How would you describe an orgasm (not seeking sex stories!)?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is not meant to be a lurid thread. I’m not trying to solicit stories of how you got to the moment.

Rather, I’m curious about the limits of language. and variations in subjective experiences.

An orgasm is often touted as a pinnacle of pleasure. Drug users sometimes equate it to their drug euphoria. And it certainly drives a lot of human motivation.

But how would you describe an orgasm to somebody who never had one? I’m curious how the description would go.

I once heard somebody say it was like the feeling you get right before you sneeze, and that always makes me laugh.

What say you?

2

In a sex ed book I read once years ago, it was indeed described as akin to a very satisfying sneeze.

3

First thing I thought about. It’s like a long coming sneeze, but (usually) much more intensive.

4

I have heard the sneeze analogy and don’t disagree with it too much, but IME, it’s kind of a cross between that and the full body flush I felt every time I had an angiogram (I’ve had three). Not saying I popped a chubby during the procedure, but the warm tingly sensation from the base of my neck to my toes was very similar.

5

Hard to describe because it varies for everyone, but for me it’s not all that much fun, it’s more like scratching an itch that needed scratching, the pleasure dopamine is outranked by some other things.

6

I honestly don’t know if that makes you very lucky or very unlucky.

7

Definitely similar to a really good (dry) sneeze. Also similar to that feeling you get when you really have to pee, I mean really have to pee, and you finally go.

There’s more to it, I guess, but those should be pretty relatable to people who haven’t had the pleasure.

8

I’ve read a lot of romance novels, and it is almost unfailingly described as crashing waves.

When I wrote my own I had to get creative so as not to write the cliche thing.

But apparently women like ocean metaphors for orgasm.

9

That’s what makes it an interesting question.

I’ve said that a good orgasm makes my teeth numb…it’s really a tingling sensation that cascades through my body, into my face.

(Incidentally, I’ve [unfortunately] done hard drugs. And the warm sensation over your body is a feature of smoking cocaine; I guess it’s what people equate to an ‘Orgasmic’ feeling)

10

The feeling is indescribable in mere words. Once it starts it is indeed like a sneeze:… you cannot stop it. I feel like I am being thrust up by a giant wave and part of my brain has been possessed by some alien force that is pure pleasure. If I am with someone else at the time, it almost as if suddenly there is a third entity in the bed, me,.. my partner and the ORGASM.

I recall in those first years of doing it myself and then simply being spent, and my brain fizzing in the aftermath. After I first experienced it (I think I was 13) I recall a feeling of an immense calm coming over me. I have always been a pretty intense, focused person,… and the totally relaxed feeling afterwards was as new an experience as the orgasm itself. I experienced sex as An amazing gift of the universe.

11

For me personally I guess it’s like progressive muscle relaxation. An unbearable buildup of tension that, when released, makes me feel more relaxed than I did before.

I think the lead-up to an orgasm is far more interesting than the thing itself.

12

It’s like describing the taste “caramel” to someone who has never tasted it. You can describe it with all the different similes and metaphors that you can think of, but they simply won’t do it justice.

13

And they differ, much. I’ve had orgasms when I thought “this is a cosmic event!”, and some when I thought “meh, slightly better than a sneeze.”.

14

And times when I wasn’t sure whether I’d had one at all but I’d had so much fun, I didn’t care.

15

How do you know?

16

If you have to ask, you ain’t never going to know. To quote Louis…

17

Because I’ve heard some people describe their orgasms as so intense that they almost fainted, or twitched/shook for nearly a full minute. I rather envy that and am pretty sure my body won’t do something like that.

18

Are we talking about both men and women? Because surely the two sexes are generally different from each other, anyway. And if we are talking about both, it would help me to know which sex is responding (I don’t always remember the sex of individual posters).

I am a man, so I will speak to that. It will be mostly from memory, “how it feels” has changed a great deal since my prostate biopsy. So I agree with whoever said the buildup is better than the climax, anyway it was for me. How the buildup feels is kind of like scratching an itch, it feels good and you don’t want to stop, and instead of the scratching reducing the itch it intensifies it. At some point the itch takes over and further scratching is redundant (and possibly a little unpleasant). The orgasm itself, to me, feels just how it looks, first a relief and release, and then a literal come-down.

On re-reading that, I’m afraid it’s more of a metaphor than a description, but it’s the best I can do.

19

Reminds me of the old joke where the pastor tells the congregants that men throw away their marriages for — what? For what? For something that’s as pleasing as taking a good dump?

“Padre, either you don’t know how to fuck, or I don’t know how to shit.”

20

As a male trying to describe the sensation for me is like when I have a “catch” in my knee or elbow and when it “pops” and that feel good feeling that runs through your body.

As for women, the ones I have been with range from soaking the sheets and holding me so tight that I couldn’t breath to saying “I’m done” with a hardly noticeable tremor (or if any) from their body.

One person’s description can not cover what everybody else experences.