the small intestine. Similarly, the myth that the foreskin is a vestigial organ was invented by circumcisers as an additional justification for imposing mass circumcision on the American people. The foreskin cannot be vestigial. The results of a fascinating study conducted by Dr. Christopher Cold and Dr. Kenneth A. McGrath demonstrate that the human foreskin is an evolutionary advancement over the foreskins of other primates. The human foreskin is far more sophisticated and responsive, as their comparative anatomy studies prove. This is seen most clearly in the evolutionary increase in corpuscular innervation of the human foreskin and the simultaneous decrease in corpuscular receptors in the human glans relative to the innervation of the foreskin and glans of lower primates. In other words, in monkeys and apes, the glans is more sensitive than the foreskin. In humans, this is reversed, so that the foreskin is more sensitive than the glans. If the foreskin were “vestigial,” this advancement would never have taken place and the human foreskin would be either equally or less sensitive than the ape foreskin.

It is important to remember that there are no vestigial organs or body parts. Each and every part of the body serves a specific, important purpose. If the foreskin failed to serve a purpose, it would have disappeared millions of years ago. Drs. Cold and McGrath conclude that, over the last 65 million years, the foreskin has offered reproductive advantages. It must also be remembered that sexual selection has refined the external genitalia of every creature, including man. The human foreskin is the product of millions of years of evolutionary refinement, and, as such, the human foreskin represents the epitome of design perfection.

Copyright © 2002 by Paul M. Fleiss, M.D.

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Tags: Circumcision

About the Author

PAUL M. FLEISS, M.D., lives in Los Angeles, California. More

FREDERICK M. HODGES, D.Phil, lives in New Haven, Connecticut. More