LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Women who have difficulty reaching orgasm can blame it on their genes.
Like
heart disease, anxiety and depression, scientists discovered in a study
of 1,397 pairs of female twins that there is a genetic basis to female
orgasm.
"We found that between 34 percent and 45 percent of
the variation in ability to orgasm can be explained by underlying
genetic variation," said Tim Spector, of the Twin Research Unit at St
Thomas' Hospital in London.
"There is a biological underlying influence that can't be attributed purely to upbringing, religion or race."
Other studies have attributed differences in the ability to achieve orgasm to cultural, religious and psychological factors.
Between
12 to 15 percent of women don't have orgasms compared to about 2
percent of men. Males are also quicker at 2.5 minutes, while the
average time it takes for a woman to reach orgasm is 12 minutes,
according to Spector.
"Why is there this biological difference
between the sexes? The fact that some of this is heritable suggests
that evolution has a role," he told a news conference.
Spector
suggested reaching an orgasm could be a way for women to assess whether
a man would make a good long-term partner. It may also increase
fertility, according to some theories.
In a study of identical
and non-identical twins published on Wednesday in the journal Biology
Letters, Spector and his team found huge variations when they surveyed
them about sexual problems.
One in three women, or 32 percent,
said they never or infrequently had an orgasm. But 14 percent said they
always had an orgasm during intercourse.
"More women were able
to orgasm during masturbation, with 34 percent always reaching orgasm,"
the researchers said in the journal.
...
"There is
something biological that explains some of this large variation between
women," he said, adding that many genes could be involved. ...
But Spector said orgasm is a very complex
process which is poorly understood. Little research has been done
because it is still a taboo subject. Anatomical and biological features and psychological factors may all play a part.
As someone remarked in the discussion where I lifted this
article, only 34% "always" reaching orgasm during masturbation seems
extremely low. You wonder why a person would bother masturbating if
they couldn't get the payoff. But perhaps there was an alternate,
"almost always" answer that could be chosen on the survey. Even I have
been known to give up on Getting There a time or two.
A person really can be "too pooped to pop" sometimes. Trying to work up
the necessary muscular, neurological and vascular tension to get over
the top is genuinely tiring. It seems almost effortless if you only
have to work for 2-3 minutes to Make It, but when you have to strive
for a quarter of an hour or more, sometimes -- in prospect at least,
and at the end of a long day -- the work-to-benefit ratio doesn't
recommend itself.
This is part of what men don't understand. For them (and yes, I'm
generalizing, get used to it), sex = fabulous pleasure from a minimum
amount of physical work. Although they may have to work pretty hard to
get their partners off, the actual sex part is always great.
Guaranteed. But intercourse can begin to seem like a boring, messy
chore if you're not going to get off from it. And it looks like almost a third
of women can't make it that way. There are many others who only have
orgasms from intercourse intermittently, and that means they have had
many experiences of working long and fruitlessly toward... nothing.
And consider how appealing this effort would be with a partner who
bores, sickens or infuriates you. Do you resent your wife? Do you carry
around a load of anger against her? Is she physically unappealing to
you now? Okay, whatever. Here's the question: Given your feelings
(justified or not) if it was going to take you 15 minutes of tense
effort to get off AND you only got there 25% of the time anyway, even
after all that work, wouldn't you be a little reluctant to put out for her?
Don't you wish your wife was one of the lucky 14 percent who "always" have orgasms during intercourse?
She wishes she was, too.
12:16:03 PM 
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