Orgasms are just as important to a woman’s health as using dental floss. You want to experience them to their fullest, but you can’t do that unless you’re in the know about what exactly a female orgasm is, how you reach your climax, and what happens to your body when it experiences one.
So now’s the time to expand your knowledge. This is everything you ever wanted to know about an orgasm, and hopefully your next sexual experience will be your best one yet.
The orgasm is widely regarded as the peak of sexual excitement. It is a powerful feeling of physical pleasure and sensation, which includes a discharge of accumulated erotic tension.
Many women — about one out of three — have trouble reaching orgasm when having sex with a partner. Most women experience orgasm through clitoral stimulation rather than through vaginal penetration.
So if a woman is having difficulty reaching orgasm, she may want to try clitoral stimulation during, before, or after vaginal intercourse or oral sex. Her clitoris can be stimulated orally, manually, or with a sex toy such as a vibrator.
Most women who reach orgasm with a partner have also experienced an orgasm from masturbation. Women who have never had an orgasm may want to try to masturbate to learn how they like to be touched.
Overall though, not a great deal is known about the orgasm, and over the past century, theories about the orgasm and its nature have shifted dramatically. For instance, healthcare experts have only relatively recently come round to the idea of the female orgasm, with many doctors as recently as the 1970s claiming that it was normal for women not to experience them.
Keep in mind, every woman’s body responds differently to various kinds of sex, and every woman has different preferences for how she likes to be stimulated. That’s why communication with a partner is very important. Our partners can’t read our minds, so it’s important to be clear about what feels good and what doesn’t, and what we do and don’t want to do.
When a woman is stimulated physically or psychologically, the blood vessels within her genitals dilate. Increased blood supply causes the vulva to swell, and fluid to pass through the vaginal walls, making the vulva swollen and wet. Internally, the top of the vagina expands.
Heart rate and breathing quicken and blood pressure increases. Blood vessel dilation can lead to the woman appearing flushed, particularly on the neck and chest.
As blood flow to the introitus – the lower area of the vagina – reaches its limit, it becomes firm. Breasts can increase in size by as much as 25 percent and increased blood flow to the areola – the area surrounding the nipple – causes the nipples to appear less erect. The clitoris pulls back against the pubic bone, seemingly disappearing.
A woman may find as she gets older that she has an easier time having orgasms because she has more knowledge of what she likes sexually, and because she’s more comfortable communicating with her partners about what she likes and doesn’t like.
Sexual pleasure for women and men has a lot to do with emotion and relaxation. It’s difficult to enjoy sex and reach orgasm if we’re uncomfortable, self-conscious, or don’t feel quite right about what’s going on or about our partners.