# Difference between vaginal and clitoral orgasms? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 27, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686 "2013-07-27T17:55:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/41 "2013-07-28T00:14:28Z")
I was going to come in to mention nipple orgasms. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/42 "2013-07-28T00:23:43Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I was going to come in to mention nipple orgasms. It’s just milk that comes out. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/43 "2013-07-28T00:40:55Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Now, if you’ll excuse me…it’s my Anniversary tonight. Congratulations! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Girlundone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Girlundone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girlundone)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/44 "2013-07-28T00:49:39Z")
> [@](#): > > You’re correct that “it’s just more clitoris”, Which is a good thing because, ya know, you can never have too much clitoris. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/45 "2013-07-28T02:45:50Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > My issue with differentiating between clitoral and vaginal orgasms is that it continues to give credence to the bullshit Freud was spewing. Once you start using those terms, people begin talking about the maturity of the orgasm, and frigidity and all that other crap. Are people even aware of Freud and does anyone even discuss “maturity” of orgasm? I’m 48 and I’ve never heard of it, just women talking about how the orgasm feels. Also, brain MRI’s showed that clitoral stimulation activates different areas of the brain than vaginal stimulation. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/46 "2013-07-28T05:50:52Z")
Ah HAH! I found the relevant article I had read recently; it includes 3d sonograms of the entire clitoris structure in an “excited” state that were just done in 2009. It’s way bigger than we thought. [Until 2009 the Human Clitoris Was An Absolute Mystery](http://io9.com/5876335/until-2009-the-human-clitoris-was-an-absolute-mystery) > [@](#): > > {this is a quote from the Museum of Sex’s blog that the article used; bolding mine} > > The scientific name for the external “little button” or “bulb” [of the clitoris] is glans. Not to be confused with glands, glans simply refers to a small circular mass. This little structure contains approximately 8,000 sensory nerve fibers; more than anywhere else in the human body and nearly twice the amount found on the head of a penis… **The fact is, though, that most of the clitoris is subterranean** , consisting of two corpora cavernosa (corpus cavernosum when referring to the structure as a whole), two crura (crus when referring to the structure as a whole), and the clitoral vestibules or bulbs. > > The glans is connected to the body or shaft of the internal clitoris, which is made up of two corpora cavernosa. **When erect, the corpora cavernosa encompass the vagina on either side, as if they were wrapping around it giving it a big hug!** > > The corpus cavernosum also extends further, bifurcating again to form the two crura. **These two legs extend up to 9cm, pointing toward the thighs when at rest, and stretching back toward the spine when erect.** > > \ > > … we now understand how the erectile tissue of the clitoris engorges and surrounds the vagina – a complete breakthrough that explains how **what we once considered to be a vaginal orgasm is actually an internal clitoral orgasm.** So yeah, we literally had no idea what the entire clitoris looked like when aroused until really recently. You’d think that it’s insane we didn’t know this years ago, but women [are _still_ underrepresented in scientific studies of diseases and drug testing](http://mobile.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/07/drug_problem.html), even though differences in gene expressions between the sexes affect your odds of contracting certain ailments, the efficacy AND side effects of medication (women are more likely to experience adverse effects from medications) and even what symptoms you’ll have for things like heart attacks. Our menstrual cycles mean we have more hormone fluctuation, which makes it more difficult to analyze and interpret results. So y’know, it’s easier to research primarily on male humans and animals because inconsiderate women have to make things difficult. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/47 "2013-07-28T07:31:00Z")
> [@miss\_elizabeth](#): > > My issue with differentiating between clitoral and vaginal orgasms is that it continues to give credence to the bullshit Freud was spewing. Once you start using those terms, people begin talking about the maturity of the orgasm, and frigidity and all that other crap. People talk about frigidity without any relationship to Freud or to clitoral and vaginal orgasms. Personally, I think a lot of women who think they’ve never had an orgasm actually have had one but, because the descriptions they’ve heard have always been wrong, simply don’t know “that” was an orgasm. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/48 "2013-07-28T15:55:29Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#): > > But that’s the point- all male orgasms are the same. Female orgasms aren’t. Yes, it’s not like we distinguish between knob and tube orgasms. > [@Trinopus](#): > > That’s too strong. That’s like saying that pre-Lavoisier chemists were warped for believing in phlogiston. Freud was doing his best with the knowledge available at the time. The long string of pre-chemists were regurgitating nonsense they heard before, maybe adding their own little bit. Freud made his own fantasies up, wholesale. When we were well into the age of scientific method and experimentation, he concocted Just So stories with no real basis. (In fact worse that that, according to people like Jeffrey Masson, who worked in the Freud Archives for a time, the suggestion is Freud made up the whole sexuality thing rather than speak the truth, that he knew elements of the upper tier of Viennese society were guilty of child molesting. Some of his early patients specifically identified people who molested them. In his writings, Freud turned these into fantasies about family members in general.) ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/49 "2013-07-28T17:47:29Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Ah HAH! I found the relevant article I had read recently; it includes 3d sonograms of the entire clitoris structure in an “excited” state that were just done in 2009. It’s way bigger than we thought. > > [Until 2009 the Human Clitoris Was An Absolute Mystery](http://io9.com/5876335/until-2009-the-human-clitoris-was-an-absolute-mystery) > So yeah, we literally had no idea what the entire clitoris looked like when aroused until really recently. You’d think that it’s insane we didn’t know this years ago, but women [are _still_ underrepresented in scientific studies of diseases and drug testing](http://mobile.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/07/drug_problem.html), even though differences in gene expressions between the sexes affect your odds of contracting certain ailments, the efficacy AND side effects of medication (women are more likely to experience adverse effects from medications) and even what symptoms you’ll have for things like heart attacks. Our menstrual cycles mean we have more hormone fluctuation, which makes it more difficult to analyze and interpret results. So y’know, it’s easier to research primarily on male humans and animals because inconsiderate women have to make things difficult. :rolleyes: This is the study I was trying to find. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/50 "2013-07-28T19:38:49Z")
You’re welcome! It was way harder to find than I thought it would be. I was like, ‘okay, I KNOW I saw a damn diagram that was 3D and had blue and gold for the outlines and it was about the structure being larger than we thought. Why the fuck am I not finding ANYTHING??’ ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/51 "2013-07-28T22:03:26Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > The reason I posted this question is because I am currently dating a girl who apparently believes in such a distinction. She tells me that they feel totally different to her. But I was a bit skeptical-or at least very, very ignorant-and I didn’t want to grill _her_ so I came here. Speaking as a male, I can say that my orgasms from masturbation using lubricant (soap and water) are very different from my orgasms from masturbation without lubrication. There really is a very definite distinction in the sensation. > [@WhyNot](#): > > . . . To male it up for you, I hear that male orgasms which include stimulation of the prostate feel different to many men when compared to orgasms which to not include prostate stimulation. Considering the area of real estate the prostate occupies, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if those orgasms are analogous to “vaginal” orgasms. Definitely a difference. I’m not sure if the analogy works physiologically. One might say, instead, that the analogy is to stimulation of the glans of the penis in contrast to stimulation of the lower shaft, at or even below the scrotum. But, in any case, prostate stimulation produces a very different quality of climax than the other kind. > [@RaftPeople](#): > > I know someone that can orgasm from just nipple stimulation. Even some males can accomplish this! ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/52 "2013-07-28T22:56:56Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > You’re welcome! It was way harder to find than I thought it would be. I was like, ‘okay, I KNOW I saw a damn diagram that was 3D and had blue and gold for the outlines and it was about the structure being larger than we thought. Why the fuck am I not finding ANYTHING??’ Yeah, I was starting to think maybe I dreamed it, actually. Its SO annoying when you _know_ you saw the exact freaking study and you just can’t find it anywhere! ---
**Author:** ![Zago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecccb3/32.png) [@Zago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zago)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686/53 "2013-07-29T04:43:12Z")
Speaking as woman I can say that I definitely experience two different types of orgasms. I have always labeled one as clitoral and the other as vaginal but I don’t want to argue about labels or the size of the clitoris. Let’s just say that I have two different experiences. The one, which I experience through penetration, didn’t happen until I was in my fourties and I suspect some women don’t ever experience it - it’s harder to achieve but soo great. BTW, my best orgasms are achieved on my own. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difference-between-vaginal-and-clitoral-orgasms/664686.md?page=2)