The Four Female Orgasms: Which One Will You Try Having Next?

You know that women can have orgasms, but did you know that you can have different ones? According to a recent study published in the journal NeuroQuantology, there are four distinct types of female orgasm; clitoral, vaginal, blended, or multiple – so which one will you try having tonight?

 

1. Clitoral Orgasm: Sari Cooper, a certified sex therapist in New York City and a columnist for Psychology Today, points out that if your partner touches, caresses, or massages other parts of your genitals before heading for the clitoris, you’ll have a more pleasurable orgasm than if he homes straight in on that hot spot. Copper advises, ‘Have him make big circles with his fingers that include the shaft, labia, and upper part of the clitoral hood.’ To increase your chances of having a clitoral orgasm, sexual health and wellness expert Faye Brennan recommends, ‘Try having him use a fingertip vibrator like the Hello Touch Wearable Fingertip Vibrator ($65, jimmyjane.com). The more vocal you are about the speed, intensity, and pressure you prefer, the better the end result will be.’

 

2. Vaginal Orgasm: Brennan notes, ‘Though there is still some debate as to whether the G-spot exists, 30% of women claim they can have a big O from having the famous erogenous zone stimulated through penetration alone. First, locate the hot zone. On a solo night, explore the front wall of your vagina with your finger until you feel an area that’s rippled and spongy in texture. Touching it directly should feel pretty darn good. Then, during intercourse, have your man target his thrusting there. Try lying on your sides while facing each other, with your legs intertwined comfortably—think of two pairs of crisscrossed scissors. Keep your parts aligned and make sure his rubs against the front wall of your vagina.’ Michael Alvear, author of Not Tonight Dear, I Feel Fat, adds that changing positions after 15 minutes or so ‘reduces the chance of your man “closing the deal” too soon and helps your body experience new and fresh sensations.’

 

3. Blended Orgasm: By combining the clitoral and vaginal orgasm, ‘You’re getting the best of both worlds,’ says Cynthia Lief Ruberg, a certified sex therapist in Columbus, Ohio. ‘A blended orgasm is easier if the woman becomes very aroused before she has intercourse.’ So make sure you go full-throttle with the foreplay. When it comes to intercourse, Brennan comments, ‘The girl-on-top position is popular for a reason—it’s perfect for the double-whammy finish. But you can also try sitting on your partner’s lap facing away from him (he can stimulate your clitoris while you control the thrusting). Or, for a twist on missionary, have your guy inch his body up so your hips are aligned, and tilt your pelvis upward so that the base of his penis is on your clitoris but the rest of him is inside you.’

 

4. Multiple Orgasms: ‘Multiple orgasms happen one right after the next, not at different times in one session (although those are great too),’ Brennan explains. ‘Starting in foreplay, have your guy get you to your first clitoral climax using his hands or mouth (or a vibrator). Immediately afterward, he should continue to stimulate your C-spot in a slower manner for about 30 seconds, and then resume a normal pace to get you to a repeat performance.’ Amy Levine, a sex coach in New York City and founder of IgniteYourPleasure.com, notes, ‘He’s playing with your level of arousal from a heightened orgasmic state by giving your erogenous area a rest, as it may be overly sensitive to stimulation, and then increasing arousal again.’

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Remastering Sex: Are Vaginal and Clitoral Orgasms Different?

Back in the fifties, Dr William Masters and Virginia Johnston were pioneers in the world of sexual health and wellbeing. As you may have seen on current Channel 4 series Masters of Sex, Masters and Johnston broke boundaries, challenging everything wellness experts ever thought about sexuality – particularly female sexuality. Before Masters and Johnston came along, women who climaxed from vaginal stimulation alone – i.e. without the help of a big, strong man – were thought to be mentally unbalanced. Still, while Masters and Johnston found no medical difference between clitoral and vaginal orgasms, thereby breaking down misconceptions that female sexuality was linked to poor mental health, a new series of essays has found that there may be differences between the two kinds of orgasm after all.

The new series of essays, which were published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, lays out the evidence that vaginal and clitoral orgasms are, in fact, separate phenomena, activating different areas of the brain. This may indeed reveal key psychological differences between women.  Emmanuele Jannini, a professor of endocrinology at the University of Aquila in Italy, who organised and contributed to the essay series, notes, ‘We have plenty of evidence regarding the difference between the two main orgasms, clitoral and vaginally activated orgasm.’

In one essay, French gynaecologist Odile Buisson argues that the front wall of your vagina is inextricably linked with the internal parts of your clitoris, and so it may be next to impossible to stimulate the vagina without activating the clitoris. Out of this point, Buisson concludes that “vaginal” orgasms could be clitoral orgasms by another name. Still, researchers like Barry Komisaruk of Rutgers University claim that the different kinds of orgasm are reflected in different responses in your brain. ‘If the vagina stimulation is simply working via clitoral stimulations, then vaginal stimulation and clitoral stimulation should activate the exact same place in the sensory cortex,’ Komisaruk says. ‘But they don’t.’ While these clitoral, cervical and vaginal stimulation areas are close together in the brain, they only overlap slightly.

Then you have anecdotal reports from women that vaginal and clitoral orgasms feel different. If you have a spinal cord injury that cuts off all communication between your clitoris and your brain, you can still have orgasms via vaginal stimulation. If you’re a very fortunate lady indeed, it’s even possible to think yourself into having an orgasm, or to have one from a tough abdominal workout at the gym. According to Rutgers University professor emerita Beverly Whipple, one of the discovers of the also-controversial “G-spot,” ‘[O]rgasm in women is in the brain, it is felt in many body regions, and it can be stimulated from many body regions as well as from imagery alone.’

So what does this all mean for you? While these new fMRI studies and more sophisticated understandings of anatomy are unravelling what Jannini refers to as a woman’s “very complicated machinery,” this is not to say that you should feel inferior if you don’t orgasm vaginally. She explains, ‘A woman should have an understanding — who is she, how is her body composed, what is the possibility of her body, but she should not be looking for something like a race, like a game, like a duty. Looking for the G-spot orgasm or the vaginal orgasm as a need, as a duty, is the best way to lose the happiness of sex.’ Doing that puts us right back to before Masters and Johnston changed the way we view sex and – trust me on this – you don’t want to go back there.

Categories: body regions, clitoral, clitoral orgasms, female sexuality, orgasm, Orgasms, Research, rutgers university, vaginal, vaginal orgasms, vaginal stimulation