From Elaine Morgan
Sharon Moalem’s article on female ejaculation raises many questions (30 May, p 31). Moalem wonders whether the female prostate ever performed an antibacterial or any other useful function, but if it had it is unlikely to have become vestigial.
The fact that the female prostate varies so much in size and shape, and is so frequently absent, suggests a comparison either with features whose original function has changed or disappeared, like the appendix or the skin’s pilo-erectile muscles, or functionless analogues of features from the other sex, like nipples in men. Is the amount of fluid discharged by these atypical females any more significant than that from the nipples of atypical males? And why is the ability to mess up the sheets in this way regarded as a desirable female accomplishment? Are there also “sex-educators” claiming to teach men how to lactate, and if not why not?
Moalem also points out that the existence of the G spot is still considered controversial. Surely it is possible to find out whether it exists. If the G spot is characterised by an unusually dense cluster of nerve endings at a particular location, it should be possible to count them.
Your article about female ejaculation made claims for the existence of a female prostate. While there is no doubt that glands adjacent to the female urethra may become enlarged and secrete significant volumes of ejaculate-like fluid, the presence of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in this fluid is not proof of a prostatic origin.
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PSA is produced in small amounts in females from a number of tissues, and has even been used as a marker for bowel cancer. If women have a prostate then you might expect rare cases of prostate cancer, just as men occasionally develop breast cancer. A search of the PubMed database revealed no such cases, so I can only conclude that the case for a female prostate remains conjectural.
Indooroopilly, Queensland, Australia
• Prostate cancer in women seems to be extremely rare, but there are at least six known case reports. In one the woman had raised blood levels of PSA, just as with male prostate cancer (International Journal of Gynecological Pathology, vol 23, p 71).
Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, UK
