{"id":9091,"date":"2016-06-07T00:22:33","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T00:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/?p=9091"},"modified":"2018-11-25T22:02:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T22:02:11","slug":"female-anatomy-the-key-to-orgasm-researchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/current-health-news\/female-anatomy-the-key-to-orgasm-researchers-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Anatomy the Key to Orgasm, Researchers Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

R<\/span>esearchers have found that both the location and size of the clitoris help to determine whether or not women will experience orgasm during intercourse. For those who rarely experience orgasm during penetrative sex, a little extra effort may be needed to achieve a climax.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of all women are unable to achieve orgasm with penetration alone during sexual intercourse. And, according to a recent review of scientific evidence, a slight variation in anatomical development makes all the difference between those women who can’t and the lucky few who can.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the neurology department of Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, concluded that a woman’s ability to achieve orgasm hinges on prenatal anatomical development. Their findings were based on a review of scientific literature covering sexual anatomy and neuroanatomy.<\/p>\n

Location of Clitoris Is Key<\/h3>\n

The anatomic key to orgasm, say the researchers, is the location of the clitoris relative to the urethral meatus, or urinary opening, physical features that develop while the female fetus is still in the womb. The researchers, whose study was published in the July 2016 issue of\u00a0\u00a0Clinical Anatomy<\/em>,<\/a> say that a woman whose clitoris is located 2.5 centimeters (just under an inch) or less away from the urinary opening has a good chance of achieving orgasm with penetration during sexual intercourse.<\/p>\n

In an article posted at HealthDay.com<\/a>, writer Dennis Thompson interviews Elisabeth Lloyd, an affiliated faculty scholar at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, which is based at Indiana University in Bloomington. Although she was not involved in the review, Lloyd underscores the importance of clitoral location in reliably predicting whether a woman can achieve orgasm with penetration alone.<\/p>\n

\"Anatomy
Researchers believe that women and their partners should be aware of the role anatomy plays in orgasm so that they can make changes in their lovemaking routine accordingly.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Strong Correlation Noted<\/h3>\n

According to Lloyd, the correlation between clitoral location and a woman’s ability to orgasm is so strong “that if you give us a woman who has a distance of 3 centimeters, we can very reliably predict she won’t have orgasm with intercourse.” She suggests that women — alone or with the help of their partner — take this measurement “to help explain their own sexual experience.”<\/p>\n

<\/i>In her interview with Thompson, Lloyd acknowledges that other factors — penis size, intensity of desire, and the skill of one’s partner — can have some effect, “but it really is the anatomical distance that seems to be predictive.”<\/p>\n

Lloyd explains that exposure to male hormones in the womb determines the degree to which the clitoris drifts up and away from the urinary opening during gestation. If a female fetus is exposed to high levels of androgen, “the clitoral bud migrates far away,” says Lloyd. And the farther the clitoral bud lies from the urethral opening, the more difficult it will be for the adult woman to achieve orgasm with penetration alone.<\/p>\n

May Change Thinking<\/h3>\n

The review’s findings, says co-author Elizabeth Emhardt, may bring a change in the way sexual experiences are evaluated, pointing out that traditionally such experiences were thought to be within the individual’s control based on her attitude. “What if variations in sexual anatomy actually set the foundation for differences in sexual experience, and we aren’t in control of our sexual experiences as much as we once thought?”<\/p>\n

Emhardt and her colleagues undertook their ambitious review in an effort to better understand why some people experience orgasms more successfully than others. The process in men seems to depend upon his nervous system — a man’s penis, spinal cord, and brain need to be sending and receiving the right signals. For a woman, however, physical anatomy appears to dictate the likelihood that she will achieve orgasm.<\/p>\n

For his article at HealthDay.com, Thompson also spoke to Maureen Whelihan, M.D., a Florida-based obstetrician-gynecologist. Although not a participant in the review, Whelihan concurs with its findings and expresses empathy for those women whose sexual anatomy makes it difficult or even impossible for them to achieve orgasm. For such women, traditional lovemaking doesn’t provide sufficient friction to stimulate the clitoris.<\/p>\n

Put Woman on Top<\/h3>\n

Whelihan and Lloyd both agree that women facing this anatomical challenge — and their partners — need to focus more on clitoral stimulation during sexual activity. Intercourse with the woman on top may allow sufficient stimulation to her clitoris to achieve orgasm, says Whelihan. Alternatively, couples should choose a sexual position that allows either the man or the woman to stimulate the clitoris with either a finger or a sex toy.<\/p>\n

<\/i>Another strong supporter of the woman-on-top position for sexual intercourse is sex therapist Ian Kerner, author of She Comes First: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pleasuring a Woman<\/em>. In an interview with WomensHealth<\/a>, Kerner explains that such a position allows the woman to control the angle and speed of the thrusts. He recommends that women try a back-and-forth motion that allows the clitoris to rub against their partners’ abdomen, maximizing clitoral stimulation and increasing the chances for orgasm.<\/p>\n

\"Anatomy
For women who are anatomically challenged when it comes to orgasm, having intercourse with the woman on top may increase the chances for success.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is There Really a G-Spot?<\/h3>\n

Clinical Anatomy<\/em>‘s evidence review also calls into question the very existence of the so-called G-spot, purportedly an erogenous area of the vagina that heightens sexual arousal when stimulated. Whelihan notes that many sex experts seriously question its existence. She went on to say that if such a spot exists at all, “then it only exists in a few women.”<\/p>\n

Lloyd tells Thompson that couples should bear in mind that having an orgasm in intercourse isn’t essential for a woman to have a healthy and fulfilling sex life. That sort of thinking, says Lloyd, may be traditional, but it’s also very problematic. “We’ve learned in our research there are so many women who do not have orgasm with intercourse on a regular basis.” To imply that orgasm is an essential component of healthy sexual intercourse “kind of stacks the deck against these women who, because of their anatomy, cannot have orgasm with intercourse.”<\/p>\n

Earlier Study’s Findings<\/h3>\n

This recent review of scientific literature echoes many of the findings from a small-scale study published in a 2014 issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine<\/em>. One of the study’s co-authors, Susan Oakley, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist at Cincinnati’s Good Samaritan Hospital, notes that both clitoral location and size seem to play a key role in female orgasm.<\/p>\n

The study on which Oakley worked used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the pelvic areas of 30 women with an average age of 32. Of the 30 study participants, 10 reported that they rarely or never experienced orgasm during intercourse, while the rest reported fairly normal orgasmic response. Researchers found that the women with orgasm problems had clitorises located an average of 5 to 6 millimeters (0.2 to 0.24 inch) farther from the vaginal opening than those with normal orgasmic response. The women with orgasm problems also had clitorises that were smaller than those of the women with normal orgasmic response.<\/p>\n

If you’d like to read additional articles about sexual dysfunction in both men and women and other topics of interest to health consumers, check out our blog<\/a>.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers have found that both the location and size of the clitoris help to determine whether or not women will experience orgasm during intercourse. For those who rarely experience orgasm during penetrative sex, a little extra effort may be needed to achieve a climax. Somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of all women are unable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-health-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t