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Assessment of clitoral anatomy in human fetuses

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Abstract

Purpose

To determine fetal clitoral dimensions in antenatal period and to provide a contribution to external genital morphology determination in premature infants.

Methods

Thirty-one formalin fixed female fetuses aged between 18 and 40 weeks (17 fetuses aged 21.53 ± 1.88 weeks in the second trimester and 14 fetuses aged 31.00 ± 4.90 weeks in the third trimester) were evaluated. 20 (64.5%) fetuses were between 3 and 97% percentile range and within normal limits. Clitoris appearance (completely covered by labium majus/partially showing/prominent), length and width of clitoris, labium minus length, length, and width of labium majus were assessed.

Results

Clitoris length during the second trimester was 4.84 ± 1.09 mm, whereas it was 5.43 ± 1.07 in the third trimester. Clitoris width was as 3.35 ± 0.88 mm in the second trimester and as 4.55 ± 0.96 mm in the third trimester. A statistically significant increase was seen in width of clitoris, length, and width of labium majus and length of labium minus with gestational age in the second and third trimesters (p < 0.05). No significant difference was found between the second and third trimesters in terms of clitoris length (p = 0.146). A homogenous spread in clitoris appearance was obtained between the second and third trimesters without any significant difference (p = 0.912). In addition, fetus percentiles showed a homogenous spread without any significant differences between completely covered, partially covered and prominent groups (p = 0.452).

Conclusion

The anatomical data can be beneficial to the development of fetal radiological screening procedures in females and also in morphological assessment criteria in premature infants, effectively assisting in diagnosing anomalies during the early term.

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Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey

    Caner İsbir & Hakan Taşkınlar

  2. School of Health, Mersin University, Çiftlikköy Campus, Yenişehir, 33343, Mersin, Turkey

    Özlem Elvan

  3. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey

    Zeynep Çetin

  4. Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey

    Gülhan Temel

Authors
  1. Caner İsbir
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  2. Özlem Elvan
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  3. Hakan Taşkınlar
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  4. Zeynep Çetin
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  5. Gülhan Temel
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Contributions

Cİ and ÖE: project development, data collection and analysis, manuscript writing, and editing; ZÇ and GT: data collection and analysis; HT: project development and editing.

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Correspondence to Özlem Elvan.

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İsbir, C., Elvan, Ö., Taşkınlar, H. et al. Assessment of clitoral anatomy in human fetuses. Surg Radiol Anat 42, 453–459 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02383-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02383-9

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