{"id":34905,"date":"2023-08-18T04:15:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=34905"},"modified":"2023-08-19T22:07:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T22:07:55","slug":"the-orgasm-gap-and-why-women-climax-less-than-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-orgasm-gap-and-why-women-climax-less-than-men\/","title":{"rendered":"The orgasm gap and why women climax less than\u00a0men"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Laurie Mintz<\/a>, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine a steamy sex scene involving a woman and a man from your favourite television show or movie. It\u2019s likely that both parties orgasm. But this doesn\u2019t reflect reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because during heterosexual sexual encounters, women have far fewer orgasms than men. This is called the orgasm gap. And it has been documented in the scientific literature<\/a> for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one study<\/a> of more than 50,000 people, 95% of heterosexual men said they usually or always orgasm when sexually intimate, while only 65% of heterosexual women said the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/a> shows that some people believe this gap is because women\u2019s orgasms are biologically elusive. Yet, if this were true, women\u2019s orgasm rates would not differ depending on circumstance. Indeed, many<\/a> studies<\/a> show that women orgasm more when alone than with a partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article is part of Women\u2019s Health Matters<\/a>, a series about the health and wellbeing of women and girls around the world. From menopause to miscarriage, pleasure to pain the articles in this series will delve into the full spectrum of women\u2019s health issues to provide valuable information, insights and resources for women of all ages.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be interested in:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five old contraception methods that show why the pill was a medical breakthrough<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science experiments traditionally only used male mice \u2013 here\u2019s why that\u2019s a problem for women\u2019s health<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At least 92% of women orgasm when pleasuring themselves. Women also orgasm more when having sex in relationships compared with casual sex. In a study<\/a> of more than 12,000 college students, only 10% of the women said they orgasm during first-time hookups while 68% said they orgasm during sex that occurs in a committed relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women also orgasm more<\/a> when having sex with other women. In one study<\/a> 64% of bisexual women said that they usually or always orgasm when being sexually intimate with other women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why does this happen?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In all these scenarios where women are climaxing more, there is a greater focus on clitoral stimulation<\/a>. The majority of women need clitoral stimulation to orgasm \u2013 which makes sense given that the clitoris and the penis originate from the same kind of tissue. And both the clitoris and the penis are chock full of touch-sensitive nerve endings and erectile tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my work<\/a>, I\u2019ve asked thousands of women: \u201cWhat is your most reliable route to orgasm?\u201d Only 4% say penetration. The other 96% say clitoral stimulation, alone or paired with penetration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main reason for the orgasm gap, then, is that women are not getting the clitoral stimulation they need. And cultural messages about the supremacy of intercourse feed into this. Indeed, countless films, TV shows<\/a>, books and plays portray women orgasming from intercourse alone<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Popular men\u2019s magazines<\/a> also give advice on intercourse positions to bring women to orgasm. And while some of the positions do include clitoral stimulation, the message is still that intercourse is the central and most important sexual act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two
Women are much more likely to orgasm from same-sex encounters. pixels\/mahrael boutros<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The language used in these articles \u2013 and in the culture as a whole \u2013 reflects and perpetuates this overvaluing of intercourse. We use the words \u201csex\u201d and \u201cintercourse\u201d as if they are the same. We relegate the clitoral stimulation that comes before intercourse as \u201cforeplay\u201d, implying it is a lesser form of sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple studies<\/a> have demonstrated that such messages give the idea that sex should proceed as follows: foreplay (just to get the woman ready for intercourse), intercourse, male orgasm and sex over. In this version of sex, it\u2019s the man\u2019s job to \u201cgive\u201d a woman an orgasm by lasting a long time and thrusting hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No wonder research<\/a> finds that men feel more masculine when their partner orgasms during intercourse. And, it\u2019s no surprise that women fake orgasms<\/a>, primarily during intercourse<\/a>, to protect their partner\u2019s egos<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, studies suggest that between 53%<\/a> to 85%<\/a> of women admit to faking an orgasm. Some research<\/a> indicates that the majority of women have faked at least once in their lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closing the gap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is hope though, because given that cultural factors are responsible for the orgasm gap, changing how we view sex and intercourse will help to improve women\u2019s sexual experiences. Indeed, educating<\/a> people on the fact that women don\u2019t have a limited biological capacity for orgasm<\/a> is important. Likewise, education for both men and women about the clitoris could be a game-changer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, such knowledge alone is unlikely to close the orgasm gap on a personal level. According to a chapter in a sex therapy textbook<\/a>, women need skills to put this knowledge into practice. This means women must be encouraged to masturbate to learn what they want sexually. And this needs to be coupled with training in communication so they can share this information with partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women need to feel entitled to pleasure and empowered to get the same type of stimulation alone as with a partner. This means heterosexual couples\u2019 must rid themselves of the old script that calls for foreplay followed by intercourse after which sex is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, they can take turns having orgasms using oral sex or manual stimulation where she orgasms followed by intercourse. Alternatively, women can touch themselves with hands or a vibrator during intercourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/a> shows that women who use vibrators have more orgasms. And because many women worry about how they look during sex or if they are pleasing their partner, research<\/a> shows that mindfulness can help, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Vibrators
Women are more likely to experience orgasms when using a vibrator. Pexels\/anna shvets<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But orgasm equality is about so much more than quality sex. Multiple women have told me that once they felt empowered in the bedroom, they were more confident in the rest of their life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, according to one study<\/a>, feeling entitled to pleasure increases a woman\u2019s agency in telling partners what they want sexually and their agency in protecting themselves sexually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the study found that feeling entitled to sexual pleasure increased women\u2019s confidence in both refusing to do sexual acts they were not comfortable with and using protection against both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to another article<\/a> on sex education and pleasure by two US health researchers, when young people learn that sex should be pleasurable, they may be less likely to use it in manipulative and harmful ways. So teaching that sex is about pleasure for both partners, rather than something done to women for men\u2019s pleasure, might also help to decrease levels of sexual violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, teaching about women\u2019s pleasure will do more than increase orgasm rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laurie Mintz<\/a>, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laurie Mintz, University of Florida Imagine a steamy sex scene involving a woman and a man from your favourite television show or movie. It\u2019s likely that both parties orgasm. But this doesn\u2019t reflect reality. Because during heterosexual sexual encounters, women have far fewer orgasms than men. This is called the orgasm gap. And it has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":34906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[6880,14546,11304,13751,14544,14543,14547,1264,11305,162,313,185,14548,14545],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34908,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34905\/revisions\/34908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}