Nerve · Pelvis

Genitofemoral nerve

Nervus genitofemoralis

A lumbar plexus nerve with an unusual habit: instead of emerging from the border of psoas major like its neighbours, it pierces the front of that muscle and then runs down its anterior surface, behind the peritoneum, in full view of the abdomen. Above the groin it splits along the line its name describes. The genital branch enters the inguinal canal through the deep ring and supplies cremaster and the skin of the scrotum or labium majus; the femoral branch passes under the inguinal ligament with the femoral artery to supply a small patch of skin over the femoral triangle. Being spread across the abdominal wall, groin and upper thigh, it is one of the few nerves whose territory crosses all three.