Do Women Orgasm

Do Women Orgasm
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Want it, need it, have to have it — but what precisely is happening when you're climaxing? Here, the science behind the female orgasm
It's the only thing that feels better than diving into a cool lake on a sweltering day, biting into a juicy cheeseburger when you're starving, or even getting your wallet back after losing it on vacation abroad. An orgasm is that good. Which is why it bites that it doesn't happen more often. According to several major surveys, only 25 percent of women always climax during sex with a partner. The rest of us either hit — or miss — depending on the night, or never experience a female orgasm during intercourse at all. Compared to the male version (more than 90 percent of men get their cookies off 100 percent of the time), the female "O"; is a fleeting phenomenon. The question is: Why? What the hell was Mother Nature thinking?
Check out 14 mind-blowing facts about orgasms in our animated video:
That's what evolutionary biologists have been trying to figure out — with little success. The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution by Elisabeth Lloyd, Ph.D., a biology professor at Indiana University, shoots holes in virtually every theory that has ever attempted to pinpoint an evolutionary purpose to the female climax. "The clitoris has the indispensable function of promoting sexual excitement, which induces the female to have intercourse and become pregnant," Dr. Lloyd says. "But the actual incidence of the reflex of orgasm has never been tied to successful reproduction." Translation: Because women can and do get pregnant without climaxing, scientists can't figure out why we orgasm at all.
The good news is that most scientists do agree on the how. Here's what they know, so far — and how that knowledge can help the average girl hit her peak more often. Because even if the female orgasm does turn out to be pointless in terms of sustaining the species, it still feels pretty damn good.
When in the throes of an orgasm, you wouldn't notice if your dog, your cat, and your cockatiel started rearranging the furniture. Which makes it unlikely that you could track all the subtle changes that are happening in your body. Luckily, famous sex researchers William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson have done it for you in their seminal work, Human Sexuality. Here's what they found:
That warm, sexy rush you feel during foreplay is the result of blood heading straight to your vagina and clitoris. Around this time, the walls of the vagina start to secrete beads of lubrication that eventually get bigger and flow together.
As you become more turned on, blood continues to flood the pelvic area, breathing speeds up, heart rate increases, nipples become erect, and the lower part of the vagina narrows in order to grip the penis while the upper part expands to give it someplace to go. If all goes well (i.e., the phone doesn't ring and your partner knows what he's doing), an incredible amount of nerve and muscle tension builds up in the genitals, pelvis, buttocks, and thighs — until your body involuntarily releases it all at once in a series of intensely pleasurable waves, aka your orgasm.
The big bang is the moment when the uterus, vagina, and anus contract simultaneously at 0.8-second intervals. A small orgasm may consist of three to five contractions; a biggie, 10 to 15. Many women report feeling different kinds of orgasms — clitoral, vaginal, and many combinations of the two. According to Beverly Whipple, Ph.D., coauthor of The G-Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality , the reason may simply be that different parts of the vagina were stimulated more than others, and so have more tension to release. Also, muscles in other parts of the body may contract involuntarily — hence the clenched toes and goofy faces. As for the brain, a recent small-scale study at the Netherlands' University of Groningen found that areas involving fear and emotion are actually deactivated during orgasm (not so if you fake it).
After the peak of pleasure, the body usually slides into a state of satisfied relaxation — but not always. "Like their male counterparts, women can experience pelvic heaviness and aching if they do not reach orgasm," says Ian Kerner, Ph.D., a certified sex therapist and author of She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman . In fact, Dr. Kerner says, "many women complain that a single orgasm isn't enough to relieve the buildup of sexual tension," which can leave us with our own "blue balls." Don't worry: Like the male version, it's harmless.
So what goes wrong on those nights when the fuse gets lit but the bomb never explodes? "Nine times out of 10 it's because [the woman isn't] getting enough continuous clitoral stimulation," Dr. Kerner says. Often, "A woman will get close to orgasm, her partner picks up on it, and [then he either] orgasms immediately or changes what he was doing."
That's why Dr. Kerner frequently recommends the woman-on-top position. Because you control the angle and speed of the thrusts (try a back-and-forth motion so that your clitoris rubs against your partner's abdomen), it allows for the most constant clitoral stimulation. Another solution is to find a position that mimics how you masturbate. If you have solo sex by lying on your belly and rubbing your clitoris with your hands tucked beneath you, then your man can enter you from behind in that position. By watching you he'll also get a better sense of the stimulation you need.
"Spectatoring" is another problem that can trip women up. "It's when a woman is too concerned with her appearance and/or performance to actually enjoy herself," Dr. Kerner says. There's no way you're going to have an orgasm if you're fretting about your cellulite or stressing over whether your newest as-seen-on-late-night-cable moves feel good for him. Instead, you have to let the erotic sensations register in your mind. Focus. Breathe. Let go. "It may seem counterintuitive," he says, "but you need to relax to build sexual tension."
The best preparation for a big orgasm is probably a long, steamy shower, full-body massages by and for your man — or 10 minutes of steady oral sex, if you can get it. It's not so much your body that needs the R&R as your mind. "Many women need a transition period between dealing with the stress of everyday life and feeling sexual," Dr. Kerner says. "A few minutes of foreplay usually isn't enough." Doing something ritualistic and soothing that will clear your head of to-do lists, work issues, family problems, and whatever else might be distracting you from connecting with your body is essential to feeling ecstatic.
A Hormone Worth Getting Excited About
The most fascinating orgasmic side effect of all happens in the brain. During the big moment, the hypothalamus releases extra oxytocin into your system. Called the "cuddle hormone," oxytocin has been correlated with the urge to bond, be affectionate, and protect (new moms are drunk on the stuff). Since an increase in oxytocin has been shown to strengthen the uterine contractions that transport sperm to the egg, those findings are giving evolutionary biologists new hope. According to Dr. Lloyd, it's conceivable that the additional oxytocin gives enough of a boost to contractions that orgasm could play a part in conception after all. "Of all the avenues of orgasm research, I think the oxytocin avenue is the most promising," she says. It's even been hypothesized that having an orgasm and releasing that tide of oxytocin is a woman's subconscious way of approving of her partner as a potential dad.
The latest news is that this cuddle hormone might also be linked to our ability to trust. In a recent study at the University of Zurich, scientists asked 178 male college students to play an investment game with a partner they'd never met. Half of the students used an oxytocin nasal spray (not yet available in the United States) beforehand; half used a placebo. Those with the spray containing oxytocin were more than twice as likely to feel comfortable giving all of their money to their anonymous (but legitimate) partner. If oxytocin can help women feel more at ease about letting go and intensify orgasmic contractions, we might all want a bottle of the stuff stashed in our bedside drawers someday soon.

Health's content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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Ashley Mateo has over a decade's worth of experience covering fitness, health, travel, and more for publications including the WSJ, Men's Journal, Women's Health, and more.

It's a no-brainer that the female orgasm is still a mystery to many men. (Should we provide them with a map to the clitoris, perhaps?) But it's not a stretch to say that many women could also use more education when it comes to reaching climax, whether solo or with a partner.

After all, orgasms may not be biologically necessary; unlike men, women can conceive a baby without one. But they are pretty damn important when it comes to a healthy sex life. And as with most areas of sexual health, the more info you have, the more empowered you are to get what you want—and need—when it comes to crazy pleasure. With this in mind, read up on these 10 mind-blowing facts about what's happening when you're getting your mind blown in bed.

Okay, so no one's even actually counted. But doctors estimate that between 6,000 and 8,000 nerve endings exist in the clitoris, says Lauren Streicher, MD, associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University and author of Sex Rx . "What you see is just the tip of the iceberg," says Dr. Streicher. "[The clitoris is] basically a horseshoe kind of configuration around the upper part of the vaginal opening."

Considering how many nerves this pleasure spot has, it makes sense that women are way more likely to orgasm from clitoral stimulation. One recent study published in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy found that only 18% of women orgasm from penetration alone. "That number may be as low as 10%, or at best 25% to 30%," says Dr. Streicher. "The bottom line is that the majority of women do not have an orgasm from penetration and need clitoral stimulation."

A study of 800 female college graduates found that approximately 43% reported having had multiple orgasms. So exactly what is a multiple orgasm? "Some women experience long, cascading orgasms, where you continue to have strong rhythmic pelvic contractions for a long time," says Dr. Streicher. "And then there are orgasms where you have that over-satisfied sensation which stops and then, with more stimulation, starts again."

But if you're a one-and-done kind of women, don't stress about it. "There are plenty of women who, after they have one nice big orgasm, feel a real sense of fulfillment and satisfaction and they're done. And that's totally normal," says Dr. Streicher.

There's really no right amount of time for your orgasm to last. In fact, researchers used to think that 3 to 15 seconds was about the duration of a female orgasm. Then they found evidence that a climax could go on for 20 seconds to 2 minutes. The journal Ceskoslovenska Psychiatrie published data showing that 40% of women estimated the duration of their orgasm to be 30 to 60 seconds or even longer, and 48% of women experienced predominantly long orgasms.

The takeaway: "Some people have very short orgasms, while others can last longer," says Dr. Streicher. "There's a wide variety of normal."

It's kind of a stereotype, but there's science behind it. Way back in the 1960s, sex researchers William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson (the inspiration for Showtime's Masters of Sex ) found that it took women about 10 to 20 minutes of sex play to reach orgasm, compared to just four minutes for men. "There's a wide range," says Dr. Streicher. "We know that this has to do with how aroused someone is advance, and how intense the stimulation is."

Why women tend to need more arousal and varying types of stimulation isn't clear. But it's a good argument for finding a sex-positive partner who won't rush things and will make sure you cross that finish line when your brain and body are ready.

Suffer from headaches? Try getting it on. Sixty percent of migraine sufferers experienced moderate or complete relief after an orgasm, according to research published by the International Headache Society.

But there are headaches that are actually caused by orgasms. "The first is bothersome but not dangerous—it's just a general headache-y feeling that people can get during sexual activity," says Dr. Streicher. "But then there's the person who, at the exact same time that they have an orgasm, will have a very painful explosive headache simultaneous with orgasm."

If that's the case, you want to get to your doctor ASAP. She says that this kind of pain has a high correlation to subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of stroke caused by a burst blood vessel in the brain. Yikes.

Feel like you can't think straight when you have an orgasm? You're not exactly wrong. "An orgasm mediates other neurotransmitters that impact other functions," says Dr. Streicher. In fact, research at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands showed that orgasms deactivate the area in your brain that processes fear, as well as the parts that regulate your "vigilance for danger."

They also found that your self-control and "moral reasoning" decreases in the moment of that big O. "When scientists do active MRIs during orgasm, they can see where there's heightened activity and where there's decreased activity—that's certainly very real," says Dr. Streicher.

In the same way having an orgasm changes your brain, it can also crank up your pain tolerance. In one study , women's pain threshold during orgasm increased by 75%, and their pain detection threshold increased by 107%. Not surprisingly, this tolerance to pain has to do with feel-good endorphins and oxytocin (a bonding hormone) that are released when you orgasm. The effect will last about 10 to 20 minutes. On the other hand, men's brains don't release oxytocin when they orgasm. They experience a boost in pleasure, yet they don't reap the pain-killing benefits.

Your DNA could be responsible for at least a third—and maybe even 60%—of your ability to reach the big O, according to research published in the journal Biology Letters . It's not exactly the kind of topic you want to bring up with mom, so it's hard to determine exactly what role DNA plays. But it could be anatomical, says Dr. Streicher.

"If you look at the ability to orgasm during intercourse, we know that it correlates with the distance between the clitoris and the urethra: If your clitoris is less than 2.5 centimeters from the urethra, it's more likely that you will orgasm during intercourse. And that's simply because of clitoral stimulation based on anatomy."

Recent research puts the number of women who experience female ejaculation at around 54%. But that same research found that up to 66% of women experience coital incontinence, or excreting urine at orgasm. And it's hard to tell the difference between ejaculate and urine, says Dr. Streicher.

"With female ejaculation, what we're generally talking about is an emission of fluid from the Skene's glands, which are little glands on the side of the urethra," she explains. "Some women do lose urine when they orgasm, but it's very diluted so it doesn't smell like urine. So it's not so obvious what's happening."

Either way, it's just what your body does. "One of the questions that comes up all the time with my patients is whether there's a way to make it stop," says Dr. Streicher. "If it's ejaculate, no. If it's urine, there are opportunities to try and decrease or eliminate incontinence. But I get a surprising number of women who tell me they want to ejaculate. How can they make that happen? I have no idea."

Let's look at the stats. Ninety-five percent of heterosexual men reported that they usually or always orgasm during a sexual encounter, while only 65% of heterosexual women said the same thing, according to a recent study published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.

"You have to keep in mind the biological purpose of sex: to reproduce. A female orgasm is not required in order to conceive," says Dr. Streicher. "But I always say the reason the clitoris is located where it is so that women can self-stimulate during intercourse to orgasm."

Interesting, women in same-sex relationships are more likely to orgasm: 86% said they usually or always reached climax when sexually intimate. "The reason why is kind of obvious," says Dr. Streicher. "They're not depending on intercourse to reproduce, and certainly a woman in a same-sex relationship is far more likely to know where her partner's clitoris is and what to do with it than most men. That's just the reality."

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Explore a bit so you can find your clitoral hood. The female body can seem a little confusing at a glance, but it’s very easy to navigate. Move your fingers around to figure out exactly where your clitoris (clit) and clitoral hood, or the flap of skin covering your clit, are. It may help to locate your vagina, and then follow the labia, or flaps of skin surrounding the vagina, to where they meet right below your clit. Don’t be fooled—although the clit is just a tiny bundle of nerves, it’ll play a huge role in your orgasm. [2]
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Research source

The clitoral hood is directly above the clit, so you can bring yourself a lot of pleasure by playing around with it.

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