Dr Beverly Whipple a researcher who helped to identify the G-spot and female ejaculation gave an interview to The Independent and summed up what her decades of research has taught her. Dr Whipple said she has dedicated her whole life to focusing on validating the pleasurable, sensual, and sexual experiences that women report and there are some things that still surprise women when they experience a new sensation or experience for the first time. When asked what an orgasm actually is, she said,
The definition of orgasm is what a woman says is an orgasm. Below are the main points that Dr Whipple thinks are important for a woman to know about sex and orgasms.”
Orgasms can block pain
During her work with a top psychologist, Dr Barry Komisaruk, the pair discovered that orgasms double a woman’s pain threshold and during labour the baby passes the g-spot which means without this childbirth would be even more painful. Whipple said:
When we measure orgasms we see a significant increase in heart rate, blood pressure, diameter of the pupil, and in pain thresholds. Those are the major physiological measurements that we have made.”
Women can achieve orgasm through their imagination
While working at the faculty at Rutgers College in New York she investigated some reports from women that women could reach orgasm without being touched and using only their imaginations. Researchers tested this by measuring the size of women’s pupils, blood pressure and heart rate during orgasm from their imagination and from being stimulated manually in the G-spot. MRA scans later proved that the same areas of the brain are activated. It was therefore backed up that orgasms could be achieved through using the imagination only.
Any erogenous zone can achieve an orgasm in a woman
While working with sex therapist Gina Ogden, they pieced together 15 different types of touch across 35 different body areas that could lead to orgasm. Whittle said that many women never discover these as clitoral or vaginal stimulation is the quickest way to achieve orgasm. She said:
The whole point is to help women to realise that what they find pleasurable, sensually and sexually is what they should enjoy and not feel that they have to fit into one model of only one way to respond. We must give women the permission to enjoy what they enjoy. It is all very individual and it’s all normal.”
Blended orgasms are real
Whittle also discovered during her work with Gina that it was possible for a woman to achieve orgasms together from stimulation of more than one body part. She called these blended orgasms. Dr Whittle claims
Women can have stimulation of more than one area of the body at the same time, and experience orgasm where you are stimulating more than one nerve pathway. That might involve clitoral and vaginal stimulation.”
Sex is more than just reaching an orgasm
Dr Whittle stresses that rushing to the final ‘goal’ of an orgasm takes away a lot of other pleasures you could be enjoying. She believes that sex should be more about the experience and the different sensations rather than worrying about whether or not you achieved orgasm. Her advice on this is:
It starts with a touch, a kiss, and the penetration of the vagina is the top step. If people who are goal orientated don’t reach that top step don’t feel very good about the whole process. When you use the words ‘reach’ or ‘achieve’ you’re setting up orgasm as a goal, if you use ‘experience’ it happens but it doesn’t have to be the goal.”
This all sounds like great advice and some of the things mentioned is quite surprising. Here’s to many more enjoyable, self-discovering sexual experiences for all of us.
