Survey Results: Jane Magazine
June/July 2004
(Data for 2011 is Presented Below)
Based on 2,137 responses to an online poll, this is what their readers had to say about their frequency of experiencing orgasm during sex:
- I have an
orgasm (or five) every time I have sex - 43%
- I've had "the moment" a few times - 38%
- Still waiting for that one - 19%
Their readers' comments:
- "It's happened twice
to me. But if you ask my boyfriend, it happens every night." -Savana, 18,
Niagara Falls, NY
- "Not intercourse, but all the time in outercourse." -Lola, 28, Merced,
Calif.
- "Sheet, I am a one-minute man." -TJ, 24 Cincinnati
- "Only if one of us is double-clicking the mouse." -Christen, 21, Leola, Pa.
To be honest, I am surprised 43% reported experiencing orgasm every time they engage in sex, which for some could be masturbation, but on the other hand, the 19% who have not experienced orgasm exceeds the 10% commonly reported. I suspect Jane magazine has a young readership, which may explain a better success rate during partnered sex, and higher than expected pre-orgasmic rate. Many young women don't learn to masturbate to orgasm until their late teens or early twenties, often times after being sexually active with a partner for several years. Young men today have access to the Internet, which may provide some enlightenment on how to pleasure a woman, versus prior generations, who acquired their sexual knowledge from locker room conversations and Penthouse Forum, and similar magazines.
The 38% of women who experience orgasm irregularly, and some of the 19% who have never experienced orgasm, may have inexperienced sexual partners, and/or experience the reality that every woman isn't going to be in the mood, or able to experience orgasm, every day of her life, which brings the 43% into question, but perhaps this later group only engages in sex when they are in the mood, or they are always in the mood, being young and all. Overall, the data and comments provide some insight into how varied women's experiences with orgasm really are. One size does not fit all.
Survey Results - Published in 2011
"[A]mong 3,237 respondents aged 18-26 years in heterosexual relationships of >= 3-month duration...Men were more likely than women to report having orgasms most or all the time: 87% versus 47%. A total of 15% of young women reported having orgasms less than half the time or never, whereas only 2.6% of young men reported having orgasms with that regularity."
|
Regularity of Orgasm
|
||
|
Men
|
Women
|
|
| Most or all the time |
87.1
|
46.8
|
| More than half the time |
7.4
|
20.8
|
| Half the time |
2.9
|
17.1
|
| Less than half the time |
1.5
|
9.0
|
| Never or almost never |
1.1
|
6.4
|
| Number of Survey Participants |
1,338
|
1,899
|
The above statistics are for residence of the U.S., statistics for residence of Australia are available here. The Australian data includes information on teenagers, ages sixteen to nineteen.
Our surveys also provide insight into the female sexual experience.
Female Sexual Arousal & Orgasm
Female sexual arousal and orgasm is a complex process involving the entire woman, mind and body. The human mind receives in sexual stimuli from the body, processes it, and based on past learning and experience causes the body to respond to it. The brain may start the sexual arousal process in response to thought (sexual fantasy), visual stimuli (seeing a partner nude), audible stimulation (hearing a partner's voice), olfactory stimuli (the smell of a partner's body), and taste (the taste of a partner's body). The body may start the arousal process as the result of a woman, or her partner, touching her genitals or breasts, the feel of air flowing across her exposed skin, or her cloths stimulating her breasts or genitals. The mind and body, while able to experience sexual arousal separately, cannot experience orgasm separately. Orgasm requires both the mind and body to work together. Mental thought alone may result in orgasm, but you still experience and feel the orgasm in your body. All the sexual stimulation and arousal may originate in one or the other, but orgasm takes place in both.
At birth, we respond to sexual stimulation based on instinct and reflex responses. If we feel safe and our basic material needs are met, we will most likely respond to sexual stimuli very easily. This is perhaps why the simple acts of nursing and exposing the genitals to air results in sexual arousal in infants. At birth we are very sensitive to sexual stimuli, and our minds have not learned "appropriate" sexual response. As a result, at birth, orgasm is probably controlled more by physical stimuli than mental thought processes. Orgasm is a simple physical reflex response at birth.
By the time puberty rolls around we have already been taught "appropriate" sexual response. We perhaps know that any sexual response is bad. We may have been so isolated from our physical sexual self's that we are not aware of when we are sexually aroused. This is more true of girls than boys, as boys experience a telltale erection, and touch their primary sexual organ several times each day while urinating. We know what "good girls" and "bad girls" are. We know who a suitable mate is, even if we do not think of them in overtly sexual terms. Teens and women may choose a partner based on purely nonsexual criteria, then wonder why sparks don't fly in the bedroom. They may perceive sexual arousal as "being in love." Teens and women may not permit themselves to be in situations that result in their feeling "sexual," if they categorize those feelings as undesirable. They may tune out any sexual feelings, denying they occur, or they may respond so negatively to sexual stimuli that sex itself is impossible.
There are women who do not have strong negative feelings toward sex, who are openly sexual. They enjoy being sexually aroused, seeking out sexual stimuli freely. They do not care who or what causes them to feel aroused, they simply enjoy it. Of course, society may view these "sexual girls" and "sexual women" negatively, labeling them "sluts" and "whores." In our confused society, the woman who shuns all sexual feelings is considered more "normal" than one who is openly sexual. This statement is less true than it was thirty-forty years ago, but is still true to varying degrees, depending on the society and community you live in. Today, women are permitted to be sexual, but only in a limited number of circumstances, but still, less so than men. In the past, women were expected to remain virginal, today they are expected to be "sexual virgins."
Sexual arousal and orgasm may be more mental perceptions than a physical experiences for women, more so than it is for men, as the result of the greater restrictions placed on them. A man's ability to achieve an erection and ejaculate is a symbol of his manhood, a woman's sexual arousal and sexual enjoyment may be seen as "out of control" and "wanton." This is perhaps why women are often times less orgasmic than men, as one has to speculate both are equally orgasmic at birth.
Much More Than A Physical Response
The traditional view of female sexual arousal, presented below, has focused on the physical changes associated with a woman's genitals. It was believed that sexual desire led to physical sexual arousal and orgasm. Research though has found that sexual desire is not one of the major reasons why women say they engage in sex. Women were also believed to be acutely aware of the physical changes that occurred in their genitals during sexual arousal. Additional research has shown a low correlation between when a woman believes she has experienced sexual arousal and when she has actually experienced the physical changes associated with sexual arousal. Women are not necessarily aware of when vaginal lubrication and blood engorgement of their vulva has occurred.
A survey presented on this website, that explores female sexual arousal, indicates the majority of women are very aware of what it feels like to be sexually aroused, but it appears their brain may filter this information out, at times leaving them unaware. A woman's perception of sexual arousal appears to be very much dependent on context, whether her brain believes it is appropriate and desired. So instead of a simple linear or straightforward concept of female sexual arousal, with a beginning and end, there is now a much more complex circular model, with a lot of possible variables involved. I have created a flowchart that tries to present this model in a manner that is easier to understand, compared to how it is presented in the medical articles I have on the subject. The flowchart is in the form of a GIF file that is available here.
Female Sexual Arousal Flowchart
Sexual Arousal is an Emotional State
Medical Quote:
Article Title: Physiology of Women's Sexual Function: Basic Knowledge and New Findings
Originally Published: July 2010
"Sexual arousal is an emotional state and, similar to other emotions, it possesses distinct antecedents (e.g., sexual stimuli) and patterns of expression (e.g., psychological, physiological, behavioral) serving to regulate behaviors fundamental to sexual reproduction.
"Moreover, women’s experience of sexual arousal is not primarily related to experience of physiological responding [physical sensations resulting from physical sexual arousal] and is mediated by additional cognitive and emotional mechanisms. It is not clear how much appraisal of subjective sexual arousal is influenced by perception of genital responding, or vice versa, but these measures are highly positively correlated in women.
"Therefore, there is a difference between experiencing sexual arousal and perceiving physical changes.
"...[T]he information women use to appraise their emotional state of sexual arousal; women attend more to external, situational cues when appraising their emotional states than men do"
Primarily as a result of being male, I believe, and partly because I don't address sexual aversion disorder in any detail, I've always assumed in my writings that women would respond to sexual stimulation in a physical -sexual- manner, or not at all. In reality, a woman's emotional response to sexual stimulation may include any and all emotional states, and recent evidence is that this emotional response weighs heavily in a woman's overall sexual response and experience. A woman's emotional response appears to control a woman's experience of sex, her perception of sex and sexual pleasure, and whether she experiences sexual arousal, pleasure, and orgasm. A woman's emotional response, and perception of her bodily response to sexual stimuli, may not indicate her true body state, her reflex bodily responses. For women, sex may, at times, be an "out of body" experience. When everything is in harmony, it is a very physical -sexual- experience.
