MRI Reveals Organs During Sex

This video (scroll down) is making the rounds the past week on respected science sites like New Scientist as well as geek blogs and YouTube. It's based on not-brand-new research that involved a video that is said to be of interest to scientists who study these things and, perhaps, to anyone in the general public interested in sexual anatomy.

Dr. Pek Van Andel and colleagues, in 1999, made the first MRI images of male and female sex organs while couples were having sex under, as it was put, cloistered conditions. MRI machines are said by some to be much like coffins.

The purpose of the "observational study," as explained in the British Medical Journal in 1999: "To find out whether taking images of the male and female genitals during coitus is feasible and to find out whether former and current ideas about the anatomy during sexual intercourse and during female sexual arousal are based on assumptions or on facts."

In all, 13 experiments were performed with eight couples and three single women. The results, as stated in the journal: "The images obtained showed that during intercourse in the "missionary position" the penis has the shape of a boomerang and 1/3 of its length consists of the root of the penis. During female sexual arousal without intercourse the uterus was raised and the anterior vaginal wall lengthened. The size of the uterus did not increase during sexual arousal."

And, yes, it was feasible, and the images have been strung together into a video.

According to Improbable Research, the outfit that runs the Ig Noble prizes and put this video together: "Here, more or less, is the world premiere of that video."

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