In a new article, our colleagues fromIFLScience have put forward a anatomical feature unknown: the perineal raphe.
The term raphe designates a line on the surface of a fabric, and resembling a seam or a suture. The most observant and observant now know what it is regarding here. It is indeed the line, often less pigmented, which goes from the glans of the penis to the anus, passing through the scrotum, which it seems to divide into two parts.
Let everyone be reassured, it is neither a disease nor a malformation, but a vestige of our embryonic life. Because before regarding seven weeks of pregnancy, the male and female embryos have the same genitalia. It is during the sexual differentiationwhen the testicles of the male embryo begin to produce testosterone, the glans, penis and scrotum are formed, giving rise to this line of demarcation. In the woman, the absence of the Y chromosome and the resultant testosterone leads to the formation of the labia majora and labia minora, the vagina, the uterus, the ovaries and the clitoris (the latter instead of the glans penis). so that women’s perineal raphe does not extend than from the vaginal opening to the anus.
« The line in the middle, called “raphe”, is just a reminder of how all humans start out with a common female genital anatomy up to 7 weeks following conception. “, thus explained l’Intersex Society of North America sur son site internetadding that hormonal disturbances (too much or too little testosterone, for example) can lead to so-called intersex genitals, that is to say on the border between male and female.
In 2016 study Having focused on the perineal raphe, researchers pointed out that the shape and thickness of the perineal, penile and scrotal raphe differ from one individual to another. The line can be lighter than the skin, or darker, or even thicker, pearly, wide or very fine.
Note that some men’s underwear, boxers in particular, have a seam that can be superimposed more or less on this anatomical feature.
