Can't find clitoris!

[SuzieB]

Hi group!

I am exactly 2 weeks postop, and I can't find my clitoris under my clitoral hood! I still have a lot of swelling, but I am relatively pain-free. I've been exploring a little, and I noticed that there is nothing under my clitoral hood! There is nothing under my hood but a little hole that goes down into my body. Last week, I bumped my vagina on a bike rack while walking (i'm blind, and my cane didn't catch it). I'm worried the accident ripped the little organ out of the place in which it was stitched, and that it was smashed into that hole. I am still bleeding primarily from the clitoral area. I got a sighted person to look at it, and they don't see anything resembling glans-tissue in that area.

The other possibility is that nothing is wrong, I am very swollen, and as the swelling goes down, my clitoris will appear in its place.

Has this happened to anyone else, or was your clitoris under the clitoral hood right from the beginning, despite the swelling? I am worried something was damaged during that accident, and that I need to get it checked-out and/or fixed. I want to know whether or not I am overreacting.

I am happy with all other aspects of my surgery. It was an amazing experience. :-)

[mrs izzy]

Suzie,

For me mine seemed to take some time to be able to find it on my own. My husband has seen it and could find it from the begining. I think so much is the swelling and you are only 2 weeks post and i know it is still major swelling down there.

If you have any worries give your surgeon a call and see what they have to say.

I hope all is well and it is just going to take some time to come around.

Hugs
Isabell

[Jenna Marie]

The swelling can make a *huge* difference. It was, no joke, about six months before I could find it myself because I had some pretty extreme swelling (even the nurses were shocked). Nurse could and did show me at 4 days post-op, but she knew exactly what she was looking for and at. By myself, no chance! I ended up reassuring myself because I could *feel* it - an area of very heightened sensitivity - but I was lucky enough to be sensate from the beginning. I know another woman who said she ended up with a similar "bleeding, numb hole" in the clitoral area and was reassured by an expert in post-op vulvas that it was totally normal, and sure enough, once everything healed up she was perfect.

Basically, there's probably a 90% chance you're overreacting, but you might as well get it checked out for your own peace of mind. At about the same point I was convinced I had a terrible infection and ran to a doctor over that, and it was nothing. But the doctor and surgeon both said, better safe than sorry...

[Vicky]

I am at 11 months, and I have finally noticed swelling leaving that very area.  I was warned that it could be nearly a year before it all started getting to its final shape.  Big thing I recently noticed was that I was not spraying all over my vulvar area, and it was easier to urinate from one place.  A few days later I did definitely find my clitoris with some size to it.  It had been a small pimple that did not due what I had first hoped for.  Now it is its own self in there.  It is still  mapped to my extended external spot of old, but it gains sensitivity by the day.  At two weeks, I was swollen up like a beach ball there. 

[Zoi]

3 weeks post op and can see it , dr.chett told me not to spread my labia minora till I'm 3 months post op ,how ever when ever the nurses used to clean me up I felt it it was full of sensation ,I'll probably wait till the 3 months are over then explore .