Women Are Less Likely to Orgasm during Casual Sex

Recent studies suggest that women are less likely to experience orgasm during casual sex than they are from sex with a committed partner. In a piece for the New York Times, Natalie Kitroeff describes findings:

Research involving 600 college students led by Justin R. Garcia, an evolutionary biologist at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, and researchers at Binghamton University, found that women were twice as likely to reach orgasm from intercourse or oral sex in serious relationships as in hookups. The paper was presented at the annual meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research and at the Annual Convention for Psychological Science this year.

Similarly, a study of 24,000 students at 21 colleges over five years found that about 40 percent of women had an orgasm during their last hookup involving intercourse, while 80 percent of men did. The research was led by Paula England, a sociologist at New York University who studies the dynamics of casual sex. By contrast, roughly three quarters of women in the survey said they had an orgasm the last time they had sex in a committed relationship.

For her part, England believes that orgasm is easier to achieve with practice, hence the higher orgasm success rate for women in relationships. Another possible reason is that people are less likely to communicate needs to one another during a casual encounter. Another factor is that no one is taught about sex in terms of pleasure — sexual education, where it exists, focuses only on the possible detrimental consequences of unprotected sex. Another issue is alcohol, present in so many casual encounters as a social lubricant, and its ability to impair physical response. And yet another factor is the possible negative impact of hormone-based birth-control on sexual desire.

But the fact remains that few women experience orgasm through vaginal penetration, regardless of their relationship status with a sex partner. A review of 32 different studies by Elisabeth Lloyd, a professor of the history and philosophy of science at Indiana University, found that the number of women who get off from vaginal penetration alone is roughly 25 percent. A third of women rarely or never experience orgasms from vaginal penetration alone.

Of course, sexual satisfaction isn’t just a matter of orgasm. There are many aspects to pleasure during a sexual encounter, a fact recognized by the Kinsey Institute’s Quality of Sexual Experience (QSE) scale. That doesn’t mean we should sweep all this under the rug. One of the most important things about being a sex writer is working to normalize desire, sex and pleasure so that people have one less hurdle to cross on their way to sexual fulfillment. It is my sincerest hope that doing so will help people feel more comfortable, more willing to communicate with one another regardless of their relationship status with their partners, and more willing to experiment in their own lives so that they can have the kind of sexual fulfillment that they need.

Even if you don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, consider how you might bring your sex life that much closer to being a true reflection of what you crave.

Additionally, there’s this.

Header image by Lies Thru A Lens.