Are 18.4% - 50.4% of Women Really Able to Orgasm from Penetration Only? A Journal Article Review
Welcome back to An Article I Read, where I summarize a peer reviewed scientific journal article relating to female orgasm (check all the past ones out HERE). This is a review of a 2017 article, “Women's Experiences With Genital Touching, Sexual Pleasure, and Orgasm: Results From a U.S. Probability Sample of Women Ages 18 to 94” published by a team led by a prolific and widely published sex researcher, Debby Herbenick from the esteemed Kinsey Institute, Indiana University,
There’s some great and worthwhile info in this paper about women’s specific preferences with genital touch. Love it. And, I do believe it could help provide the value to therapeutic/educational language and communication the article touts. There’s also, unfortunately, information about how many of the surveyed women can orgasm from intercourse without any additional clitoral stimulation. I say ‘unfortunately’ for 2 reasons:
1. The survey design for the intercourse questions is tiresomely biased. I would, and do, argue the amount of women that can have actual physical orgasms from nothing more than a penis moving in and out of their vaginal canal is significantly overinflated in these stats.
2. I’m soooo bored of reading research from respected, progressive, educated sex researchers that go about their research on female orgasm as if an orgasm caused by vaginal penetration is a known reality. It is not. (SERIOUSLY.) I’m more than bored, though. I’m bothered, because as much as these researchers (and it’s a lot of them) pat themselves on the back for giving a nod to the value of including clitoral stimulation in sex, they just cannot seem to stop reinforcing the importance and orgasmic value of intercourse for the ladies - which is incredibly harmful to lady-gasms.
Spoiler alert: intercourse is OPPOSITE of great for female orgasm, and intercourse doesn’t need any more cheerleaders. Every aspect of our culture has already drilled in that cool, sexy, sexual women orgasm easily from getting banged. In other words, ladies have already been brainwashed that we should orgasm from intercourse, and don’t need the progressive sex research community piling on - even if it’s unintentional (which I hope it is). Honestly, it’s no different than if all of culture assumed and depicted men orgasming from ball rubbing. All the while, the research world was forever asking men if they can orgasm from just getting their balls rubbed, and it’s clear it’s not a majority of them, but we’re all obsessed with men coming from their balls anyway, so it’s kind of ignored. Then we hear, from time to time, studies telling us truly groundbreaking things like; ‘penile stimulation is associated with male orgasm’ or ‘including the penis is sexual encounters makes orgasm more likely for men’ or ‘36% of men say they can orgasm from ball rubbing, but penile stimulation makes it feel better’ (and yes that’s a direct reference to this study).
That, my friends, is why we’re doing a summary/review of this journal article. I say we, because I have a co-writer, Ana Tomy (it's a pseudonym, which feels very mysterious, and I like it), for this one. She's a huge ally. She's incredibly smart and thoughtful, and she keeps me up on things and pushes me in ways I very much appreciate.
So, Ana Tomy actually suggested a lot of the critiques for this. I really liked her perspective, and I loved having a bunch of this work done for me. I just had to pull the summary together and compile the critiques (although I admit, it still took me months and months to finish that…sorry, Ana). Anyway, we did it, and voila! Here is the first co-authored SSL scientific journal article summary/critique.
First, we’ll do a super quick summary. Second, you’ll find our main critiques, largely related to the bias present in the intercourse related questions from this survey. Third and finally, you can find a detailed summary of the entire article. This is a lot longer than the original article, but hopefully in plainer language and with lots of context and discussion. I mean, it’s long. I’m not gonna lie, but honestly at least half the reason I do this is so I can understand the article better. I hope you enjoy it a little too.
The Quick Summary (with our opinions mixed in)
This journal article is actually comprised of two distinct sets of survey questions that seemed to us to have been created quite differently and with very different intentions. We’d describe one study (we are calling it Study1) as sensibly created with useful detailed information about what women say they prefer from genital touching.
The other study (we are calling it Study2) is focused on orgasm and intercourse. It has all the very serious problems and pitfalls of past surveys about penetrative orgasms, plus some unique extras on top of that. This means, to be very blunt, we don’t feel the statistics are a sensible portrayal of reality. To be less blunt and more diplomatic, it means that the results from Survey2 in this article shouldn't be accepted unquestioningly as an indication of an actual percentage of women who have orgasms from intercourse without additional clitoral stimulation. It can only really be taken seriously as the % of women who claim to have clit-less intercourse orgasms when asked the specific questions that this research team asked. And, although one could assume reality and survey results to be fairly similar in a well-done survey, this is not a well done survey, and I would argue it’s more sensible to assume they are quite different numbers.
General Survey Details
The respondents were 1,055 experienced online survey-takers from the GfK Knowledge Panel. They were women, representative of the U.S population, ages ranging from 19-94
most were heterosexual and over 1/2 were married
The respondents were shown a full-color medical illustration of a vulva with the clitoris, clitoral hood, vaginal entrance, and other main parts labeled, with the following text, “Some of the next questions will ask about certain ways of touching your vulva (the outside parts of your genitals) and vagina (the birth canal). To make sure we’re using the same words for the same parts, here is a diagram showing what we mean.” We love that they took some care to ensure respondents had a unified understanding of the words used in the survey. That certainly strengthened the reliability of the results for the genital touch questions. Too bad there was not the same care taken when asking about orgasm - which is as likely if not more likely to be understood differently by different women than the parts of the vulva.
‘STUDY1’ – Women’s Preferences for Pleasurable Genital Touch
Survey questions were asked about the exact location, pressure, shape (motion) and style of genital touching that the female respondents prefer.
These questions were informed by understanding gained during 1,000 in-depth interviews with women, for the website OMGYes, about their sexual pleasure and orgasm. During these in-depth surveys, Women were asked about, among other things, very specific physical details of their masturbation and their preferences during partnered sexual activity.
Two of the authors with input from 2 individuals from OMGYes, and with understanding gained from the previous in-depth OMGYes interviews, wrote the questions for Survey1. OMGYes also funded this study. This website OMGYes, by the way, has long been on my list of things to review and write about. My feeling from what I've seen so far is that it's a fantastic project and great resource for specific, direct information about what kinds of stimulation women enjoy and/or need to orgasm, both alone and with other people - they aren't paying me, promise. Unsurprisingly, this site strongly focuses on external clitoral stimulation as the reliable path to orgasm.
Survey1 questions seemed well thought out and straightforward, and the results are interesting and seemingly a good resource for better vocabulary and communication for women, couples, and therapists.
2/3 women preferred direct clit stimulation, however indirect stimulation to the sides or above the clit and brushing over it without much pressure was also common. Most preferred light or medium pressure on their vulvas. Up and down motion was most common, followed by circular and then side to side - 41% only preferred one of those types of motions (as opposed to choosing a couple styles they preferred). 2/3 reported delaying orgasm as a pleasure technique, and many did that by stopping all stimulation before starting again or touching less sensitive areas. For those that reported multiple orgasms, they preferred the following after their first orgasm; 53.3%- returning to earlier kinds of stimulation to rebuild, 33.2% continue with the same stimulation, 32.8% a completely different stimulation than used for the first orgasm. (There’s lots more info that you can check out in the full summary below).
‘STUDY2’ – Women’s ability to orgasm during Penile-Vaginal Intercourse
Survey questions were asked about how often the respondent orgasmsed during intercourse with and also without additional external clitoral stimulation. It also asked if all orgasms feel the same, and if they don’t, when did the respondent realize that.
The OMGYes Team did not seem to be involved with the creation of these questions; and the 1,000 in depth interviews were not used to inform these questions. The questions seem to have originated with the lead author, Dr. Herbenick, and the other non-OMGYes authors.
The survey design for these questions was dripping with bias in ways that we found incredibly egregious.
36.6% of women said they needed clitoral stimulation to orgasm.
18.4% of women reported that they don't need clitoral stimulation in order to orgasm during intercourse. Like almost all surveys about rates of women that can orgasm during intercourse, the careless survey design likely inflates this number compared to the actual number of women who have a physical orgasms from nothing more than a simple P-in-V bang. However, it’s within range of other carelessly created surveys out there.
However, a wilder, more problematic number emerges. Another 36% on this survey say they don't need clitoral stimulation to come but that additional clitoral stimulation makes the orgasm feel better. (what exactly ‘feel better’ means is never discussed or further investigated). That comes out to a whopping 54.4% of women in this survey that claim they can orgasm through penetration alone. That's wildly high compared to the bulk of past surveys out there. I go over numbers from past surveys HERE, and 54% is nowhere near what one should expect based on past research. Yet, the fact that their results were incongruent with past research wasn't even mentioned. They didn't discuss why it could have come out so differently in their survey, which seems strangely oblivious.
They also found 77.5% indicated that some orgasms feel better than others; and the mean age at first realizing this was 24.6 (SD = 7.7, range = 10 to 68). 10.8% reported that all orgasms feel pretty much the same. 11.7% selected “I don’t know, I haven’t had enough to know.”
Our Major Criticism of this Journal Article (mainly the bias in the survey design of ‘Survey2’ questions)
All surveys can only be truly understood as indicating how people respond to the specific questions asked. That's just the nature of surveys. The real nitty gritty of surveying, however, is; how closely can one reasonably assume those survey responses align to what people are actually doing/thinking/experiencing/etc.?...and that depends quite a bit on the survey design (Here’s a good and thorough discussion of survey design bias).
How were the questions worded? Are the questions/response options understood the same by all respondents? Could there be different responses representing the same reality (or different realities existing within the same response) that become invisible in the results? Does it seem possible – or even likely --that a significant number of respondents might intentionally or unintentionally misrepresent their experience, and if so, was the questionnaire and the data analysis crafted carefully to help account for the possibility? That's just a bit of what goes into good survey design, and no survey is perfect, but some are definitely more reliably able to capture reality than others.
And there lies the problem. The survey design for the questions in Study1, the genital touching questions, seem much more specific and clear than Study2, the intercourse questions. Study2 questions are riddled with problems common to lady-gasm research, many of which are well known issues this survey team should have avoided or at the very least acknowledged in the discussion. Seriously, they reference a book that has a whole chapter about the ways that surveys on intercourse orgasm for females are often full of bias, create confusing results, and likely overinflate the amount of women that can orgasm from intercourse alone. They reference it, yet they still fall into all the traps that are warned about, as if they didn’t read it or don’t care.
Here are our biggest bias gripes for the questions in Survey2:
1 Surveying on a stigmatized topic without acknowledging and accommodating for it:
The ability for a woman to orgasm from nothing more than a good bang has been culturally prized and overly depicted in literature and media for, well, way too long. Up until the 1970’s women who couldn’t orgasm through penetration were called frigid (thanks Freud and Freudians) and were assumed by many serious medical professionals to be that way because of mental illness. Not being able to come from penetrative vaginal sex, IS STIGMATIZED. However, it is a scientifically uncontroversial truth, from past surveys, from therapists’ reports of patient complaints, and, well, from human anatomy, that the vast majority of women don't even claim to orgasm through penetration. Yet, to this day, it’s still highly valued. This is important because even on survey questions answered in private, people are absolutely known to lie about stigmatized behaviors so as not be identified with that behavior (think – admitting to homosexual activity in some periods of history and in some communities or to not using a condom for one-night).
Lying about stigmatized behaviors on surveys is a well-known phenomenon among anyone familiar with survey design – it is a factor called “social desirability.” This research team never acknowledges the possibility that there might likely be some misrepresentations, exaggerations, etc. in the responses, nor discusses any attempt at discouraging this possibility within the survey design. This particular survey sin, though, is not specific to this journal article. It’s also absolutely RAMPANT in female orgasm research. So although it’s a HUGE problem, at least this isn’t unique to this team.
2 Questions and response options insinuating bias towards a more 'normal' response:
This is particularly egregious given how socially desirable orgasms from intercourse already are (and how stigmatized not having them is). Adding extra bias inside these questions’ wording feels almost intentional.
I mean, the questions just straight up have a vibe that penetrative orgasm is the norm and clitoral stimulation is 'extra.' As an example: “Which of the following best describes your experience with orgasm and penile-vaginal intercourse?” Response options included: (a) I need my clitoris to be stimulated in order to have an orgasm during intercourse, (b) Although I don’t need my clitoris to be stimulated in order to have an orgasm during intercourse, my orgasms feel better if my clitoris is stimulated during intercourse, (c) Vaginal penetration alone is enough to help me have an orgasm (I don’t need my clitoris to be stimulated in order to have an orgasm), (d) N/A—I don’t have orgasms during intercourse, or (e) Other, please describe.
Why is clitoral stimulation constantly described as a “need” as if it were a special accommodation required by an injured person. Why are the options clearly ordered from most ‘needy’ to least needy – “vaginal penetration alone is enough” – I don’t “need” that clitoral crutch. The ‘best’ answer seems clear: Don’t be needy! I’m not needy! The penis in my vagina, the penis ALONE, is “enough” for me!
Also note that, when looking back at past surveys on this topic, the most common answer to this kind of question, by far has been something like, ‘I don’t have orgasms during intercourse.’ However, that answer choice is marked by “N/A” because the researchers don’t actually use the results for that answer in their analysis. Frankly, it gives that answer an off-putting vibe, like it’s not a good or an available answer. Even if that vibe is very subtle, it’s there and even a subtle indication in a survey is important, and something these authors really should have considered.
Another question from the study: "Overall, how often did you have an orgasm during ‘regular’ penile vaginal intercourse—that is, without you or your partner doing anything extra to touch or stimulate your clitoris during intercourse?". Note “regular” to describe penile vaginal intercourse and “extra” to describe stimulating the clitoris.
Dr. Herbenick and the other authors are describing clitoral stimulation as an extra need in relation to female orgasm. Would they also describe penile stimulation as an extra need in relation to male orgasm? Because that makes equal scientific and anatomical sense, given the penis is basically a clit on an extension rod, an embryological homologue, as every sexologist really should knows.
Words matter. Ask any experienced survey creator (Pew Research has thoughts). There's actually a University of Florida thesis by Rebecca Kravitz comparing the wording of this journal article I'm reviewing here with another survey by Dr. Laurie Minz and guess what? Wording. Did. Matter. You can read it HERE. (I'll hopefully be summarizing that one soon).
3 Allowing a large opening for varied interpretations of what a response means
Example: Is grinding the clit against a partner's body during intercourse, as a way to orgasm, considered an “orgasm during intercourse with additional clitoral stimulation” -- or “without”?
Given that the stimulation-to-orgasm involved in this example is on the external clitoris BUT it doesn’t require a hand or vibrator to be involved alongside the intercourse, how might the respondent answer? I could easily see a respondent choosing either way and would have to assume this example situation exists in both the “with additional clitoral stimulation” and the “without” response pools. It might seem like a subtle difference, but if a person that grinded the clit to orgasm answered that they orgasm ‘without’ additional clitoral stimulation (which probably feels like the more desirable answer) that result could make it seem like a larger % of people can just get banged into an orgasm. However, in reality the orgasm absolutely did involve additional clitoral stimulation. Understanding that difference could be incredibly important to helping people imagine what would realistically work and not work in relation to partnered orgasms and intercourse; i.e it would have strong therapeutic indications which is something this journal article asserts to address.
4 A key word used in the question is notoriously ambiguous, yet there was no mention of this and no attempt to clarify
The word 'orgasm,' particularly when used in relation to females, is mushy, ill defined, and confusing. We ladies are ill-educated about how they happen, culturally discouraged in a harsher way than men to explore our own orgasm, and the advice we get, even from progressive, sex-positive well-meaning advisors, is that whatever we want to call an orgasm, is indeed an orgasm…which can be incredibly bewildering.
However, it doesn’t need to be so perplexing. There is a physical, muscular event that is universally known to be indicative of an orgasm (in both men and women). Although it's the only broadly accepted medical definition of 'orgasm,' it strangely is not well understood in the public, and lady-gasm researchers have an annoying habit of not acknowledging this reality at all in their research. For clarity, I'll refer to this interpretation of the word 'orgasm' as a 'physical orgasm.'
So, since there was nothing in this survey to attempt a clear, unified understanding of what a respondent should consider 'orgasm,' it is completely reasonable to assume when a survey responder marks that she can 'orgasm,' she could be referring to a variety of experiences. She may be using ‘orgasm’ to describe anything from a climactic, spiritual, emotional or mental state, to an ejaculation or emission of fluid, to an incredibly high level of arousal, to a physical orgasm (which does not necessarily happen even with a very high level of arousal). And it should absolutely be assumed that within the response pool are all those interpretations and more. The point is, it’s just not sensible to assume that all the women who claim ‘orgasm’ are referring to the same thing and certainly not all talking about the physical experience of muscular orgasmic response I am referring to here as a ‘physical orgasm.’
This is much less of a problem when surveying males for a variety of reasons, including that 'orgasm' for males is largely associated with visible ejaculation that usually does actually accompany a physical orgasm. In other words, a researcher can much more sensibly assume that when a man is surveyed about his orgasm, their answers are more likely to reflect the actual experience with muscular orgasmic response - a ‘physical orgasm.’
So, if one is looking for an accurate answer about how many women experience a physical orgasm from mere penetration, then this isn't the study to find it.
You can and should assume that the 'intercourse orgasming' women in this study are not all experiencing the same phenomenon and certainly not all experiencing a physical orgasm. This is most certainly important to the therapeutic implications of the findings that this research team touts. The fact that these researchers didn't think to even mention the ambiguity of the word 'orgasm' and how that might relate to the understanding gained in this survey, feels evasive and negligent to me.
5 Possible corporate interests?
We feel a bit perplexed about why Survey2 was added into this article, given that it feels so fundamentally different than Survey1. The sometimes wildly oblivious bias in the survey creation just doesn’t feel congruent with the grounded, thoughtfully created Survey1 questions.
It is of note that the main author, Dr. Debby Herbenick, does currently have a relevant corporate tie. She has served (maybe still serves?) as a medical advisor for a company called Ro (Roman). It's a business involved in a variety of medical issues, but largely male sexuality issues like premature ejaculation and penile erectile dysfunction, and they also sell Roman Condoms (their TV ads air frequently). Although she did not mention Ro as a conflict of interest in this 2016 survey, I am curious if she was related to that company at the time and if those were the kinds of things she just happen to be interested in and thinking about at the time. I don’t think there was anything nefarious going on here, but that would help make sense of Survey2 content for me.
I tried to find how long she’s been on the RO board, but it’s not an easy find (at least for me and my basic Google searching). She is currently listed on the Ro website as a Psychology and Sexual Health Advisor. However, this role is not listed on her website or Linkedin even though other service on advisory boards like Men’s Health Magazine and American Social Health Association are. So, I can’t find any dates.
In a more recent article, she does disclose serving on the Ro Medical Advisory Board as a conflict of interest and names several Ro staff who provided feedback on the survey draft. It would be interesting to know how Ro influenced that research. (Debby Herbenick, Tsung-chieh Fu & Callie Patterson (2022): Sexual Repertoire, Duration of Partnered Sex, Sexual Pleasure, and Orgasm: Findings from a US Nationally Representative Survey of Adults, Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy)
But, Also, Why Are These Researchers Not Even Considering That Physical Orgasms Caused by Penetration Alone...May Not Even Exist?
If I may, let's just step back and acknowledge that an orgasm caused by stimulation inside the vagina has never been physically observed in all of scientific literature - for real. So, although almost no lady-gasm researchers, including the team that wrote this article, ever seem to acknowledge this, and certainly never consider what it might mean about female orgasm and their research on it, we REALLY think they should, so I mention it whenever I can.
And even if that feels like too controversial a concept to you, then at least take into account that there definitely is widespread consensus (from pretty much all the research and surveys, not to mention anatomical facts) that for most women, most acts of vaginal intercourse do not trigger orgasm (“most” not as in more than half, but as in the vast, overwhelming majority). Couple that with all the very real issues discussed above that could indicate the already small percentage of women claiming penetrative orgasm on surveys is overinflated, and that adds up to: WHY DO RESEARCHERS OBSESS SO MUCH ABOUT WOMEN COMING FROM INTERCOURSE WITH NO ADDITIONAL CLITORAL STIMUAION? WE NEED RESEARCHERS TO KNOW BETTER AND DO BETTER. One should assume that an orgasm caused by vaginal penetration alone is, at most, very rare. That in and of itself should cause a survey team to approach research on penetrative female orgasms with careful technique and eyes wide open to the pitfalls. This survey team did anything but that.
So, basically what I'm saying here is that if you're looking for some kind of information about how many women can orgasm from nothing more than a penis moving in and out of their vagina, this isn't the research I would look to, because frankly, it's just not well done.
THE ARTICLE SUMMARY
Women's Experiences With Genital Touching, Sexual Pleasure, and Orgasm: Results From a U.S. Probability Sample of Women Ages 18 to 94. Debby Herbenick, Tsung-Chieh Jane Fu, Jennifer Arter, Stephanie A Sanders, Brian Dodge. J Sex Marital Ther. 44(2), (Feb 2017), pp. 201-212.
In these summaries, you can assume that anything I write is a genuine attempt to reflect what is said in the paper - even if it's shortened or summarized. My (or Ana Tomy's) opinions, if we have any to add, will either be inside brackets likes these [ME:], or in a section headed in a way that clearly lets you know these are personal opinions. All quotes are from this article unless specifically noted.
You can check out the list of all the past 'A Journal Article I Read' Summaries HERE.
THE INTRODUCTION
This paper's intro sets the scene for a history of scientific inquisitions into understanding "women's experiences with sexual pleasure and orgasm." The authors point out that there have been attempts to classify 'types' of orgasms. Scientists have also addressed varied, they say "often controversial" ideas about orgasms, "including suggestions that vaginal orgasm are more 'mature' than clitoral orgasms or that clitoral simulation may be required for female orgasm."
[ME: Here, the authors characterize as “often controversial” BOTH the (truly insane) Freudian idea that the vaginal orgasm is more “mature” AND (a scientifically backed statement) “that clitoral simulation may be required for female orgasm." As if a cocaine-addled misogynist’s (AKA Freud’s) idea that a 'type' of orgasm (a ‘vaginal’ orgasm) that has never been observed physically in all of scientific literature (seriously) not only exists, but is also superior to a clitorally stimulated orgasm…As if that is somehow in the same “controversial” league as the scientifically backed (with physically observed evidence in scientific journals), and anatomically consistent notion that women need clitoral simulation to orgasm. One is a bunch of BS and one is a scientifically and experientially supported understanding of how female orgasm works. However, pitting them together like that, which happens way too much from people that should know better, makes it seem like they are both similarly credible (I got into a debate about this very thing a few years back with a man doing just this). It's like saying that there's been a variety of controversial ideas about male orgasm, including one that rubbing the inner thigh causes the preferred, mature male orgasm and the other that stimulating the penis may be needed for male orgasm. They are not the same quality of ideas and it's disingenuous to juxtapose them in a way that makes them seem as if they are.]
The intro goes on to say that, "In recent decades, research has moved beyond categorization to document greater diversity in women's experiences of orgasm, including orgasms occurring from both genital and non-genital stimulation."
[ME: To back that statement up - that there is documentation of non-genitally stimulated orgasms in the research from recent decades, it then lists out 4 journal article citations. That makes it seem like a legit statement, but note that all 4 articles reference 'orgasms' that have only been spoken about but never actually physically observed. So, there's no evidence these claims included the rhythmic muscular release of tension that is the only agreed upon physical marker of orgasm.
First there's Herbenick's own article finding some women on surveys said they had orgasms during abdominal workouts (coregasms - she wrote a book about it. I like Amy Schumer’s take on the Coregasm btw).
Second, there's a review article acknowledging widespread agreement that stimulation of the external clitoris causes orgasms, but investigating if penetration alone could cause orgasm as well. Although it concludes that it seems like research is showing it's possible, not 1 piece of research in that whole paper found physical evidence of an orgasm happening from vaginal stimulation only. I particularly would like to note that this article includes as a contributing author one of the most grossly absurd vaginal orgasm ambulance-chasers, Stuart Brody (seriously - I wrote about him and one of his many articles here), which in itself simply doesn't bode well for the sensibility and biases of the article.
Third, there's an article (you can check the full article here) that goes over unique cases where people (not just women) have claimed orgasms from things as varied as giving oral sex to brushing teeth to electrical activation of the brain. It's actually an interesting article, and with the brain activation there was an observed ejaculation (which is different from an orgasm), but otherwise, there are still no physical observations to show the muscular markers of orgasm occurred.
The last citation is a book by the same authors as the above tooth-brushing orgasm article that basically includes all the same info and again, no physical evidence that orgasms have occurred without clitoral simulation. The orgasms claimed in these articles may or may not have occurred, but my point is, like all articles claiming non-clitorally simulated orgasms, there is simply no observed evidence of the physical markers of orgasm, and that really matters in relation to what these articles actually can and can't tell us.
All that to say, why is Herbenick and team going so hard to try and back up that there's other non-clitoral ways to come? It seems like that is more the purpose of this article than what I would hope (and what I think OMGYes is about), which is a simple investigation into how women answer questions about their sexual preferences and experiences.]
So the intro goes on to say there's been some emphasis on understanding the subjective experience and how that can be useful for those working in sexual health. Specifically understanding how and where women experience sensations in their genitals can help doctors and surgeons better serve (and not harm) women's sexual functioning [ME: This I completely agree with].
It goes on to say this. "Further, an understanding of the variability in how women experience genital touching can inform the work of sexual health educators and clinicians who might then anticipate common experiences or concerns among women, recognize and validate less common experiences among clients, and encourage straightforward, detailed, and comfortable language for talking about sexual pleasure and exploration" [Me: Again, agree.]
This intro goes on to tell us that most previous female sexual pleasure studies have been based on “convenience samples” (people like patients or students or customers that are accessible in groups, or are easily recruited to answer questions, or who volunteer) and have been more general and less specific about the wheres and hows of sexual touch. It goes on to talk about intercourse orgasms a bit, "Also, as a result of the variability in methods and populations, findings are wide-ranging regarding how rarely or often women orgasm during intercourse (whether during intercourse with or without additional stimulation focused on the clitoris; see Lloyd, 2005, for a review; see also Harris, Cherkas, Kato, Heiman, & Spector, 2008)."
[ME: First off, Lloyd's 2005 book is a sensible reference here because it looks at a large number of surveys that have actual quantitative information about the percent of women that claim to orgasm during intercourse. Most of these surveys are incredibly confusing and flawed, and Lloyd goes in depth about what kinds of problems occur with questioning about penetrative orgasm and how that can influence the results. She actually indicated that it's probably a lower % of women orgasming from penetration than any of those surveys would have us believe (I wrote about it HERE). Frankly, Lloyd's review warned against many of the problems I am critiquing about this Herbenick article right now, and it makes me wonder if Herbenick and her team even read Lloyd's work because from my perspective, they certainly didn't take heed.
Second, the Harris citation feels incredibly out of place and makes me wonder what the agenda is here. That study is not a review of how rarely or often women orgasm during intercourse as the citation suggests. Instead it is a study investigating if the “problem” of women not being able to orgasm during intercourse is related to variations in personality (aka psychological and social problems). (or…hear me out…could it possibly be that it’s mostly related to the fact that intercourse doesn’t necessarily even touch the clitoris?? Why don’t we keep going and study whether men’s inability to orgasm during ball scratching is related to personality differences?). It is of interest to note that this is a recent paper, not something from the first half of the 20th century, which was dominated by the Freudian school of psychoanalysis positing the “mature, feminine” vaginal orgasm. So, like why choose this paper as a citation??? Even more interesting is the fact that the Harris study was done within the Kinsey Institute (where Dr. Herbenick is also from - so maybe why she chose to cite it???), founded by the man who famously asserted from his survey's findings that women orgasm from clitoral rather than vaginal stimulation.]
It finishes with this line. "The current study aims to address these gaps by assessing, in a U.S. nationally representative probability sample of adult women (the OMGYes Sexual Pleasure Report: Women and Touch), women’s experiences related to orgasm and sexual pleasure, with a focus on detailed aspects of genital touch and stimulation"
METHOD
This study used a standing group of online survey-takers (GfK Knowledge Panel) who fill out market research surveys, collecting points for rewards. As is typical for this standing group, they were sent an email letting them know a new survey was available, but with no specific description. Two follow-up emails were sent to non-responders over a 2-week period. Those that clicked on the survey saw it described as “a confidential research study about the sexual experiences of women.” It was expected to take about 10 minutes, and it "was suggested that participants may want to take the survey in a private space to feel more 'comfortable answering questions about this personal topic.'"
"…1,055 (88% of those who clicked the link to read about the study; 43.7% of those in the initial sample frame) completed the survey."
MEASURES
Background variables
[ME: From my understanding (and some of the language isn’t clear about how the 2 studies relate) all the intercourse related questions and the questions related to whether some orgasms feel better than others are created by the main author, Dr. Debby Herbenick from the Kinsey Institute, and her team. All the other questions (largely related to genital stimulation preference) were created by Herbenick’s team, with input from 2 people at OMGyes, and informed by previously done informal 10-40 minute video chat interviews with 1,000 women, conducted by the people at OMGYes.]
The online survey-takers from the GfK Knowledge Panel answered all these in an approximately 10 minute session. The GfK Knowledge Panel already had age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, and region data for their survey takers. The only additional questions asked for this survey were about sexual orientation, relationship status, and gender of relationship partner.
Orgasms during intercourse
Women were first asked "how recently they had engaged in receptive oral sex, vaginal intercourse, or receiving genital touching (in the past month, in the past year, more than a year ago, or never)."
"Prior to seeing subsequent questions about genital stimulation, participants saw the following: 'Some of the next questions will ask about certain ways of touching your vulva (the outside parts of your genitals) and vagina (the birth canal). To make sure we’re using the same words for the same parts, here is a diagram showing what we mean.' Below this text was a full-color medical illustration of a vulva with the clitoris, clitoral hood, vaginal entrance, and other main parts labeled."
Here are the intercourse questions that followed:
For those that have had any vaginal intercourse during their life, the question: "Which of the following best describes your experience with orgasm and penile-vaginal intercourse?"
Response options included:
(a) I need my clitoris to be stimulated in order to have an orgasm during intercourse,
(b) Although I don't need my clitoris to be stimulated in order to have an orgasm during intercourse, my orgasms feel better if my clitoris is stimulated during intercourse,
[ME: Outside of all the problems related to bias in this questions that were discussed above in the ‘Major Criticisms’ section. It is also just worded strangely to us. What is the real purpose of this question? Is it to allow women to acknowledge the importance of their clitoris to their orgasm, without forcing them to also acknowledge that they cannot come just from getting banged (i.e acknowledge a stigmatized behavior)?...maybe a path for answering in a 'normal' way, without really lying? Can you imagine asking men if they NEED penile stimulation to come, and giving them a response option of “I don’t need penile stimulation, but it makes my orgasm feel better.” How many men would think that question even makes sense? Would coming without penile stimulation be the implied most desirable of the response options?]
(c) Vaginal penetration alone is enough to help me have an orgasm (I don't need my clitoris to be stimulated in order to have an orgasm),
[ME: Again, we criticize the bias in this wording above. But also, this answer honestly sounds like a boast: ‘I can do it the right way - without cheating by ‘needing’ anything extra! And, for a survey question about a culturally stigmatized situation (not being able to come during intercourse), that wording seems incredibly leading. Also, there’s a complete lack of discussion anywhere in this study about these answers possibly being more or less culturally desirable. There is no discussion of how that might affect results or how to counteract respondents answering how the think they should be answering, which is a basic and super important element of survey design.]
d) N/A—I don’t have orgasms during intercourse.
[ME: Again, why was it necessary to put the N/A in front of this. It could easily make this feel like an answer that is, ya know, not available -sort of an invalid answer to this question EVEN THOUGH THE CONSENSUS OF PAST SURVEYS POINTS TO THIS BEING THE MOST COMMON ANSWER. The research team could have just dropped this answer later if that makes most sense for their analysis - without marking it ‘N/A’ and infusing it with potentially undesirable feelings related to answering that way. Overall, it would have been nice if the research team could have gone about this question in a more neutral and unbiased way, for instance; the survey could have started with something like, ‘how do you have orgasms?’ and include all possible answers that are relevant from past research, and if intercourse is selected, it should ask how, with a complete set of answers that seem possible from past research.]
For those that had intercourse in the past year, they were asked:
“Thinking about the past year: Overall, how often did you have an orgasm during ‘regular’ penile vaginal intercourse—that is, without you or your partner doing anything extra to touch or stimulate your clitoris during intercourse?”
and
“Thinking about the past year: Overall, how often did you have an orgasm during penile-vaginal intercourse that involves clitoral stimulation—that is, you or your partner touched or stimulated your clitoris while you were having intercourse?”
Response options were:
never
less than 25% of the time
25–49% of the time
about 50% of the time
51–75% of the time
more than 75% of the time
always
does not apply (I haven’t had penile vaginal intercourse in the past year)
does not apply (In the past year, my partner and I always stimulated my clitoris during intercourse/In the past year, my partner and I never stimulated my clitoris during intercourse; respectively)
Orgasm quality
This section in its entirety:
"Respondents were asked, 'Thinking about your entire life, would you say' and the response options were. Some orgasms feel better than others, All orgasms feel pretty much the same, I don’t know/I haven’t had enough to know. Those who indicated that some orgasms feel better than others were asked how old they were when they first realized this. They were also asked, “For you, what do you think helps some orgasms feel better than others?” with 11 response options and the opportunity to select more than one."
Genital touching
From here on, these are the questions informed by the OMGYes informal 10-40 minute video chat interviews with 1,000 women.
For women who had experienced genital touching in their life, they were asked:
Quoted directly from the article:
“When it comes to vulva/vagina touching, do you prefer …” (options: "Being touched very lightly, Pressure that glides over your genital skin, Medium pressure that actually moves your genital skin, Firm pressure that pushes deep into your genital skin, N/A—All pressures feel equally good, Something else (please describe).”
Respondents were subsequently asked about their preferences related to shape or style of genital stimulation: “When it comes to vulva/vagina touching, do you prefer fingers, hands, mouth, or tongue to touch you with a motion that’s …” with 12 response options (plus an “other”) and the ability to choose all that applied. Options were as follows: side to side, up and down, diagonal, circular, tall ovals, wide ovals, pushing/pressing in one spot, pulsating/rapid pushing in one spot, squeezing/pinching, pulling, flicking, tapping, or other. A composite variable was created that summed their responses (possible range of 0 to 12 preferred styles of touch).
Another item asked, “When you or your partner use fingers/hands/mouths/tongues, where primarily do you prefer your genitals to be touched?” with the ability to choose all that applied. Options were as follows: directly on clitoris, on the skin around clitoris (e.g., either side of your clitoris or above or below it), avoid touching clitoris directly, occasionally brushing over clitoris but not applying pressure to it, on vaginal lips (labia minora or labia majora), on the mons (the pubic mound; the triangular part where pubic hair grows), something else, please describe.
Finally, women were asked, “Thinking about your whole life, and as best as you can remember, what are some of the most pleasurable ways a partner has touched your vagina/vulva?” There were 15 response options presented in a randomized order, and respondents could select all that applied. Those who reported indirect clitoral stimulation as pleasurable were then asked, “When you touch your clitoris indirectly, do you touch your clitoris …?” with the ability to choose all that applied: through the skin above the hood, through the skin on the left side of your clitoris, through the skin on the right side of your clitoris, through both lips pushed together like a sandwich. Those who reported delaying orgasm as pleasurable were asked, “How has your partner delayed your orgasm?” with the ability to select more than one from the following responses: stopping all stimulation before starting again, going back to less intense motions, slowing down, touching less sensitive areas, or other. Those who reported multiple orgasms with a partner were asked, “What feels best for you right after the first orgasm?”— going back to earlier motions (less sensitive areas/possibly slower) right after the first orgasm and then rebuilding; keeping the exact same motion going to a second orgasm; touches that are different from what felt best to achieve the first orgasm (check all that apply).
[ME: I do notice that there is not an option for something like ‘inside the vaginal canal’ in the answer options for the location that respondents prefer their partners to stimulate with their fingers/hands/mouths/tongues. My assumption, based on context in the paper, is that the answer options reflected the understanding gained in the OMGYes long-form interviews, and thus something like ‘inside vaginal canal’ was such a small possibility of an answer based on those 1,000 interviews, that it could be encompassed in the option to say 'other' and write in an answer. The authors don’t specifically discuss that. It is my assumption, but it’s grounded in sensible reasoning and understanding of past data on this topic. The Hite Report, for instance, is one of the most relevant and largest surveys about specific preferences around genital pleasure, masturbation, and orgasm, and it asks open ended questions. Only 1.5% of women masturbated using vaginal penetration and over half of those stimulated their clitoris first - which indicates vaginal canal stimulation is a distinctly (and maybe surprisingly) uncommon preference. So, these questions, overall, seem so much more thorough - knowing that they were formed after understanding what women described as pleasurable in long-form interviews, also because they align with knowledge from past related studies. The questions seem more straight forward with less language insinuating what is normal, and there is almost always an option to say 'other' and write in an answer, which creates some flexibility to capture options that may not have been understood when writing the questions. These questions feel very different from the intercourse questions, which does make sense given they seem to have been created by different people stemming from different background research.]
Statistical analysis
They analyzed the data using IBM SPSS Version 24.0 (in case you're interested).
"For the item about orgasm during penile-vaginal intercourse (without clitoral stimulation), 1.2% (n = 8) of women indicated no penile-vaginal intercourse in the past year and an additional 3.4% (n = 23) indicated that they or their partner had always stimulated their clitoris during intercourse, and thus the item did not apply. Those indicating “does not apply” (for either reason) were excluded from sub sequent analysis of these items. Similarly, for the item related to orgasm during penile-vaginal intercourse with clitoral stimulation, 1.4% (n = 9) indicated no penile-vaginal intercourse in the past year and an additional 3.2% (n = 21) indicated that the question was not applicable because they or their partner never stimulated their clitoris. Again, those indicating “does not apply” (for either reason) were excluded from subsequent analysis of these items."
RESULTS
Respondents
Age range 19-94; most hetero, over 1/2 married
2/3 reports partnered sex in last year
64% (667 people) had vaginal intercourse
51.1% (523 people) received oral sex
67.2% (693 people) had a partner touch their vulva/vagina
Orgasm during intercourse
Of intercourse-experienced people:
36.6% (347 people) needed clitoral stimulation in order to orgasm during intercourse
36% (341 people) did not require clitoral stimulation for orgasm during intercourse, adding it enhanced orgasm
18.4% (174 people) reported that vaginal penetration alone during intercourse was sufficient for orgasm.
7.5%, (71 people) did not have orgasms during intercourse
2.5% described other patterns or routines (e.g., clitoral stimulation prior to intercourse, orgasm via cunnilingus followed by intercourse, etc.).
Of people experiencing vaginal intercourse in the past year (Table 2 below):
29% of women (184 people) reported experiencing orgasm at least 75% of the time during penile-vaginal intercourse without any additional clitoral stimulation,
43% (272 people) reported experiencing orgasm at least 75% of the time during penile-vaginal intercourse with additional clitoral stimulation
from Women's Experiences With Genital Touching, Sexual Pleasure, and Orgasm: Results From a U.S. Probability Sample of Women Ages 18 to 94. Debby Herbenick, Tsung-Chieh Jane Fu, Jennifer Arter, Stephanie A Sanders, Brian Dodge. J Sex Marital Ther. 44(2), (Feb 2017), pp. 201-212.
Regarding orgasm quality:
77.5% (795 people) indicated that some orgasms feel better than others
10.8% (111 people) reported that all orgasms feel pretty much the same
11.7% (120 people) selected “I don’t know, I haven’t had enough to know.”
Of those who felt that some orgasms feel better than others:
The mean age at first realizing this was 24.6 (SD = 7.7, range = 10 to 68)
Location, pressure, shapes, and styles of genital touch
There was considerable diversity overall.
Location:
2/3 preferred direct clitoral stimulation
Also common to prefer stimulations to the sides or the top of the clit, brushing over the clit without much pressure and labia stimulation
Less than 10% preferred mons touching (basically where the pubic hair is above the clit)
5% preferred avoiding the clit
Shapes:
Most common: up and down 63.7% (608 people)
2nd most common: circular 51.6 (493 people)
Almost 1/3 had preference for side to side touch
41% endorsed only 1 style
15.1% preferred 2 styles
16% preferred 3 styles
1.9% endorsed all 12 styles
from Women's Experiences With Genital Touching, Sexual Pleasure, and Orgasm: Results From a U.S. Probability Sample of Women Ages 18 to 94. Debby Herbenick, Tsung-Chieh Jane Fu, Jennifer Arter, Stephanie A Sanders, Brian Dodge. J Sex Marital Ther. 44(2), (Feb 2017), pp. 201-212.
Pressure:
Most preferred light or medium pressure on their vulvas
10.7% preferred firm
15.9% said all pressures felt good
Styles:
The 4 most common styles were endorsed by over 3/4 of the respondents; rhythmic motion, a motion that circles around the clit, switching between different motions, switching between more and less intense touch
Of the 2/3 that liked indirect clitoral stimulation:
69.1% - liked touching "through the skin above the hood"
28.8% liked "through both lips pushed together (like a sandwich)"
20.2% "through the skin on the right side of the clitoris"
19.2% - "though the skin on the left side of the clitoris"
Of the 2/3 that reported delaying orgasm as a pleasure technique:
64.4% - stopped all stimulation before restarting
63.8% - partners touched less sensitive areas
51.6% - partners had gone back to less intense motions
29.9% partner had slowed down
Of the 47% reporting multiple orgasms, they said what felt best after their first orgasm was:
33.5% continue with same stimulation
53.3% returning to earlier kind of stimulation to rebuild
32.8% a completely different stimulation than used for first orgasm
DISCUSSION
There were certainly some ways of genital touching that were preferred more often, but overall most women endorsed a narrow range of touch techniques for themselves, which underscores a need for partner communication.
Using the 4 dimensions of location, pressure, shape/style, and patterns for genital touch may be useful for both women themselves and for therapists and educators to use in better communications and understanding.
"Considerable variation was found in the patterns of touching women preferred, with 13 of the 15 different patterns of stimulation during partnered genital touch endorsed by the majority of respondents."
"although many women can experience orgasm from penetration alone (without additional clitoral stimulation), over half do so infrequently. Specifically, more than half reported orgasm 50% of the time or less without clitoral stimulation. It is unclear if this finding is due to orgasm simply happening infrequently for those women, partner variables, duration of intercourse, or other reasons. In contrast, our results showed that when clitoral stimulation is added to intercourse, more women reported experiencing orgasm more frequently, with more than 40% reporting experiencing orgasm more than 75% of the time" [Me: What a surprise! Did we really need to survey a national sample of women to “discover” that the clitoris is the trigger of female orgasm?? What’s next? Might we find men orgasm more frequently when their penis stimulated?]
77.5% said some orgasms feel better than others
39% said "adding clitoral stimulation to penetration made their orgasms feel better"
However, even larger proportions of women attributed better orgasms to spending time building arousal, partner familiarity, and emotional intimacy
Less than 1 in 5 reported that "sex that lasts longer" made orgasms better
3/4 of women said clitoral stimulation during intercourse either made their orgasm feel better or was necessary for orgasm.
"These results indicate that, for many women, clitoral stimulation during penetration is impactful on orgasm frequency, quality, or both, which has implications for assisting couples who seek advice on improving their sex life, given the importance of orgasm consistency in overall sexual satisfaction"
[ME: I mean, that last one is what I'm talking about. I do imagine Dr. Herbenick and her team feel like they are giving some helpful advice here about more clitoral stimulation being good, and I agree, it is. However, if you really think about it, it’s absolutely bonkers it has to be said, and really does more harm than good because the way they say it insinuates that needing clitoral stimulation to orgasm is not obvious. It’s common to speak this way, though. If you follow the sexology literature, it’s amazing how many studies come up with findings like, ‘clitoral stimulation is associated with female orgasm,’ or ‘makes orgasm more likely during a sexual encounter,’ or ‘the data suggest that clitoral stimulation has a role in female orgasm’...as if this is not something that is totally KNOWN. It's like telling men that penile stimulation during ball rubbing is impactful on orgasm frequency, quality, or both. Like…DUH.
Do these professional sexual researchers, many from the Kinsey Institute, not hear what they are saying? I mean, the truth is that likely they don’t. The current educated, progressive paradigm of sex research/education/advise involves an unwavering belief that it is a known fact some women are able to have orgasms attained though stimulation inside the vaginal canal. If pressed, they couldn’t tell you the actual mechanism for this orgasm or even one study where the muscular reactions of orgasm have ever been recorded from this kind of stimulation, but the belief is strong, and the way they speak and the research they do reflects that. It feels hard to critique sometimes because it is so deeply embedded in the culture, but make no mistake, the paradigm of sexual scholarship is deeply flawed because of this, and one day the cracks will become obvious.]
STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS
Strengths:
They used a survey sample that was largely representative of the U.S with experienced survey takers
The survey was done on the internet which might allow more privacy for answering sensitive topics
They showed a diagram to help ensure the respondents understood the genital words they were using
Weaknesses:
It focused only on women. There was not an ask of these questions from the women's partner's perspective
Men were not surveyed with similar questions to help with couple therapy information
There is still some limitation on getting a representative pool of respondents because people self-chose whether to take the survey. Also those experiencing homelessness couldn't be involved
Some of the respondents may have never tried some of the genital touching techniques that were offered as responses
[ME: I mean, I think they forgot, in the ‘weaknesses’ section all the bias associated with surveying women about orgasm and in their chosen intercourse orgasm question wording that I described up in the Major Criticisms section, but what can ya do?]
The article ends with this "Above all, this work illustrates that many different ways of giving pleasure and reaching orgasm are common, and this knowledge may aid clinicians in helping clients foster greater sexual pleasure and satisfaction in their lives, as well as expanding couple communication."
