THE UK’S BIGGEST EVER NATIONAL ORGASM SURVEY
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THE UK’S BIGGEST EVER NATIONAL ORGASM SURVEY |
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To celebrate National Orgasm Day on 31 July 2008, Pelvic Toner and Scarlet magazine conducted the UK’s biggest and most comprehensive female orgasm survey ever, with over 2000 women sharing their most intimate secrets… Key Findings • Nearly half of all women are not getting their share of orgasms! • The G-spot is not a myth – 75% of women claim to have one. And women who don’t think they have a G-spot rarely orgasm • Women who claim to have a good pelvic floor have twice as many orgasms as those who don’t • Women who undertake regular pelvic floor exercises using a resistance device reported a much improved sex life within 4 weeks Survey results • 72% of women say they are aware of their G-spot but its location varies significantly! • 50% place the G-spot just inside their vagina while 35% say it’s deep inside. The remaining 15% locate it elsewhere! • 46% never or rarely achieve vaginal orgasm during penetrative sex • Only 31% claim to do so often or always • 36% never or rarely achieve clitoral orgasm during penetrative sex, but 85% often or always achieve clitoral orgasm by self-stimulation • 69% are aware that pelvic floor muscle tone is implicated in the ability to achieve orgasm, but 12% rate their pelvic floor as poor or very poor • 70% of women claim to exercise their pelvic muscles sometimes or often, but 92% would like to be shown how to exercise properly • Those women who rate their pelvic floor as good or very good, or who exercise regularly, are twice as likely to achieve vaginal orgasms as those that rate their pelvic floor as poor or very poor (42% versus 22%) • There’s a similar pattern with clitoral orgasms but it’s slightly less marked • Two thirds of women who rate their pelvic floor as poor or very poor never or rarely have vaginal orgasms • 42% of women using the Pelvic Toner said they became more aware of their pelvic floor immediately, rising to 85% within 2 weeks • 62% of women using the Pelvic Toner reported an improved sex life within 2 weeks rising to 82% after 4 weeks • 62% said that their partner noticed the improvement in muscle tone and tightness Comments from survey respondents • “Until I bought a vibrator I had never had an orgasm of any kind. At the grand old age of 43 it came as quite a shock!” • “I’ve recently discovered G-spot vaginal orgasms with my husband stimulating the area with his fingers and have been experimenting with the clitoral orgasm alongside G-spot vaginal stimulation. This exercise is enjoyable and also I believe keeps my muscles in shape.” • “My pelvic floor muscles were excellent plus prior to childbirth. I’m aware of lack of strength. What I don’t understand is how 12 hours of labour can ruin muscle tone, which had been in excellent condition for the twenty years prior to childbirth. It seems disproportionate and unfair.” • “Just to say that in my experience the frequency and quality of vaginal orgasms is very much linked to your partner! I consider myself very lucky now, and if I had been counting and rating orgasms more than five years ago it would have been a very different story!” • “I’m having the best sex and more orgasms since I got past 40. I’m comfortable in my body, with my partner and my libido has gone through the roof!” • “I can bring myself to vaginal orgasm by pelvic floor exercises.” • “I’ve enjoyed sex for years with a variety of enthusiastic and skilled partners and never had an orgasm.” • “I always achieve clitoral orgasm through stimulation by my husband. I do not believe that there is a ‘G-spot’.” • “I’m lucky that I have multiple orgasms even at my age. This could be due to my taking HRT. My partner and I have a very good sexual relationship and we are both pensioners.” • “To be honest I’m not really sure what the difference is between the two types of orgasm. I just know that I reach orgasm easily.” • “Learn to belly dance! That’s the best way to tighten those PC muscles!” Why an Orgasm Survey There has never been a detailed survey asking women what type of orgasms they experience. While many women experience, and can easily distinguish between, clitoral and vaginal (or G-spot) orgasms, there are still many women, commentators and doctors who deny the very existence of the G-spot and a distinct vaginal orgasm. In 1966 Masters and Johnson used direct observation of 382 women and dispelled the existence of a distinct vaginal orgasm. Studies over 50 years have estimated that between 50% and 90% of women have never experienced a vaginal orgasm. Early in 2008 Prof Emmanuelle Jannini reported that women had to have detectable signs of a G-spot (using ultrasound) to be able to achieve a vaginal orgasm. It has been known for nearly 60 years, but rarely publicised, that the condition of the pelvic floor muscle is a key indicator in the ability to achieve vaginal orgasm. Arnold Kegel, of the eponymous exercise routine, published a 3000 patient study in 1952 that highlighting this link and demonstrated that ‘sexually dysfunctional’ women taught a resistive exercise programme could achieve orgasm for the first time. Demonstrating and publicising the link between a healthy and strong pelvic floor and better sex will improve the general health and sexual wellbeing of millions of women, restore millions of relationships, and reduce the incidence of stress incontinence which afflicts half of all women. The PelvicToner™ is a progressive resistance vaginal exerciser designed to help women meet the fundamentals of Kegel exercise (ie to identify and isolate the vaginal (pubococcygeal) muscle and then to exercise it properly against a variable resistance with the appropriate bio-feedback). “Dr Arnold Kegel reported a landmark study in 1952 linking sexual satisfaction for women and the muscle tone of their pelvic floor. In many ways, we have failed women ever since by not telling them how to do these exercises correctly. The secret – as identified by Kegel – is to improve muscle tone by exercising against resistance. People understand that to improve muscle it’s no good just lifting our arms in the air, no matter how many repetitions we do. We have to introduce some form of resistance to get good results, and it’s the same with pelvic floor exercise. Encouraging women to squeeze repeatedly when sat on the bus or to use devices that do not offer resistance, means many women are wasting their time and increasing their sense of frustration.” Dr Sarah Brewer, GP and sexual health expert “It’s 60 years since Arnold Kegel proposed pelvic floor exercises as a treatment for stress incontinence but a simple, effective method of putting all his principles into practice has eluded us. The PelvicToner seems to meet all the requirements that Kegel envisaged - it is a simple, patient-friendly, progressive resistance exercise device and provides feedback to the patient that the correct muscles are being engaged.” Paul Abrams, Professor of Urology at the Bristol Urological Institute Notes to the editor: The National Orgasm Survey is ongoing at orgasmsurvey.co.uk The Pelvic Toner costs £29.99 from www.iwabo.co.uk or 0117 968 7744 The 2008 Orgasm Survey is sponsored by Scarlet Magazine and SPM Ltd, manufacturers of the PelvicToner™ To download this press release as a pdf click here For more information and interviews contact Sarah Hedley 020 8785 5603 [email protected] Barry Fowler 0117 968 0171 or 07768 233 670 [email protected] Barry Fowler Press statement - click here What is a Vaginal orgasm (with thanks to Wikipedia and others) The female body can achieve orgasm from stimulation of the clitoris and from stimulation of the G-spot. The Gräfenberg spot, or G-spot, is a small area behind the female pubic bone surrounding the urethra and accessible through the anterior wall of the vagina. Many scientists, including Prof Emmanuelle Jannini (2008) believe that only certain women possess a G-spot. The G-spot orgasm is sometimes referred to as "vaginal," because it results from stimulation inside the vagina, including during sexual intercourse. However, only stimulation of the G-spot, and not other intravaginal stimulation, results in a "vaginal orgasm." The "two-orgasm theory" (the belief that in women there is a vaginal orgasm and a clitoral orgasm), has been criticized by feminists such as Ellen Ross and Rayna Rapp as a "transparently male perception of the female body". The concept of purely vaginal orgasm was first postulated by Sigmund Freud. In 1905, Freud argued that clitoral orgasm was an adolescent phenomenon, and upon reaching puberty the proper response of mature women changes to vaginal orgasms. While Freud provided no evidence for this basic assumption, the consequences of the theory were greatly elaborated, partly because many women felt inadequate when they could not achieve orgasm via vaginal intercourse that involved little or no clitoral stimulation. Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues at Indiana University published two volumes on sexual behavior in the human male and female in 1948 and 1953, respectively (known as the Kinsey Reports), both of which had been revolutionary and controversial in their time. Kinsey's work however, mainly investigated the frequency with which certain behaviors occurred in the population and was based on personal interviews, not on laboratory observation. In contrast, Masters and Johnson set about to study the structure, psychology and physiology of sexual behaviour, through observing and measuring masturbation and sexual intercourse in the laboratory. In 1966, Masters and Johnson published pivotal research about the phases of sexual stimulation. Their work included women and men, and unlike Alfred Kinsey, tried to determine the physiological stages before and after orgasm. One of the results was the promotion of the idea that vaginal and clitoral orgasms follow the same stages of physical response. Masters and Johnson also argued that clitoral stimulation is the primary source of orgasms. In the initial phase of their studies, from 1957 until 1965, Masters and Johnson recorded some of the first laboratory data on the anatomy and physiology of human sexual response based on direct observation of 382 women and 312 men in what they conservatively estimated to be "10,000 complete cycles of sexual response." Their findings, particularly on the nature of female sexual arousal (for example, describing the mechanisms of vaginal lubrication and debunking the earlier widely-held notion that vaginal lubrication originated from the cervix) and orgasm (showing that the physiology of orgasmic response was identical whether stimulation was clitoral or vaginal, and proving that some women were capable of being multi-orgasmic), dispelled many long standing misconceptions. In 2000 Hugo Mialon carried out an Orgasm Survey of students at the University of Texas as part of his doctoral thesis in economics! He was trying to find out how much people lie and whether their lies can be detected – so he asked about faking orgasm. He found that 72% of women had faked at least once in their current or most recent relationship, and 55 percent of men say they can tell when their partner's faking. The obvious reason to fake is to please your partner and he concluded that women are more likely to fake when they're in love, and that this effect is magnified when women are far from the age of 30. The survey also revealed that highly educated women are the most likely to fake their orgasms. And yes, some men fake orgasms too - 24% of them, according to Mialon In 2006 Juliet Richters and her colleagues in Australia published an analysis of nearly 20,000 telephone interviews carried out in Australia during 2001 and 2002 (Journal of Sex Research Sexual practices at last heterosexual encounter). They reported that "Satisfaction (with sex) was directly connected to sexual assertiveness, frequent sex, using many techniques, and orgasm. A woman was significantly less likely to have had an orgasm if she was 16-19 or 50-59. She was significantly more likely to have had an orgasm if she spoke English at home, had completed post-secondary education, had a higher household income and had a managerial/professional occupation. Orgasm was least likely if the only reported practice was vaginal intercourse." She quoted that at the last sexual encounter orgasm was experienced by 94.8% of men and 68.9% of women, but she didn't initially distinguish between a vaginal orgasm or clitoral orgasm brought about by manual or oral stimulation. She subsequently says "Orgasm was least likely (50%) among women whose only reported practice was vaginal intercourse. Rates were higher (around 70%) among those who had intercourse plus manual stimulation, or intercourse plus cunnilingus. Medline Plus - The US Government website quotes: Orgasmic dysfunction is an inhibition of the orgasmic phase of the sexual response cycle. The condition is referred to as primary when the female has never experienced orgasm through any means of stimulation. The problem is called secondary if the woman has attained orgasm in the past but is currently nonorgasmic. Primary orgasmic dysfunction, wherein the woman has never experienced an orgasm, appears to characterize about 10% to 15% of women. Surveys generally suggest that somewhere between 33% to 50% of women experience orgasm infrequently and are dissatisfied with how often they reach orgasm. Performance anxiety is believed to be the most common psychological cause of orgasm problems. A Redbook survey showed that 52% of women regularly fake orgasms. Only 17% are likely to have an orgasm during sexual intercourse, because the clitoris often is not stimulated enough by intercourse alone. 43% of women report “some kind of sexual problem,” such as inability to achieve orgasm, boredom with sex, or total lack of interest in sex. Redbook (formerly The Red Book Magazine) is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. The 2007 Durex Global Sex Survey compared various aspects of sex from around the globe and found that women climaxed less than men, with 32 percent saying they reached the peak every time they had sex, compared with 63 percent of men. It did not distinguish the type of orgasm.
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