How Climaxing Is Different For Men Vs. Women

While television and movies might have you thinking that men and women have extremely different orgasms — with women shaking and screaming and grabbing things while men might let out a single “Ugh!” — science says that the male and female orgasm are not very different. In fact, some sources even report that trained experts haven’t been able to tell the difference between a male and a female orgasm when they read descriptions of the act that don’t include any other anatomical references.

Kayt Sukel reports in Big Think that one study from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands looked at PET scans of male and female brains and found a lot of differences between men and women during arousal, but very few during the actual act of orgasm. She goes on to describe an even more recent study that was undertaken by researchers at Rutgers University and presented at Neuroscience 2012, which used more sensitive fMRI imaging to determine that blood flow throughout the brain was very similar in male and female participants during masturbation.

So it looks like, at least brain-wise, orgasms are not gender-specific. However, there are some distinct differences between the two major genders when it comes how orgasms are physically experienced. Now, obviously not all women and all men have experience orgasms this way — we’re talking in generalities here. However, here are a couple of ways that a large number of women experience orgasm differently from a large number of men.

1. Women Are More Likely To Experience Multiple Orgasms

Post-orgasm and ejaculation, men experience something called a “refractory period.” It’s basically their body forcing them to take a break. During that time period — which can last from minutes to days — men are physically unable to get an erection again. Women, on the other hand, don’t seem to experience a refractory period, which means that they have an easier time becoming aroused to the point of orgasm again. Some women even report that it’s easier to have an orgasm after experiencing their first one.

There’s one point about this to take into consideration, however, and that’s the fact that men can have orgasms without ejaculating. Common in tantric sex, an orgasm sans ejaculation makes it possible for a man to have more than one orgasm one right after the other. The refractory period seems to be linked with ejaculation so if guys don’t ejaculate, they’re more likely to orgasm again.

2. Most Women Don’t Ejaculate

Perhaps the most obvious difference between male and female orgasm is ejaculate or “come.” Most men ejaculate during most orgasms while most women don’t ejaculate during most orgasms.

3. For Women Who Do Ejaculate, It’s Different From When Guys Do

Even when women do ejaculate — which is usually called “squirting” in popular culture — it looks a lot different than it does from male ejaculate. Guys tend to explode in a concentrated stream of liquid, whereas for women it might be more diffuse. While it’s still not clear exactly what female ejaculate is made of, there’s one thing that’s obviously different from male ejaculate: Female ejaculate doesn’t have any sperm.

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