# Biological Reason for Female Orgasm?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2001, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biological-reason-for-female-orgasm/95807 "2001-11-28T23:37:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biological-reason-for-female-orgasm/95807/21 "2001-11-29T16:23:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*BTW, do some women have orgasms when they give birth? \*\* The following is all just my opinion. Every women’s childbirthing experience is different. There are different stimuli that bring different women to orgasm. I have seen a woman stimulated to orgasm by sticking a lit candle up there and letting the hot wax melt onto themselves (Don’t ask. I don’t even remember the name of the movie. And I didn’t pick it, either). However, pushing 7 to 8 lbs of baby out a 10 centimeter hole is not conducive to orgasms in most women. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biological-reason-for-female-orgasm/95807/22 "2001-11-29T18:07:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Montfort \* > **I know Cecil handled this one, but I cannot seem to find it in the archives.** Maybe you are thinking about [this one?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_226.html) It is about why women have hymens, but in the last paragraph Cecil says: > [@](#): > > Not the world’s most satisfying answer, I agree. But we don’t even know why women have orgasms. Morris’s preposterous theory: orgasm keeps women on their backs afterward, grinning with satisfaction, whereas if they were up and about right off the bat, the semen and with it their chances of reproductive success would dribble down their legs. Sounds like something I’d make up. But the difference is, I’d wink. > > –CECIL ADAMS ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biological-reason-for-female-orgasm/95807/23 "2001-11-29T18:22:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > **Stephen Jay Gould writes, on the other hand, that the human female response is not unique, and that other animals feel it too. This seems more believable – it’s hard to believe that we’re the only ones to feel this, and if it’s advantageous for us in pair-bonding, it ought to be for other primates (and non-primates), too.** But Gould’s point is that pair bonding is extremely rare among primates (and only slightly more common among mammals in general) and that although nearly all female mammals can orgasm, they don’t during intercourse. The evolution of a pleasurable feeling to induce a behavior seems unlikely if the feeling is rarely associated with the behavior. ---
**Author:** ![nacaguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d6d6ee/32.png) [@nacaguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nacaguy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biological-reason-for-female-orgasm/95807/24 "2001-11-30T06:58:03Z")
I think there’s a sort of converse to this question: A few years back (and unfortunately I do not have the reference) a woman got her baby taken away and sent off to the foster home circuit because she remarked to her doctor that it was very sexually stimulating to have the baby nurse. Judge decided that she was some kind of pervert and removed the baby before she could lead it into some horrible lifestyle or something. Hey, all she did was ask! But it makes sense: big eyes and foreheads and chubby cheeks may elicit a “Awww!” response from even other kids, but just in case, it would seem adaptive to make it feel good when the baby nurses. Now, women may find it stimulating to have an adult sexual partner nibble the nipples a bit, too. And I would be curious now many women can reach orgasm with this kind of stimulation. then, assuming they get there with a guy, how often do they get there with a baby? I have never seen this reported, though I must admit to being somewhat interested in sex. OK, the question, however muddled I may be stating it: Is it plausible that we have a response to some activity that is reproductively useful (be it intercourse or nursing) that is the same for both sexes (just because of the conservatism and constraints of evolution and embryology, expressed earlier) and we call it orgasm, no matter how induced? i.e. It feels good so that we’ll want to do it. Whatever it is. So guys have relatively insensitive nipples because when they do their job and make if feel good, they are finished and can leave. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2001, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biological-reason-for-female-orgasm/95807/25 "2001-11-30T07:51:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nacaguy \* > I think there’s a sort of converse to this question: > A few years back (and unfortunately I do not have the reference) a woman got her baby taken away and sent off to the foster home circuit because she remarked to her doctor that it was very sexually stimulating to have the baby nurse. Judge decided that she was some kind of pervert and removed the baby before she could lead it into some horrible lifestyle or something. I believe that was on 60 Minutes or one of its competitors. The person who took the baby away was a social worker. I believe a judge eventually gave the kid back to her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biological-reason-for-female-orgasm/95807.md?page=1)