Not all orgasms are created equally. And I'm not talking about having a great orgasm one day and a dud the next. New data from Lioness, a vibrator specifically designed to help you to help you learn about your body by sending data about your sexual responses to an app, found that different people have three different types of orgasm patterns. The company collected data from their vibrator for three years from 3,500 anonymized, aggregate sessions and found that there were different orgasm patterns — each made up of a different series of pelvic floor movements — and analyzed it so we can learn more about the different types of orgasms. Are you an ocean? A volcano? Yup, those are some of the different types.
And though at the moment collecting this data is just downright fascinating, there's hope that in the future it can be used to help women understand their bodies and their orgasms. "We have to have basic research before we can have insights that become practical and impactful," Liz Klinger, CEO and cofounder of Lioness, tells Bustle. "A lot of this area hasn't gotten a lot of love over the years, especially in terms of funding, despite herculean efforts by various researchers over the years. Right now, orgasm patterns are more just a 'fun fact.' It's something about yourself you wouldn't have otherwise known. However, combined with work from researchers or just characteristics we see associated with them over time, we may be able to start saying things about what you might like or dislike based on the patterns. Or not."
Basically, it's all about getting more research done so we can start to see what the real impact of this research could be. "It's early days, but it's exciting to be able to simultaneously get people interested in female sexuality, show people that there's more to explore, and remove the stigma around the topic by providing language and data around it," Klinger says. "It's fun, interesting, and has the potentially to push forward our societal understanding!"
There was really one interesting thing they found: there were three main orgasm patterns, but each person only had one type of orgasm. So, as they say, it's almost like having a unique blood type. Here are the three different patterns, so you can see which sounds the most like yours!
Ocean
Ride that wave of the ocean. “It feels like I’m on the ocean, with the waves moving over and over," one user with this type of orgasm explained. With an ocean wave pattern, the pelvic floor contracts multiple times, slowing down until you finish.
Volcano
“Almost every muscle in my body tenses up as the pleasure greatly intensifies, and then there’s a huge release. I know it’s over when I can relax," one user explained. But what the pelvic floor was doing was really interesting — it was one long, extended movement rather than a series of them like with the ocean.
Avalanche
That's a pretty cool name for an orgasm. So what does it mean?“My body starts shaking, and then I suddenly explode into an orgasm," one user explains. "My body snaps and sort of spasms (a good spasm) over and over again until it eventually starts to calm down before finally letting my muscles rest…”
In a way, this is similar to the ocean — there's a lot of motion in your pelvic floor. But, as the graph shows, an avalanche starts from a high point and intensity and the moves downward, while an ocean is more constant. So if you feel like you go from a bang to whimper, this might be you.
So what's your orgasm type? Are you an ocean, a volcano, or an avalanche? Maybe you can't tell without a vibrator keeping track for you, but I have a pretty good idea which one I'd fall into. Keep the data coming, because this could be very handy.
