The Big Bang Theory: How a female orgasm really works
The culture and society in which we live extremely sex-centered. The presence and amount of sex was proof of success and the measure of "coolness", as well as vice versa (it’s not for nothing that many still use the, as it seems to them, convincing argument of "bad enough" in disputes). Cherry on this sexy cake sits an orgasm - all around, from porn to women's magazines, screaming that it is for him to strive and it is so important to achieve it.
Sex and orgasm on the covers sell thousands of copies of women's publications every month and for decades: if readers still peck at the headlines "100 best sex tips" and "At the peak: Looking for an orgasm," then not everything is clear to everyone. As a result, every woman knows about orgasm and its role in life, the universe, but not always on their own experience. Dealing with your body and learning how to get along with it is hampered by delusions and stereotypes, lack of sexual education, shame, and external and internal misinterpretation, which makes women interested in sexual pleasure feel either preoccupied or inferior. We decided to study the problem and the history of the issue, armed with scientific data.
What is a scientific point of orgasm
More or less, everyone knows that an orgasm causes the stimulation of certain zones rich in nerve endings - mainly the glans in men and the clitoris in women. Three nerves are primarily responsible for sensations during sex: the ileal-hypogastric (which innervates the uterus and its neck in women, as well as the prostate in men), the ileal-inguinal (responsible for the cervix in women and the rectum in both sexes) and femoral-sexual (in turn, it innervates the clitoris, penis and scrotum). In addition, as it turned out recently, the vagus nerve is also involved in the process, about whose contribution to orgasm so far not much is known. However, presumably, it is he who helps orgasm women with spinal cord injuries.
Nerve impulses, in turn, enter the brain, where dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for the premonition of pleasure and playing a role in the formation of addictions, from sexual to narcotic, begins to develop furiously. The orgasm itself is a powerful nerve discharge, accompanied by muscle spasms and increased levels of serotonin and oxytocin, which is responsible for the emergence of a sense of intimacy and affection (for example, maternal instinct). Therefore, as scientists joke, "it is better not to sleep with those whom you would not like to fall in love - there is a risk that this will happen."
What is the difference between female orgasm from male
The 2000 Big Encyclopedic Dictionary defines an orgasm as "the highest degree of voluptuous sensation that arises at the time of the completion of sexual intercourse." In this formulation, an omission is immediately apparent, due to the patriarchal view of things. Between the lines is read the connection of orgasm with ejaculation, which, at first glance, is the fundamental difference between male and female orgasm. Not to mention the fact that considering ejaculation as the basis for completing sexual intercourse is a position that is, frankly, outdated (although, alas, common).
The medical encyclopedia approaches the question more thoroughly, but it doesn't matter where the mechanism of the male orgasm is described in more detail than the female. You can write it off on the global conspiracy (and partly not in vain - more on that later), but, to be frank, the male orgasm is indeed better understood. Female orgasm is much more mysterious and unpredictable: everything that we know about the principles of its action does not mean at all that it will surely happen to a woman, even with appropriate stimulation. Moreover, the same kind of stimulation can work in some circumstances and turn out to be completely ineffective in others: the result can be critically affected by the level of psychological comfort, concentration, fatigue, alcohol, smells, sounds, the phase of the menstrual cycle and anything else.
As in men, female sexual orgasm is preceded by increasing sexual arousal, however, according to statistics collected by Alfred Kinsey more than half a century ago, healthy men starting at age 20 have an orgasm "every time" or "almost every time" while having sex, this ability gradually and only by the age of 35 begins to experience an orgasm at best in 90% of sexual acts, but never more. At the age of 20, cases of sexual discharge are two times worse at all, which most of the girls at this age carefully hide or worry about. In this case, the female orgasm is considered to be more intense and prolonged: directly during the orgasmic phase, muscle contractions occur with a frequency of about 0.8 seconds every second - from 5 to 12 in women versus 3-4 in men. However, there is still no fundamental fundamental difference in sensations - in 2009, scientists at the University of Groningen, using brain scans, concluded that the brain activity during orgasm in different sexes is almost identical.
Why women need an orgasm
The first and seemingly most obvious answer that comes to our mind is for pleasure. From a non-emotional scientific point of view, things are not so simple. If the male orgasm, which is almost inextricably linked with ejaculation, plays a significant role in the reproductive process, then the female one is not grounded with anything like it. Yes, in darker times he tried to find a similar explanation, and one can still find the opinion that the contractions of the muscles of the vagina "suck" sperm and promote fertilization - but this theory was refuted by Masters and Johnson in the middle of the 20th century.
Another theory says that the desire for orgasm is the main human motivation to engage in sexual relations - so that mankind is still alive in general. This would explain the exciting fact that the clitoris is the only organ in the female body that exists only for pleasure and does not have any other function. But if we consider the processes of fixing behavior in which the reward system is involved, and in particular dopamine, then it turns out that for the desire for sex, one excitement is enough - that in humans, that in any other mammals. In addition, it is not completely clear whether female mammals test an orgasm except for primates (and it’s not completely clear about those). In general, the question "why?" we seem to have only one convincing answer - because fuck you that's why.
Is there a vaginal orgasm
In sexology, there is a division into clitoral and vaginal orgasms (there is also an opinion that there is still a "uterine" and "perineal"), for which I must say a special thank you to Sigmund Freud. In his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, published in 1905, he proposed that the clitoral orgasm be considered “infantile”, characteristic of adolescence and inferior to the vaginal - which, in turn, was understood as the only mature, “healthy” and “full-fledged”. Thanks to this misogynistic concept, criticized in Anna Coedt’s famous essay “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm,” the obsessive desire of women and men to “move” the orgasm from the clitoris to the vagina has formed, including through psychotherapy and even surgery.
A follower of Freud and a woman of amazing fate, Princess Marie Bonaparte, in her study of female sexuality, linked the possibility of having an orgasm during vaginal penetration and the distance between the entrance to the vagina and the clitoris (which is generally confirmed by modern studies). However, as a solution to the “problem,” she proposed a corrective surgery to “restore the connection between the clitoris and the vagina.” It is clear that these good intentions were paved the road to hell.
It is not surprising that women who never experience an orgasm during vaginal stimulation (and, according to some data, about 75% of them) feel inferior and seek to correct it, and this desire actively feeds modern culture - from movies, porn and gloss to numerous sex -training. The main problem is that the female anatomy for a long time remained a dark area, not only for women themselves, but also for scientists. As the author of the Cliteracy project, Sophia Wallace, ironically notes, in 1969, a man landed on the moon, in 1982, the Internet was invented, and in 1998, they learned how exactly the clitoris worked.
Actually, the facts at the moment are as follows: the structure of the clitoris is almost completely identical to the structure of the penis, the outer part of the clitoris, or the head is only the tip of the iceberg, its interior is several times larger, comparable to the size of the average penis and consists of a body and two legs embracing the vagina. They may be responsible for what many call the vaginal orgasm: studies using sonography have shown that orgasm during clitoral and vaginal stimulation differs due to the fact that different parts of the clitoris are involved. With the famous G point (as well as a number of other points supposedly located inside the vagina, including Skin's glands), everything is much more ambiguous - to put it simply, there are subjective reviews, but there are no scientific data that reliably confirm their existence for all women. The most modern concept does not involve dividing an orgasm into the vaginal and clitoral, introduces the concept of the clitorovaginal complex and suggests calling an orgasm in women with one single word - feminine.
Why the clitoris was pushed into the background for so long
The simplest and saddest answer is that he simply was not interested in anyone. No wonder, because, as you know, culture and science for a long time were created by male hands. At best, the clitoris was perceived as an additional source of stimulation or a way to warm up the partner, but not as the main player on the field. Ignorance and a phallocentric view of the world have led many to seriously discuss whether a man and a woman are mirrored and whether the penis is a "twisted" vagina and vice versa - that it is an extremely convenient concept for reducing sexual intercourse to vaginal penetration.
In the course of history, the clitoris was repeatedly written off from the accounts - it even reached the point that in the middle of the 20th century it temporarily disappeared from the popular American anatomical atlas. In a number of countries in Africa and the Middle East, there is still a barbaric procedure of female circumcision, which some women even decide to go through on their own (in fact, under the pressure of traditions and stereotypes). The operation, which 125 million women are currently undergoing (just think about it), involves several types of surgery, from removing the clitoral hood to completely removing the labia and clitoris, and can lead to complete loss of sensitivity or extremely painful sensations during intercourse, so to severe infections and even death. In this sense, the world has not far advanced since the Middle Ages, when the clitoris was considered a "devil's nipple", and women found to be in its presence and exploitation - witches.
Why is it time to forget about frigidity
The term "frigidity", fixed in everyday speech and overgrown with a mass of negative connotations, is usually denoted by some sexually cold women who are allegedly not able to experience neither excitement nor orgasm. Or worse, women who are not able to experience a vaginal orgasm. Nowadays, this concept is considered obsolete and is not used by progressive sexologists, psychologists and other specialists. There are a number of sexual dysfunctions - disorders of the main manifestations of sexuality: for example, the lack of sexual desire in general is called hypolibidemia, and the inability to achieve orgasm is anorgasmia. About 4% of women suffer from anorgasmia, even during masturbation, never, with one type of sexual stimulation, they do not experience orgasm. Anorgasmia can be caused by various reasons - from psychological problems to medical ones, taking antidepressants or hormonal imbalances, as well as heroin addiction (which is a certain bitter irony, since, according to scientists, the heroin influx is 95% similar to sensations during orgasm).
It is worth understanding that anorgasmia is not characterized by a lack of sexual desire: as a result of one study using MRI, American scientists found that the brains of women with a similar diagnosis with certain stimulation and women who constantly experience sexual arousal, which does not end with orgasm, show the same activity. The good news is that anorgasmia is not the final verdict (as they like to use the word "frigid"), but the diagnosis: it can be treated, for example, with the help of well-chosen hormonal therapy. Although for a start, as it is usually advised (and for good reason), it is worthwhile to figure out how your body works, stop considering yourself “abnormal” and try different ways of masturbation. For example, right today.
Photo: 1, 2, 3, 4 via Shutterstock
