While my pals up in Canada have been gardening, cottaging, and getting up to other long-weekend shenanigans, I’ve spent the past several days with my nose in books. The end of term is coming up fast, which means lots and LOTS of reading. Most recently I got reacquainted with Human Sexual Response, by famed sex research duo William Masters and Virginia Johnson.
While Masters and Johnson's actual research is brilliant, their writing style is very formal (*cough* DULL *cough*)! I don’t usually yawn while reading about orgasm. But I perked way up when I got to the section on multiple orgasm. What a fun topic for a post! I haven’t written much about it in the past, and this seemed like the perfect time and place to tackle the subject.
I’m not nearly as brilliant as Will and Ginny, but I’ll do my best to keep the vocab lively and the facts on point!
Different people experience multiple orgasms in different ways. For some folks, it’s a rapid series of climaxes, occurring within a few seconds of one another. For others, there may be an individual orgasm, followed by a brief pause, followed by another individual orgasm. For some, it can mean getting aroused, stimulation, followed orgasm, total resolution (that’s M&J speak for your body going back to its pre-aroused state), followed by renewed arousal, more stimulation, and another orgasm.
Yep. Lots of folks identify as men and have female bodies with multiple orgasmic capabilities. Many guys with penises are thought to have what Masters and Johnson described as a refractory period—a time after orgasm when their bodies are not into sexual stimulation and they can’t have another orgasm. While multiple orgasm is less common amongst the phallic set, it can happen. People who practice tantric-sex, for example, can train their bodies to delay ejaculation and experience several orgasms before moving into a refractory or resolution phase.
For some folks multiple orgasms come—ahem—easily. For other people, it takes some practice. Experiment with your masturbation by trying a new position or toy. If you’re exploring with your partner, try some different positions After orgasm, some people find that stimulating a different part of their body can produce another, totally new type of orgasm. So, if you’ve just got off on clitoral stimulation, maybe try some G-spot or anal play. Or switch from oral sex to intercourse, or from a vibrator to fingers.
Nope. Not all women have multiple orgasms. Not all women want to. Lots of women have one orgasm or none and are still happy with their sex lives, thank you very much. If multiple orgasm is something you want to try for, by all means, try away. But in my experience, the quickest way to kill an orgasm is by making sex goal-oriented. So if you’re going to experiment with orgasm, my advice is to approach it with a spirit of fun and discovery. Masters and Johnson were great, but you can be your own sex researcher, and your body is your very own lab. Do what feels good and see what happens!
What's a lab without equipement? Here's a handy guide to shopping for a vibrator. And remember that sometimes our sexiest body part, are our brains. Why fantasizing can be a great way to have great sex!
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