While
the female orgasm may be difficult to whittle down to an exact science, a study
published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior has some interesting new insights.
In particular, women who have had a same-sex experience, focus on foreplay,
communicate openly with their partner, and switch things up in the bedroom have
more frequent orgasms.
Outside
the bedroom, women who were happier and more satisfied in their relationships
also orgasmed with more regularity than those who were dissatisfied did. To
arrive at this conclusion, the authors analyzed the orgasm frequencies of over
50,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual men and women in the United
States. In the end, 95% of heterosexual men orgasmed when sexually intimate
compared to 86% of lesbian women and just 65% of heterosexual women.
Why
the chasm between heterosexual and homosexual women? Glamour theorizes that
this is because “women who have sex with women place a lower importance on
[penetrative] sex (duh), which most women don’t orgasm from, and value equality
more,” they write. “Basically, their orgasms aren’t deemed optional, and
neither are their partners’.” To make orgasms a more regular part of any sexual
experience, the authors recommend openly communicating sexual desires, trying
new positions, and acting out sexual fantasies.
