Researchers from the Kinsey Institute conducted a study in the interest of understanding orgasm variation as it relates to sexual orientation and concluded that heterosexual women are the least likely to experience orgasms.
They collected data from a total of 6,151 single men and women between the ages of 21 and 65 by means of an internet questionnaire and finally eliminated the sample size to a total of 2,850 who had participated in sexual activity in the previous year leading up to the experiment.
"Existing literature demonstrates substantial variation in orgasm experiences among women and to a lesser, but not inconsequential, extent among men," they wrote. "The current study confirms existing findings and advances our understanding of orgasm occurrence among men and women across self-identified sexual orientation categories."
In the study, of which the sample was mainly composed of whites (approximately 75 per cent), participants were controlled in the interest of eliminating those whose experiences were not limited to a familiar partner.
They were also controlled for identity to restrict automatic fill-ins, and controlled to eliminate intersexuals, whom the study did not concern.
More than seven per cent of heterosexual women, or 86 of the survey respondents, suffer from aorgasmica, reporting never reaching orgasm.
On the flipside, only 16.2 per cent of heterosexual women reported orgasm 100 per cent of the time. Most, or 411 respondents, reported reaching orgasm 75 to 99 per cent of the times they engaged in sexual activity.
Bisexual women's orgasmic experience showed little variation, although bisexual women were ultimately the most concentrated in the 75 to 99 per cent bracket, at 35 per cent, like heterosexuals.
Lesbian women, however, showed the highest capacity for orgasm, with 25 per cent saying they climaxed with every sexual experience and 46 per cent reporting orgasm 75 to 99 per cent of the time. Very few reported aorgasmia.
Overall, men's orgasmic experiences showed less variation. Few men reported aorgasmica and all three sexual orientations were concentrated in the top two brackets.
Heterosexual men reported orgasm 100 per cent of the time slightly more frequently than homosexual and bisexual men.
Researchers concluded that the idea of a "familiar partner" could be varied across sexual orientation groups that could underlie the patterns they observed.
"The wording of the questionnaire, asking participants to report on orgasm ‘when having sex with a familiar partner' likely lends itself to varied interpretations of how individuals define both ‘sex' and a ‘familiar partner,'" wrote the study authors.
Future research, they concluded, should further explore how demographics including but not limited to sexual orientation affect orgasm experience.
The study was published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
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