What Does the Prostate/Other Muscles Feel Like?

[The Komrade]

I'm trying to learn the associations between the inside of the pelvic floor and what those muscles feel like to the end of my finger. I found this excellent post by Lightning Tree (viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3995) that describes the pelvic floor in an easy to grasp visual fashion, but I can't find anything on the forums that describe the different muscle groups by feel, which I think would be very helpful.

Also, what does the prostate feel like? Soft and cause urethral sensations? Diagrams seem to vary somewhat as to whether the first thing one should feel at 12 o'clock past the anal sphincter is the prostate or some tissue below it.

[Dimdem]

FWIW, when I had a nurse check my prostate recently she said that in terms of firmness it ought to feel like the tip of your nose. Mine is soft, at present.

[The Komrade]

Thanks for the response, Dimdim.

I'm going to describe a bit of what I've discovered so far working on the inside to see if some of the rest of you can confirm I'm feeling the right things. I'm still having some trouble figuring out the distances with my finger as compared to the Headache in the Pelvis maps.

Once my finger emerges from the anal sphincter, to the far left and far right extremes (4 o'clock and 8 o'clock) I feel a fleshy bone area that I think is the ischial tuberosities (sitbones). Is that correct? The diagrams list the ischial spine there.

At six o'clock, I've found the tailbone, and at about 7 and 5 o'clock it feels like a bony ridge. I haven't been able to reach higher, but I assume that's where the piriformis is, correct?

And at 12 o'clock, when I emerge from the sphincter, there is a short distance before it curves upward almost vertically, then perhaps a quarter of an inch ahead a pulpy protruding object is jutting outward. I would assume this is the prostate? Does that mean the short distance from the sphincter and up that curve encompasses part of the levator ani, the hiatus of the urethra and the transverse perineum? I assumed that the prostate was a lot higher up than this, but perhaps I'm wrong since the pictures in the book only show two knuckles of a finger being able to reach the prostate. Or are some of those areas on the other side of the prostate tissue?

Also, are the anterior levator ani portions on this forward vertical wall before the pulpy area? As far as I can feel, the pulpy area extends around 11 through 1 o'clock. I thought the anterior levator ani would feel differently than prostate tissue, but perhaps this is another mistaken assumption?