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[[File:Clitoris_outer_anatomy.png|thumb|Outer anatomy of [[clitoris]]]][[File:Clitoral hood.jpg|thumb|A photograph of a human [[vulva ]] with a labeled clitoral hood]]

In female human anatomy, the '''clitoral hood''' (also called '''preputium clitoridis''' and '''clitoral prepuce''') is a fold of [[skin]] that surrounds and protects the [[clitoral glans|glans]] of the [[clitoris]]; it also covers the external shaft of the [[clitoris]], develops as part of the [[labia minora]] and is [[homology (biology)|homologous]] with the [[foreskin]] (equally called ''prepuce'') in [[Sex organ|male genitals]].<ref name="Sloane">{{REFbook |last=Sloane

|lastinit=SloaneE

|lastinit=CrooksR |last2=Baur

|last2init2=BaurK

|lastinit=MulhallJP |editoreditors=John P. Mulhall, Luca Incrocci, Irwin Goldstein, Ray Rosen

The clitoral hood is composed of [[Mucocutaneous zone|muccocutaneous]] tissues; these tissues are between the [[mucosa]] and the [[skin]], and they may have immunological importance because they may be a point of entry of mucosal [[mucosa]]l vaccines.<ref name="Cold and Taylor">{{REFjournal |last=Cold |init=CJ |author-link=Christopher J. Cold |last2=Taylor |init2=TR |title=The Prepuce |journal=British Journal of Urology |date=1999 |volume=83 |issue=1 |pages=34–44 |DOI=10.1046/j.1464-410x.ColdCJ TaylorJR 1999.0830s1034.x |pubmedID=10349413 |s2cid=30559310 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The clitoral hood is also important not only in protection of the [[clitoral glans]], but also in pleasure, as it is an [[Erogenous zone|erogenous]] tissue.<ref name="Cold and Taylor"/>

The clitoral hood is formed during the [[Fetus|fetal]] stage by the cellular lamella.<ref name="Cold and Taylor"/> The cellular lamella grows down on the [[dorsal side]] of the [[clitoris ]] and is eventually fused with the [[clitoris]]. The clitoral hood is formed from the same tissues that form the [[foreskin ]] in human males.

The clitoral hood varies in the size, shape, thickness, and other aesthetic areas. Some women have large clitoral hoods that completely cover the [[clitoral glans]]. Some of these can be retracted to expose the [[clitoral glans]], such as for hygiene purposes or for pleasure; others do not retract. Other women have smaller hoods that do not cover the full length of the [[clitoral glans]], leaving the [[clitoral glans ]] exposed all the time. Sticky bands of tissue called ''adhesions'' can form between the hood and the glans; these stick the hood onto the glans so the hood cannot be pulled back to expose the glans, and, as in the male, strongly scented [[smegma]] can accumulate.

{{DEFAULTSORT[[Category:Clitoral Hood}}Genital]][[Category:Female sexuality]]

[[Categoryde:GenitalsKlitorisvorhaut]]