# Orgasm-Inducing Mushrooms **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 16, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811 "2015-10-16T12:36:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/1 "2015-10-16T12:36:49Z")
This is the first I’ve heard of this: > [@](#): > > Bad News For Women Who Want Those Orgasm-Inducing Mushrooms > > A 2001 study claims smelling mushrooms caused women to have orgasms. Scientists, however, are skeptical. > > Headshot of Carla Herreria > > Carla Herreria > Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii > > Posted: 10/15/2015 06:45 PM EDT | Edited: 10/16/2015 12:37 AM EDT > > A 14-year-old report that recently resurfaced on the Internet alleges to have found mushrooms that caused women to spontaneously orgasm growing atop thousand-year-old lava fields on the Big Island of Hawaii. > > John Holliday and Noah Soule’s findings were published in 2001 in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, according to the blog IFL Science. > > Then, after so many years of obscurity, the report resurfaced online and went viral – and this week, it caused women everywhere to clamor for magical mushrooms. > > But could these mushrooms really give off a scent that leads to a happy ending? > > Girl, in your wet dreams. > **[Bad News For Women Who Want Those Orgasm-Inducing Mushrooms](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mushroom-female-orgasm_n_561ec498e4b050c6c4a42e2d)** > > A 2001 study claims smelling mushrooms caused women to have orgasms. Scientists, however, are skeptical. There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in your mycology. I love that they illustrated this article with the clip of Dancing Oriental Mushrooms from the “Nutcracker Suite” segment of Disnery’s _Fantasia_. > [@](#): > > Science Alert, an educational blog, also says “there are a bunch of problems” with the study’s claims. > > In their original study, Holliday and Soule performed a “smell-test” on the “unnamed Dictyophora species” of bright orange fungus with an unspecified number of male and female volunteers, claiming that “nearly half of the female test subjects experienced spontaneous orgasms while smelling this mushroom.” > > But Science Alert says the study’s results show no scientific evidence that proved the orgasms were caused by the scent of the mushrooms and the researchers “did little to prove that the self-reported orgasms actually happened.” > > Furthermore, Science Alert adds, “the results of an experiment cannot be seen as definitive until they are reproduced under a different set of conditions.” > > Indeed, it is nearly impossible to find a secondary study that confirms that these mushrooms have any sexually arousing effect. > > An online comment credited to Debbie Viess, a biologist and founder of the Bay Area Mycological Society – mycology is the study of fungi – goes one step further, calling the study “garbage science” and claiming that Holliday published it for the PR. Oh, well, I guess we’ll have to pursue female orgasms the old fashioned way. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/2 "2015-10-16T12:40:14Z")
men are just hiding the real facts they like to keep a gal down! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/3 "2015-10-16T13:21:26Z")
If it were true, there would have been a huge drive to isolate the cause. We’re currently working on a drug that does basically this, marketed as a female Viagra, despite working very differently. ---
**Author:** ![northporlarbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@northporlarbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/northporlarbear)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/4 "2015-10-16T15:10:18Z")
Why not just do drugs at Amsterdam? Why does it have to be orgasm? ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/5 "2015-10-16T15:51:55Z")
I suppose that could be useful for women who have trouble having an orgasm… or for guys who don’t want to deal with a little thing called “foreplay”. The mushroom groups on facebook have been inundated with posts about this and most of the mycologists are quite skeptical that it’s real (even with it being in a published book). ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/6 "2015-10-16T16:31:13Z")
If these mushrooms cause a “high,” then probably \*some \* (small set of) women could achieve orgasm by smelling them. I’ve seen documentaries on addiction where addicts talked about the first time they tried heroin, or whatever, and they had orgasms. I remember that because I thought, “my first beer was not \*that \*good.” ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/7 "2015-10-16T16:43:40Z")
Single Woman Seeks Fungi for Hot Times ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/8 "2015-10-16T16:48:23Z")
As a geologist I find the notion of sexually conscious women flocking to Hawaii to have orgasms in the lava fields somewhat… intriguing? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/9 "2015-10-16T16:59:35Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > As a geologist I find the notion of sexually conscious women flocking to Hawaii to have orgasms in the lava fields somewhat… intriguing? They’d better bring blankets. I hear those lava fields are pretty rough. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/10 "2015-10-16T17:00:32Z")
Expect waves of Lava Mushroom Porn. ---
**Author:** ![northporlarbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@northporlarbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/northporlarbear)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/11 "2015-10-16T17:08:00Z")
Aside from whether it’s real or not, I say why not? I mean there are poison mushrooms or hallucination mushrooms. Mushrooms specifically for some orgasm hormone or whatever seems possible aside from being probable. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/12 "2015-10-16T18:05:43Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > We’re currently working on a drug that does basically this, marketed as a female Viagra, despite working very differently. Yeah? You and who else? ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/13 "2015-10-16T18:47:45Z")
> [@northporlarbear](#): > > Aside from whether it’s real or not, I say why not? I mean there are poison mushrooms or hallucination mushrooms. Mushrooms specifically for some orgasm hormone or whatever seems possible aside from being probable. If there was some mushroom whose smell induce orgasms in women, wouldn’t this has been known on Hawaii forever? How could they not have noticed this for centuries? ---
**Author:** ![northporlarbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@northporlarbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/northporlarbear)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/14 "2015-10-16T18:54:51Z")
Maybe some Hawaii shamans or whatever knew about it. Or maybe it is deep in the jungle or something. Why not wait for more information? I was just saying that it is logically possible. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/15 "2015-10-16T18:55:29Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > If there was some mushroom whose smell induce orgasms in women, wouldn’t this has been known on Hawaii forever? How could they not have noticed this for centuries? Maybe the women knew, but weren’t telling anybody. “Boy, the _wahines_ are spending an _awful_ lot of time on the volcano!” ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/orgasm-inducing-mushrooms/734811/16 "2015-10-16T20:01:28Z")
All mushrooms are orgasm inducing if applied properly. ;0