According to a new study, lesbians have more orgasms than straight or bi women, but we're all still having less orgasms than men. Yet another glass ceiling for womynkind to shatter (but this one is more fun than the rest of them because it's shattered via sexual climax).
The study, which was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, polled 1,497 men and 1,353 women who'd been sexually active within the past 12 months. Participants were asked to provide their gender and sexual orientation and then the percentage of time they orgasm "with a familiar partner."
According to the Huffington Post, there wasn't much variation among men: "heterosexual men reported an 85.5 percent orgasm rate, gay men 84.7 percent, and bisexual men 77.6 percent." With women, however, the rates were much less constant across sexual orientations. Heterosexual women reported orgasming just 61.6 precent of the time, and bisexual women said they only orgasmed during 58 percent of sexual encounters. Lesbians reported numbers closer to — but still lower than — those of the men polled: they reported coming 74.7 percent of the sexy-time.
The lower frequency of orgasm among women is disappointing, but it's not all that surprising. A lot of prevailing rhetoric still treats the female orgasm as an elusive and esoteric enigma shrouded in mystery. It's not. Seriously: the researchers posit that higher lesbian orgasm-frequency could be due to the fact that "self-identified lesbian women are more comfortable and familiar with the female body and thus, on average, are better able to induce orgasm in their female partners." Oh, so being comfortable and familiar with the female anatomy make you more adept at sex with women? No way! That's crazy!
In an email to the Huffington Post, study author Dr. Justin R. Garcia said that the findings could offer sex-insight to gay and straight couples alike. "To the extent that lack of orgasm is seen as a common and unwanted problem," he wrote, "learning more about orgasm in same-sex relationships may inform treatment for men and women in both same-sex and mixed-sex relationships." Take notes, everyone.
Image via Wild Bunch