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Popcorn Girls

By Dr. Pisaster | Pajiba Dirty Talk | September 7, 2010 |

By Dr. Pisaster | Pajiba Dirty Talk | September 7, 2010 |


There’s a lot of advice out there on the web on how to give women multiple orgasms, most of which is just your standard sex advice for hetero men trumped up with a promise of more orgasms if you just invest more time. But really, there’s only one surefire way to give a woman a multiple orgasms: 1. find a woman who is naturally multiorgasmic and 2. have sex with her. Sex writers are fond of saying that all women have the potential for multiple orgasms, but the truth is that women, as we’ve noted many times before, are highly variable. Some women are naturally prone to multiples, some can have them with lots of work, some will be too worn out after one to want to try for more, and some will struggle to have even one. Multiple orgasms are cool and all, but we should focus less on having more orgasms than the next girl and more on having orgasms in whatever way makes us happy.

Multiple orgasms are usually divided into two types - sequential and serial. Sequential, or repeated, orgasms involve a return to a plateau phase of low arousal after an initial orgasm, followed by another rise to the peak of orgasm if stimulation is continued. The refractory period — the time between orgasms — varies from woman to woman, ranging from a few minutes to many. How easily a woman will have sequential multiples in a sexual encounter depends on the length of her refractory period. In fact, in this respect, women’s orgasms aren’t all that different from a man’s. After all, if you wait long enough after a man has had an orgasm and stimulate him again there’s a good chance he can have another one. The main difference is that for many women this refractory period is shorter than for men and doesn’t involve losing the ability to have sex, so they can have several in a single encounter while men have to take a break in between (unless the man manages to orgasm without ejaculating, which can occur with prostate orgasms or some tantric techniques). In the other type of multiple orgasms, serial orgasms, the refractory period is extremely short or even nonexistent, with no detectable plateau phase between orgasms. Serial orgasms come in rapid succession, separated by only seconds and in some cases coming so close together that it feels to the woman experiencing them like one long, continuous orgasm. This type is more rare than the first, and can’t be induced with skill or patience alone - the woman has to be naturally inclined to them.

Why multiple orgasms are an everyday experience for some women and a lost cause for others is still unclear. They aren’t uncommon - one study found that 42.7% of 805 respondents had experience with multiple orgasms. (Although these orgasms did not always occur during penetrative sex, but in some cases only during masturbation or foreplay — another reason not to skimp on the foreplay). Another found that 30 out of the 100 women surveyed had experienced multiple orgasms of each other 10 percent of the time during masturbation. The first of these surveys found that women who were multiorgasmic were slightly less inhibited sexually than their singly-orgasmic counterparts. They were more likely to masturbate and to have explored a variety of sexual stimuli. The differences in these variables, however, although significant, aren’t big enough, to explain why some women achieved multiple orgasms while the others didn’t. I couldn’t find any papers to support this, but personally my money’s on genetics. I’m basing this purely on anecdotal evidence, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that most of the women on my mother’s side of the family tend to have multiple orgasms. (A bottle of wine and my scientific curiosity got the better of me one night. One of these days I will learn not to drink with my mother.) I suspect that if they asked around a lot of women would find that their ability to orgasm is similar to that of other women in their families.

Before you start cursing your ancestors for screwing you out of the multiorgasmic experience, though, please note that multiple orgasms aren’t necessarily better orgasms. Although some women who experience them report that successive orgasms are stronger than the first, there’s no objective evidence for this (and some women actually feel they are weaker). Measurements of blood flow and oxygen levels in the vagina during orgasm show no distinction between initial and subsequent orgasms. Furthermore, multiorgasmic women often report a physiological need to have more than one orgasm (85.8 percent of them, according to the first study mentioned above). I can verify this from personal experience — a single orgasm would just leave me frustrated and craving more. If one orgasm leaves you satisfied and happy, then extras are just a bonus, but for many women who experience multiples, those extras are necessary for sexual satisfaction. Having one or just a few for some women is just as bad as having none is for others. (On the other hand, some women report satisfaction after sexual encounters even when they don’t orgasm, so if you have trouble coming but still feel satisfied after sex, you’re not alone. Orgasms are just the icing on your personal cake.)

Orgasms are wonderful. They’re wonderful whether one leaves you so breathless you don’t want to do anything but relax and go to sleep and they’re wonderful when you have them over and over again. Whatever type you have is probably the type your personal physiology is designed for. If you want to try to extend your pleasure and experience multiple orgasms, then continued stimulation is the best way to go (or if you’re too sensitive after one, then a break followed by more stimulation when your body calms down), but if you find you or your partner can’t have them don’t worry too much that you’re missing out on anything. All that matters, is that you get however many leave you feeling satisfied, whether that’s none, one, ten, or fifty.

Dr. Pisaster has a doctorate in biophysics, not actually anything sexy. She does however enjoy having sex, reading about sex, and talking about sex. Especially when she’s had a little whiskey.