Fig. 14 Percent of women achieving orgasm in the last intercourse by whether they agree they are sexually skilled and by ease of discussion of sexual issues with partner. Exact phrasing of the question: ‘Do you agree or disagree with the following: I consider myself quite skilled in sexual issues’. Question on easiness of discussion of sexual issues with partner collapsed into two categories: (1) at least quite difficult=quite or very difficult; (2) not difficult=not very difficult or open and easy. Intercourse defined as penile–vaginal intercourse. Error bars indicate 95 CI. FINSEX 1992–2015.
Table 1 Associations between socio-demographic, lifestyle and relationship history characteristics and orgasmic frequency in women
Table 2 Associations between sexual experiences, sexual skills and couple relationship characteristics with orgasmic frequency in women
Table 3 Determinants of female orgasmic capacity: FINSEX-data
Table 4 Determinants of female orgasmic capacity: ORGSEX-data
Results
Trends in female orgasms
A major challenge in Finnish sexuality is the declining
trends in female sexual satisfaction and orgasm. For
women, having an orgasm from intercourse is much less
guaranteed than for men. In 2015, 46% of women said
that they always or nearly always had an orgasm when
having intercourse, with only 6% of women reporting
always having an orgasm. Nearly one in six (16%) women
had an orgasm approximately half of the time and 38%
of women had orgasms fairly infrequently at most. Over
16 years (19992015), women’s orgasmic capacity has
declined considerably, from 56% of women experiencing
orgasm in intercourse always or nearly always in 1999
to 46% in 2015 (x2
(20)84.8, p0.000). The decline is
apparent among both young and middle aged women.
In similar fashion, the proportion of women who have
had an orgasm in the latest intercourse has diminished
from 1999.
Difficulties experiencing orgasms has affected a large
proportion of women. In 2015, 9% of women reported
never having had an orgasm from intercourse. In earlier studies, the proportion of women who had never experienced
an orgasm from sexual intercourse was 47%,
which is lower than in 2015. Furthermore, according
to the 2015 findings, 14% of young women (under the
age of 35) in particular had never had an orgasm from
intercourse. This is a higher figure than in previous
surveys.
It is of particular note that in 2015, only 38% of young
women (vs. 42% in 2007 and 53% in 1999) reported that
they usually had an orgasm during intercourse, whereas
43% said that they had an orgasm fairly infrequently at
most. Similar proportions were observed in the ORGSEX
survey, in which ‘love-making’ was the adopted concept
instead of intercourse. Again, only 38% of women aged
1824 ‘usually’ had an orgasm in love-making. In previous
surveys, middle-aged and older women up to retirementage
reported a higher incidence of orgasms than women in
younger age groups, and there is a similar trend nowadays.
In the framework of sexual well-being and sexual health,
decline in orgasmic capacity is a major sexological
challenge in the 2000s.
The proportion of people who had an orgasm the
last time they had intercourse was close to the proportion
of women who said that they generally had an orgasm
from intercourse. Of the women surveyed in 2015, 54%
had had an orgasm the last time they had intercourse.
However, there was also some confusion surrounding
what an orgasm is or should be. A total of 6% of women
were not able to tell whether or not they had had an
orgasm the last time they had intercourse.
These findings indicate that women differ greatly from
one another in terms of their tendency or capacity to
experience orgasms. A significant proportion of women
(19%) experienced persistent problems experiencing any
orgasm from intercourse, whereas many (8% of all women
and 11% of young women) found it easy to have multiple orgasms. The variation in sexual enjoyment among women
was drastically greater than among men. It is particularly
intriguing that women are now experiencing greater, not
fewer, problems regarding orgasms as compared to past
decades, even though the opportunities for gender equality
and sexual enjoyment in society now seem to be better
than ever before.
First experiences of orgasms
Most young women experience their first orgasm during
masturbation. In 2015, half of the youngest generation of
women (under the age of 35) had experienced their first
orgasm in masturbation before the age of 15. The age
of first orgasm achieved via masturbation was in steady
decrease from the oldest generation (over the age of 55) to
the youngest generation. The average age at first orgasm in
masturbation declined significantly from 22 years (age
group 65 years) to 15 years (age group 1824 years).
The average age had fallen in the 2000s by 3.5 years
among young women in comparison with the oldest age
group. In the oldest generation, only one-tenth of women
had experienced their first orgasm in masturbation before
the age of 15. There was a continuous declining trend
in this age from one survey to the next and from one
generation to another (r0.365, p0.01).
In 2015, 2015a quarter of young women had their first
orgasm in masturbation before the age of 13 and onetenth
before the age of 10. Some women reported that
they had their first orgasm in masturbation as early as the
age of 5. However, many women had not experienced an
orgasm until they were in their 40s or 50s. The oldest
reported ages of participants experiencing their first
orgasm via masturbation were women in their 60s. At the
population level, there seems to be a huge variation
in the age of first orgasm in masturbation.
Women are significantly increasing their rate of masturbation
over time, and across surveys (Kontula, 2009). Although masturbation provides women with a lot
pleasure, orgasms from intercourse have been found to
be more pleasurable. In Mah and Binik’s (2002) study
both men and women recall orgasms experienced with
a partner present as having been significantly more
pleasurable and satisfying than those occurring during
solitary masturbation.
The trends in women’s first orgasms achieved during
intercourse are very different from their first orgasms
achieved via masturbation. To some, it may be surprising
how large the discrepancy is between some women’s age
at first intercourse, and their first time experiencing
orgasm through intercourse. Although women had their
first intercourse, on average, at the age of 17, only a third
of women had their first orgasm at intercourse under the
age of 18. A quarter of women, but three quarters of men,
had achieved an orgasm in the same year as their first
intercourse. Altogether 4050% of women had their first
orgasm at intercourse only after the age of 20.
This proportion has remained quite stable since the
1992 survey. In addition, the average age of first orgasm
during intercourse was similar in older and younger generations,
namely around 2021 years of age. The outcome
was that the difference between the age at first orgasm in
intercourse, and the age of the first orgasm in masturbation
had increased. For women, it was common that
there was a few years’ gap between the time of their first
intercourse, and the time of their first experience of
orgasm in intercourse.
Most women have had their first orgasm during
masturbation. Half of the women surveyed had their first
orgasm during masturbation at least 5 years before their
first orgasm during intercourse, and 17% of women 10
years before their first orgasm in intercourse. Only about
10% of women had their first orgasm during intercourse
before experiencing an orgasm via masturbation.
The implication of these results is that women have
usually been able to practice their orgasms for several
years before experiencing them for the first time in
intercourse. It has been hypothesized that this type of
physical practice should enable them to achieve orgasms
in intercourse more easily (McCabe, 2009). However, in
these data, this expected positive outcome did not exist
(Table 2).
Determinants of female orgasms
Poor determinants of female orgasms
We examined the association between several sociodemographic,
lifestyle and personal characteristics and
orgasmic capacity in the pooled FINSEX data. Due to
the large data set, the associations often proved to be
statistically significant. However, in many cases the
differences in the ability to experience orgasms between
different groups of women were relatively small. The
coefficients from the regression analyses and p-values are reported in Table 1, and in the following, we focus on
those results which appeared to influence women’s
orgasmic capacity the most. Women’s social background
was only weakly associated with the ability to experience
orgasms. Women had orgasms almost with the same
frequency, regardless of their education or income levels.
On the other hand, religious women were more likely to
experience orgasms in the intercourse than were those
women who regarded religion not at all important. The
association was much weaker when church attendance
was considered. Somewhat contrasting, more selfdetermining
attitudes toward sexuality issues (‘woman
has the right to make sexual initiatives’) were also associated
with higher orgasmic capacity.
There were a number of other lifestyle and personal
characteristics that were not associated or only very
weakly associated with the frequency of orgasm. These
factors included physical exercise, psychological symptoms,
smoking, and moderate alcohol use. On average,
46% of women with BMI below 20 experienced orgasm
always or almost always during intercourse, compared
to 51% among normal or slightly overweight women, or
50% among obese women (age-adjusted figures). Mild
mental health problems were not linked to the problem
of having orgasms, while constant feelings of anxiety
and distress were associated with decreased likelihood of
experiencing orgasms.
Relationship and sexual partner history
Women’s relationship and sexual partner history appeared
to have no effect on the ability of women to
have orgasms (Table 1). Women’s orgasm frequency did
not vary according to the number of steady relationships
that they had had in their lifetime, nor did it vary
according to the number of times in life they had fallen in
love. The same was also true regarding the number of
sexual partners in recent years, or over their lifetime. In
addition, women’s ability to achieve an orgasm was not
associated with being unfaithful at some point in their
current relationship.
However, sexual experience with a steady partner was
positively associated with the frequency of having orgasms.
Only 40% of single women usually experienced orgasms
in intercourse when the respective figure for women in
marital, cohabiting or living apart together (LAT)-unions
was above 50%. Women who were in newer relationships
of only a few years at most had more frequent difficulties
achieving orgasms than other women. This was partly
related to their young age, and the effect of union duration
disappeared once we controlled for the age.
How important orgasms were considered
The ORGSEX survey asked questions about how important
women considered attaining an orgasm themselves
to be in love-making, and how important they
felt it was to produce an orgasm to their own partner.
The results are presented by women’s relationship status
(Figs. 3 and 4).
Around 60% of women considered having an orgasm at
least ‘rather important’ in love-making, though less than
20% rated it as ‘very important’. Additionally, 10% of
women thought that an orgasm was ‘not at all important’
in love-making. In fact, they usually rated their partner’s
orgasm to be more important than their own.
Almost all women said that it was at least ‘rather
important’ to bring their partner to orgasm. Half of
women considered their partner’s orgasm ‘very important’.
This proportion was much higher than the proportion
of women considering their own orgasm to be
‘very important’. In Nicholson and Burr’s (2003) study,
women reported that it was important to ‘give’ their male
partners pleasure and orgasm, possibly at the expense
of their own pleasure. In Salisbury’s and Fisher’s study
(2014) women asserted that their orgasm was more of a
‘bonus’ than a goal of sexual interactions.
Only single women valued orgasms differently (they
more often could not tell how important their partner’s
orgasm might be), but even they consider a future
partner’s orgasm more important than their own.
Based on these results, women were in their sexual
interaction quite altruistic at least according to them.
Two-thirds of the women who thought that their orgasm
was not at all important considered their partner’s orgasm
at least rather important.
Evaluation of women’s own orgasms in love-making
was highly associated with their orgasmic capacity. Of the
women who considered their orgasms to be very important,
almost 90% usually had orgasms during intercourse,
and also had one in their latest intercourse (Fig. 5).
These results are in line with Laan and Rellini (2011) who determined that women who found it easier to
orgasm were also more likely to regard orgasm as
important. Of the women who considered their orgasms
very important, almost 30% had also a multi-orgasmic
experience in their latest intercourse. This association
may be partly explained by highly pleasurable sexual
experiences prompting women to place a higher value on
orgasms.
At the other end of the orgasm-evaluation scale,
were women who did not consider their orgasms to be
important. Most of them had difficulties experiencing
orgasms. Only 13% of these women had an orgasm
in their latest intercourse. Because these women rarely
experienced orgasm, it makes sense that they did not
value orgasms that much in their love-making. Laan
and Rellini (2011) note that a low female value on own
orgasm can be considered a sensible coping strategy, in
that, by placing less value on orgasms if they are difficult
or impossible to have, they will not be disappointed by
their sexual experiences.
Female orgasmic capacity was also related to how
important women considered sex to be for the happiness
of their current relationship. If they considered sex to
be important or very important for the happiness, they
reported having had an orgasm in their latest intercourse
more often, and were more likely to usually achieve
orgasm in intercourse (Table 1, pB0.001). They reported
having experienced an orgasm even more often if they also rated their relationship as being happy. Of women who
were very happy in their current romantic relationship,
and who also considered sex very important for happiness
in a relationship, 76% reported having had an orgasm in
their latest intercourse. If they did not value sex highly
in their relationship, and they had a relationship that was
not happy, only 29% reported orgasmic experiences in
the most recent intercourse. Happy relationships were
associated with orgasm capacity (Table 1, pB0.001), but
less so if women did not consider sex to be important
to the happiness of their current relationship.
Orgasms and sexual techniques
In sexual therapy, a common assumption has been that
physically practicing masturbation or sexual pleasuring
will increase a women’s ability to experience orgasms in
intercourse.
These two sexuality survey data (FINSEX and ORGSEX)
did not provide clear support for this assumption.
The age at which women began to have sexual intercourse
was statistically significantly associated with the overall
ability to experience orgasms during sexual intercourse
(Table 2, pB0.001). Among early initiators (first intercourse
by age 17) 53% of women had orgasms almost
always during the intercourse, among women who had
had their first intercourse at later age (1824 years), the
respective figure was 47%. Of women who had their
sexual initiation after age 25, 44% were able to usually
have orgasm during the intercourse.
On the other hand, age at which women first had
an orgasm in masturbation was not statistically significantly
related to orgasmic capacity. This was true also
regarding if the women had one orgasm or several
orgasms in their latest intercourse. In addition, masturbation
frequency was negatively (not statistically significantly)
associated with how often women experienced
orgasm during intercourse. In fact, those women who
had masturbated never or only a very long time ago, were
more likely to experience orgasms during intercourse
(Table 2, pB0.001).
One masturbation-related assumption is that women
achieve orgasm via masturbation more easily than via
intercourse. These data provide some confirmation of this
hypothesis. Nearly half of women (48%) reported that
they achieved orgasm more easily in masturbation than in
intercourse. However, 14% of women achieved an orgasm
more easily via intercourse than masturbation, while 17%
achieved it similarly easily in both ways, and 20% of
all women could not tell by which technique they found
it easier to have orgasms.
The ease of achieving an orgasm via masturbation
versus intercourse had no clear association with how
often women had experienced orgasms in intercourse, or
if they had had an orgasm in their latest intercourse.
There was a low frequency of orgasm in intercourse
among women who much easier achieved orgasm via
masturbation (only 38% of them had an orgasm in
the latest intercourse), this association was statistically significant (r0.37, pB0.001). On the other hand, there
was hardly any differences in the orgasmic capacity
between women who achieved orgasm more easily via
vaginal sex as compared to women who achieved orgasm
somewhat more easily via masturbation. Women who
could orgasm equally easily both via masturbation and
vaginal sex were the most orgasmic in the latest intercourse
(90%) (Fig. 8).
A continuous international debate has been if women
achieve orgasm more easily via stimulating their clitoris or
via stimulating their vagina (Paget, 2001). Paget continues
that the discussion can follow the spirit of Masters
and Johnson regarding clitocentrism, including that a
woman can orgasm only via clitoral stimulation.
Blackledge (2004) tells that sexual arousal typically
occurs as a result of the activation of various nerves.
Typically when orgasm occurs, it is the result of one
or more of three genital nerves being activated. These
are pudendal (clitoris), pelvic (vagina) and hypogastric
(uterus, cervix) nerves. These nerves are all genitospinal
nerves they run from the genitalia and then project into a
person’s spinal cord.
In FINSEX, women were asked if they usually achieve
an orgasm during sexual intercourse via stimulating of the
clitoris, of the vagina, or both. More than half of women
(54%) responded that they usually achieve an orgasm via
stimulating both the clitoris and vagina (Fig. 9). Orgasms
that result from such stimulation have been called blended
orgasms (Ladas, Whipple & Perry, 2005) or fusion orgasms
(Otto, 1999). A third of women (34%) reported that
they usually attained an orgasm via stimulating the clitoris.
Only 6% of women reported that they usually have an
orgasm via stimulating the vagina. Also 6% of women told
that they had never experienced an orgasm in intercourse.
The technique of how women usually stimulated their
sexual organs (clitoris or vagina) had a strong association with their orgasmic capacity in intercourse (Table 2).
Those women who typically experienced vaginal stimulation
during intercourse had orgasms more often (64%)
than did other women. Women who usually achieved
orgasm via stimulating the clitoris achieved orgasm less
frequently during intercourse (40%). In this clitoral stimulation
subgroup were the biggest group of women (8%
of this group) who had never had an orgasm during
intercourse. This raises the question of whether a recommendation
to focus mainly on clitoral stimulation in
sexual intercourse is a helpful instruction to all women
and their partners.
Sexual techniques that include active partner involvement
are effective to female orgasmic capacity. One of
these is concentrating on one’s partner for a longer time.
Duration of intercourse was strongly associated with
women’s ability to experience orgasm during intercourse
(Table 2, pB0.001). Those women whose love-making usually lasted a minimum of 15 min achieved an orgasm
more easily than women whose intercourse was shorter).
However, if intercourse lasted for longer than 20 min, the
additional effect on increasing a woman’s probability of
experiencing an orgasm was marginal. An exception to
this was women who experienced an increased capacity
for multiple orgasms in cases of intercourse lasting for
more than 1 h.
Another example of behavior that is associated with
higher orgasmic frequency is the sexual position of partners
in the most recent intercourse experience (results not
shown in the Tables). If women were more active
including engaging in woman-on-top position, or using
several positions with the partner during that intercourse
two-thirds of women achieved one or more orgasms
during the intercourse. If their partner was more active,
including man-on-top positions, less than half of women
achieved orgasm. Sanchez, Kiefer, and Ybarra (2006)
have suggested that women with an orgasm disorder tend
to behave according to the traditional female scripts,
in which the woman remains passive, does not let go
mentally, and waits until her male partner evokes feelings
of arousal and pleasure in her.
How partners can promote female orgasms
One way in which partners can promote female orgasms is
by providing women with oral sex. Partner’s manual
stimulation to female sexual organs has almost the
same effect. The more frequently women receive oral or manual sex from their partners, the more often they have
orgasms (Table 2, pB0.001). However, oral sex does
not stimulate all women to achieve orgasm. Even among
the women who received oral sex most of the time in
sexual activity, only 60% usually achieved orgasm during
intercourse, and 69% experienced orgasm in their latest
intercourse.
Some women find requesting oral stimulation from
their partners to be difficult. In Salisbury’s and Fisher’s
study (2014), the majority of women believed that asking
for, or engaging in clitoral stimulation in the presence of
their male partner would not be welcome.
If awoman experienced low sexual desire, the role of oral
sex in promoting orgasm was notable. Of women who very
often lacked sexual desire, only around 20% experienced
orgasm in their latest intercourse if their partner did not
provide oral sex. 50% of low desire women, who received
oral sex from their partner frequently, had an orgasm.
If women did not lack sexual desire, the role of oral
sex in promoting orgasm was much less notable. Oral
sex was associated with an orgasm somewhat, but even
without oral sex, most of these women had orgasms in
their latest intercourse. Sexual desire and related arousal
were associated with female orgasms, even when sexual
techniques were limited.
The role of oral sex in promoting female orgasm
was notable also in couples who found it difficult to
discuss of sexual issues. If discussions of sexual issues
with partners were quite difficult, oral sex provided by the partner had a very significant association with
women’s orgasm in their latest experience of intercourse
(65% vs. 27%). It is possible that oral sex could
significantly compensate for the missing sexual communication
between the partners. In cases where sexual
communication was open and easy, the role of oral
sex in orgasms was much less remarkable (76% vs.
61%). Good sexual communication contributed to
female orgasms almost as much as favorable sexual
techniques.
The role of female sexual self-esteem and communication
with the partner
Another significant factor in female orgasms was sexual
self-esteem. In the ORGSEX survey, women who agreed
with the statement that they were good in bed had orgasms
much more frequently in comparison with women who
disagreed with this statement (Table 2, pB0.001). Of those
women who agreed completely with this statement,
around 80% reported having orgasms most times in their
intercourse, and as many had orgasmic experiences in their
latest intercourse. If women disagreed completely that
they were good in bed only 1 in 10 had had an orgasm in
their latest intercourse. Orgasmic capacity is obviously
one key factor by which women estimate how good they
are in bed.
For some women orgasmic capacity is a learning
process. Regarding their sexual self-esteem, they have
learned to accept themselves and their body. They have
also learned how to concentrate completely on lovemaking.
They have often been successful in preventing
stress, and to stimulate a high arousal in their intercourse.
In addition, if they have had a skillful and desirable
partner, they can be highly orgasmic.
In the FINSEX survey, one question asked if women
agreed that they are quite skillful in sexual issues. This
type of sexual self-esteem was positively associated to
orgasm. Of women who agreed with this statement
around 70% had an orgasm in their latest intercourse.
This type of self-esteem was more strongly associated
with orgasm ability than open communication regarding
sexual issues with the partner (56% had orgasm).
If women did not consider themselves sexually skillful
and their sexual communication with their partner was
quite difficult, only about one-fifth of them experienced
an orgasm in their latest intercourse. This suggests that
both sexual self-esteem and communication skills with
their partner are important factors that can be associated
with orgasmic capacity.
In addition to sexual self-esteem, and particularly in
relation to a positive assessment of sexual skills, active
female sexual communication with their partner can make
a big difference to orgasmic capacity. In this study, high
sexual self-esteem had a very positive association with
orgasms in the latest intercourse, even when sexual communication
with a partner was problematic. This suggests
that even in relationships that would not be considered
positive, women may experience a lot of sexual pleasure if
they have high sexual self-esteem. But in cases where their
sexual self-esteem was low, good sexual communication
with the partner significantly helped a woman’s ability
to achieve an orgasm.
These FINSEX results are in line with the results of
the ORGSEX survey. The ORGSEX survey included a
question regarding how women had learned to enjoy
love-making more intensely, and to experience orgasms Almost half of the women reported that they had
achieved this by learning to accept themselves and their
body, or by concentrating completely on love-making.
This may suggest that women who had felt responsible
for their own pleasure had been more successful in
gaining pleasure during intercourse.
Another factor that made a difference was the partner.
A third of women reported that they had learned to
experience orgasms by finding a desirable and skillful
partner. A fifth of women had gained more orgasms by
learning how to increase her partner’s pleasure. A process
of mutual pleasure had presumably promoted more
pleasure for women.
Factors that were frequently associated with a low or
high probability of having orgasms
There were a number of factors that seemed to complicate
female experiences of orgasms. In the ORGSEX survey a
question asked ‘what prevents or inhibits respondents the
most in achieving orgasm’. The most frequent responses
were ‘fatigue or stress’ and ‘difficulty concentrating’. Most
women selected reasons that related to their own qualifications.
The next most frequent responses were ‘unskillful
partner’ and ‘partner is too fast’. One-fifth of women
attributed their orgasmic problems to their partners.
Based on the results of the FINSEX survey, a low
frequency of female orgasm is in many ways related to the
interaction with the partner. Only about a quarter of
women had an orgasm in their latest intercourse if they
did not consider sex at all important for the happiness
in relationship; if they did not have any physical intimacy
in their relationship; if they often lacked sexual desire; if
their partner never had given manual or oral sex; if their
intercourse was very often painful; or if their partner very
often experienced an orgasm too soon.
Other factors related to low frequency of orgasm in the
most recent intercourse included feeling the relationship
was quite unhappy; not considering oneself sexually
desirable; continuous vaginal dryness; partner’s frequent
erectile problems; illness hampering sexual interaction;
and intercourse that lasted at maximum only 5 min. For
these women, the rate of orgasm at previous intercourse
was only about one-third.
Finally, we examined the associations between various
factors and female orgasmic capacity in joint regression
models to see, if these factors influenced women’s ability
to achieve orgasm even when we controlled the effects
of other factors. Results are presented in Table 3
(for FINSEX-data) and Table 4 (for ORGSEX-data).
It appears that there were a number of factors that were
associated with high probability of having orgasms. These
can be classified into three groups:
The first of these was related to some types of innate
skills that enabled women to enjoy sexual experiences.
These women had experienced their first orgasm in intercourse at a younger age than others; they did not practice
active masturbation; and they had orgasms at least
as easily in intercourse as in masturbation. In addition,
they did not experience pain in sexual intercourse.
A second group includes factors such as good sexual
skills and high sexual self-esteem. These women considered
themselves good in bed. They got orgasms due to
powerful arousal, and they were able to concentrate completely
on love-making. They also considered it important
to get orgasms in love-making and they also considered
sex important for the happiness in their relationship.
These women had both great mental and bodily capacity
to let go and to experience orgasms.
A third group of factors relates to a woman’s skillful
partner. The partner was able to promote female orgasm
if he was not too fast. There was enough time to concentrate
on sexual pleasure with the partner and communication with the partner was open enough in sexual
issues.
Although many variables had highly statistical associations
with women’s orgasmic capacity, differences in
the orgasm frequency between women were not necessarily
very large and in some cases diminished once age of
the respondents and time of the survey was controlled
for. These variables included frequency of intercourse
and oral sex.
Multi-orgasmic women
Women show a greater propensity than men to experience
multiple orgasms as a result of sexual intercourse, or
other sexual stimulation. Women have not been shown to
experience the same kind of post-orgasmic latent state of
arousal as men do, who have just ejaculated. There is some
evidence that this is probably connected to the different
hormonal functions of men and women (Blackledge,
2004).
In the FINSEX survey, 12% of women reported that
they had two or more orgasms in their latest intercourse,
and in the ORGSEX survey 11% of women reported
the same. In the ORGSEX survey, half of these multiorgasmic
women (5%) had more than two orgasms. In the
FINSEX survey, these figures were relatively stable across
data from 1999, 2007, and 2015. There was no increase
in the proportion of multi-orgasmic women.
Almost half of the women surveyed were multiorgasmic
if they used almost continuously in their sexual
activities some sexual toys and aids, or if their love making
lasted for more than an hour. One-third of women were
multi-orgasmic if they reported intercourse every day,
or if they agreed completely that they were good in bed.
One quarter of women were multi-orgasmic if they considered orgasm in intercourse very important; if they
experienced sexual desire more than once a day; or if they
preferred having intercourse every day. Women achieved
frequent orgasms just as easily via masturbation as
love-making.
In many respects, multi-orgasmic women displayed
strong sexual interests, and were sexually very active.
This goes back to the question of whether strong sexual
interests resulted in these women being multi-orgasmic,
or if it is a case of the very positive sexual experiences
encouraging their broad spectrum of sexual appetites.
There is probably no definitive answer. The only thing
that can be said is that strong sexual interest and sexual
enjoyment often seem to be concentrated in the same
women, and this is probably comparable to men.
Discussion
Regarding the issue of gender equality, Finland is ranked
among the leading countries in the world. There has been
a major improvement in gender equality since the 1970s.
Social and public discourses on the subjects of gender
and sexuality have underscored women’s sexual rights
and the right to sexual enjoyment. Positive female sexual
expectations have been increased, for example, by progress
in comprehensive sexuality education; increasing
sexual knowledge; and by improved sexual health services.
Altogether, these were expected to enable advancing
sexual pleasures to women.
Feminists in particular have assumed that improving
gender equality should have a positive impact on female
sexual pleasure, including orgasms. This assumption could
be tested in this study by analyzing long term trends
in female orgasms from the 1970s to the present time. The
result was that there has been no improvement in female
orgasmic capacity since the 1970s. Improving gender
equality has not helped women to experience progress
in this key factor of female sexual pleasure even in the
2000s. This finding is contrary to previous expectations.
Young women (under 35 years of age) have had even
more difficulties in having orgasms during intercourse
in the 2000s. This trend continued to the year 2015. It
is a mystery why the difficulty of having female orgasms
has increased in the 21st century, at a time when public
information about how to better achieve orgasms proliferates.
The internet and women’s- and health magazines
are full of instructions regarding the pursuit and cultivation
of sexual pleasure. In addition, women’s rights to
sexual pleasure have been acknowledged without any
doubt. That has not given any boost to improving sexual
pleasure.
There have been new lifestyle- and value factors that
can have limited young women’s orgasmic capacity than
in preceding generations. Stressful and busy lifestyles have
resulted in a lack of time; reduced strength of private
life; and in increasing mental pressures that have caused difficulties to concentrate on intimate life and sexual
interaction. Although there has been a parallel major
increase in masturbation habits, it has not helped young
women to achieve more frequent orgasms.
The findings of this study indicate that women differ
greatly from one another in terms of their tendency
and capacity to experience orgasms. Inequality in sexual
enjoyment is much greater among women than among
men. There are a number of women who are multiorgasmic,
but at the same time, there are a large number
of women who have never had an orgasm during intercourse.
Almost half of women do not orgasm most of the
time when they have intercourse. This inequality among
women warrants a more comprehensive study about the
predictors of female orgasms.
There have been claims that high proportions of
women probably do not report their orgasms because
they report, or the surveys ask about orgasms only via
vaginal intercourse. In this framework, low orgasmic
prevalence could be true, based on a limited understanding
of the concept of intercourse. In this study, the
concept of intercourse was adopted in the FINSEX
surveys but in the ORGSEX survey, the concept adopted
was love-making thus allowing respondents to decide
more freely what they include in the concept. However,
asking about orgasms in love-making gave exactly the
same results regarding orgasmic prevalence during intercourse.
Women seem to connect similar components in
their mind relating to intercourse as to love-making.
The promotion of self-stimulation via masturbation
(Komisaruk et al., 2006) is assumed, especially in sexual
therapy, to contribute to an increase in female orgasms.
In this study, women did not have more frequent orgasms
by increasing their current practice of masturbation, or
by increasing experiments with different partners in their
lifetime. Orgasms did not seem to be something that
could be learned via increasing physical experiences or via
frequent masturbation. Women masturbate nowadays
much more actively than in the 1970s, but that reform
has not helped them to increase their orgasmic capacity
in intercourse. On the contrary, women who had not been
active in masturbation lately experienced orgasms even
more regularly in their intercourse.
There has been a continuous declining trend regarding
the age of first orgasm in masturbation, but not regarding
the age of the first orgasm in intercourse. Nowadays, half
of women have had their first orgasm in masturbation
at least 5 years prior their first orgasm in intercourse.
They have had more time to practice their sexual pleasure
via masturbation before their first intercourse, but that
has not helped them to achieve an orgasm any younger
during intercourse. This result diverges from expectations.
There are even some findings that masturbation is
associated with poorer relationship quality, greater risk of
female sexual arousal disorder, impaired sexual satisfaction impaired orgasm (especially vaginal orgasm) and with
other adverse processes (Brody, 2007). In this study, female
relationship quality was not associated to masturbation
frequency but general sexual satisfaction was lower among
women who masturbated actively. Active masturbators
considered their intercourse more often very pleasant than
women who masturbated less often.
Those women who had orgasms much more easily via
masturbation had problems to experience it in intercourse.
The ease of attaining an orgasm via masturbation
was not a good measure of orgasmic capacity during
intercourse. Half of the women surveyed usually had an
orgasm in intercourse via stimulating both clitoris and
vagina, and only one-third usually via stimulating clitoris.
Based on these results, the role of the clitoris is not
as dominant in sexual stimulation towards orgasm in
intercourse as has been expected.
Meston, Hull, Levin, and Sipski (2004) have argued that
there are no consistent, empirical findings that psychosocial
factors alone differentiate orgasmic from anorgasmic
women. This study can add more information about
how these factors are actually associated with more- or less
frequent orgasms. These factors include women’s sexual
desire, sexual values, sexual self-esteem, skills in communication,
and their partner’s qualities.
The keys to achieving more frequent female orgasms
were identified in this study as being in the mind and
in the relationship. These factors and capacities included
how important orgasms were considered personally;
how high was sexual desire; how high was sexual selfesteem;
and how open was sexual communication with the
partner. Sexual self-esteem included how sexually skillful
and how good in bed women considered themselves.
Other positive factors of orgasmic capacity were the
ability to concentrate on the moment; mutual sexual
initiations; and a partner’s good sexual techniques. All of
these are factors that should be paid attention to in sexual
therapy.
Based on regression analysis, women who had a high
orgasmic capacity had an innate talent to react with
arousal to sexual stimulation in intercourse. They were
also sexually skillful and they had good sexual self-esteem.
Thanks to their good sexual experiences, they valued
orgasms in their intercourse and in their relationship. Very
often they also had a skillful sexual partner, who provided
them good stimulation and was able to discuss sexual
issues openly. They were able to maintain a positive circle
that even increased their orgasmic capacity.
In short, a relationship that felt good and worked well
emotionally, and where sex was approached openly and
appreciatively, was associated with orgasmic capacity.
These same factors were even more pronounced among
multi-orgasmic women. In addition to this, they realized
more frequent and long-lasting love-makings and sexual role plays. Thanks to their highly pleasurable intercourse,
they had a high and versatile sexual motivation.
Although masturbation has not stimulated women
to achieve more frequent orgasms, they surely need a
variant sexual stimulation to become aroused during
sexual intercourse, and also to have an orgasm. An
orgasm is a complex response to socially contextualized
physical and mental stimuli and, for the individual, there
will be a variety of sources of effective stimulation, both
physically and mentally (Lauman, Gagnon, Michael &
Michaels, 1994). Based on ideas of Levin (2014), the
factors that are involved in influencing the pleasure of
orgasms are the novelty of sexual stimulation; genital
stimulation with concomitant stimulation in and around
the anus; the use of sexual fantasy; the duration between
orgasms; and the duration and expertise in the sexual
stimulation leading up to the climax are all reasonably
well-known enhancing behaviors.
In this same spirit, Paterson, Jin, Amsel, and Binik
(2014) have found that a greater build-up of sexual arousal
desire prior to orgasm significantly predicted orgasmic
pleasure for both genders. They recommend enhancing
the experience of orgasm by delaying it until having
reached high levels of sexual arousal and desire. According
to Adam, Ge´net, Day, and Sutter (2015) orgasmic women
reported significantly more mindfulness (they were capable
of concentrating) during dyadic sexual activities.
By the same token, Laan and Rellini (2011) argue that
women’s orgasm consistency in all forms of partnered
sexual activity is associated with sexual autonomy. In
addition, letting go of control is mandatory for an orgasm
to take place (Georgiadis et al., 2006).
Teaching effective techniques of stimulation may well
improve the orgasmic response of anorgasmic women
(McCabe, 2009). Ignorance of the best techniques; reluctance
to use them; and/or an inability to communicate
preferences for sexual stimulation to the partner contribute
to low orgasmic frequency during sexual interaction
(McCabe, 2009).
Based on the results of this study, one key issue
regarding female orgasmic capacity is a personal sexual
motivation. Women who have a high sexual motivation;
desire to have sex; communicate sexual issues openly with
their partner; make sexual initiations; and are active in
sexual intercourse are more likely to experience orgasms
during intercourse. Sexual activity means, for example,
using woman-on-top positions in intercourse, and providing
pleasure to the partner. Activity in sexual communication
helps women to get the kind of stimulation
that they need for arousal towards an orgasm from their
partner.
Many studies have reported the importance of good
sexual communication. Empirical studies have consistently
demonstrated that anorgasmic women reported experiencing
significantly greater discomfort with communication about sexual activities (Kelly, Strassberg & Turner, 2004).
A lack of communication between partners about their
sexual relationship appears to be a factor related to
anorgasmia in women (McCabe, 2009).
Past failure to achieve orgasm can elicit self-defeating
and distracting thoughts about whether a woman will be
able to achieve orgasm this time. A woman may mentally
monitor her own- and her partner’s response, unable to
allow herself to relax and enjoy the sexual stimulation for
its own sake. She becomes a spectator who demands her
body’s response (McCabe, 2009). When someone is not
fully engaged in love-making, it is no surprise that the
enjoyment it brings is not what it could be.
Public discourses and social expectations in today’s
society have mental implications for women and for their
capacity for pleasure. The persistent risk discourse that
relates to sexual issues may have created a situation in
which women increasingly view sexual interaction through
a more rational lens, rather than casting their body and
soul into enjoying sexual experiences with a partner and
realizing their own desires. Excessive rationalism is the
biggest enemy of orgasms. Simply put, thinking does
alight desire, but orgasms come when thinking ceases. The
inability to implement this formula may be one key issue
that particularly young women are increasingly experiencing
regarding orgasms.
One outcome of female infrequent orgasms can be their
lower sexual desire in comparison to males. In the spirit
of the social exchange theory (Sprecher, 1998), one could
think that the greater rewards that men achieve on average
from sexual interaction could explain their stronger sexual
desires. This might make sense, in that men experience
orgasms so much more often and more easily in intercourse
compared to women. In other words, men might
be more motivated to seek intercourse as something
that offers them particular rewards. This viewpoint was
supported also by the finding that women who enjoyed
sexual intercourse, and got more pleasure out of their sex
lives than other women, were also less likely to experience
lack of sexual desire. If women were to enjoy intercourse
more and have orgasms more regularly, the desire gap
between the genders should decline.
This study has its limitations. The wording of the items
could be more exact. There could be other items that would
measure more comprehensively the predictors of female
orgasms. One example is differentiating between vaginal and
clitoral orgasm. They have different psychological pathways
and processes (Brody & Costa, 2009). In addition, this
study does not enable causal explanations between the
predictors and the dependent variable, the frequency of
female orgasm. There is a need for a longitudinal study.
Some of the trends and associations could be better
understood by conducting qualitative studies.
One more challenge for future studies is to understand
why a great number of women value their partner’s orgasm much more than their own. According to their responses,
women’s sexual behavior includes quite often altruistic
components. Women assumingly would value their own
orgasms more if they would get them more easily and more
frequently. Sexual pleasure can increase female sexual
motivation. By actively promoting female orgasms, we
could create a positive circle that would favorably increase
female sexual pleasure.
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