Prelim results: 26 women responding, 19 had definite orgasms before for age of ~ 25. That’s nearly 75% orgasmic, with over a quarter of respondents non-orgasmic into their mid-twenties.
Of the 7 that did not have orgasms by that time, 5 had them after that age. That gives a persistent anorgasmic rate of slightly over 7% beyond age 25.
I did exclude anecdotal reports of other people’s orgasms or lack of them, just to maintain standards.
While the numbers are too small to generalize about precise rates of anorgasmia, certainly it indicates that it is a rather common phenomenon.
Please continue to post, I’ll continue to collect data.
Thanks to all who took the time to share thus far!
In addition to the pursuit of knowledge, I was also interested in seeing how many women became orgasmic later in adulthood. The study that re-kindled my interest in the question (see the OP) didn’t relate how many women went on to become orgasmic; it just noted that “some did”.
Granted, the information doesn’t have much relevance to my present practice. But in times past I had a rather large practice of recovering (and occasionally relapsing) alcoholics and addicts, with a significant # of female addicts with both primary and secondary anorgasmia.
My counselling to them was rather rudimentary, consisting of checking out basic anatomy and physiology for problems, and advising things like “here is your clitoris, try spending time with it, along with your SO &/or a vibrator”.
But I never was able to give them solid numbers about how many of them could expect to become orgasmic.
And beyond that, it’s a much more interesting research project than figuring out how many of my current patients have Hepatitis C with stage II or greater fibrosis (another study I’m doing).
I did not have them as soon as I started “fiddling with myself” or right away when I started having sex (which wasn’t until I was 19). I actually had to “figure out” how to have them. Then I was like “oh shit that was awesome!” and now I can do it just fine.
Can’t orgasm with just intercourse, btw. Clitoris or bust.
(honest question for the OP, no snark intended toward you EJsGirl)
Is there really such a thing as a vaginal orgasm as opposed to the “Normal” clitoral one? It seems I’ve read (could have been Masters and Johnson or some such), that ole whatsisface…Freud…was incorrect about his “mature (vaginal) vs. immature (clitoral)” orgasm theory. Even as a teenager when I first read this theory I thought “there speaks a man unable to get a woman off, and who thinks that if the ole in and out is good enough for a man, it should be for a woman”. I never could understand how intercourse alone with no contact for the clitoris could be in any way effective insofar as achieving orgasm for a woman.
At any rate, in answer to the OP’s main question. another vote for “no”. I was delighted to discover orgasms via manhandling expertise by age 18.
I’m 49 now.
Well, I have been sexually active since the age of 19, and although I enjoyed sex, I did not have an actual orgasm until I was 28. Had a bunch since then, though.
I have one other friend who claims similar - she was about 27 before she had her first genuine big O.
Masturbating since about age ten, first definitive orgasm at around 13-14. First orgasm from intercourse alone at about 16. Became multi-orgasmic around age 22 or so after having two kids. I’m 49, in perimenopause and still multi-orgasmic–actually getting a bit more so as I get older. Also a bit of a female ejaculator when properly motivated. SO thinks this is great, but as the one who usually ends up with the copious wet spot I’m a bit more :dubious: on the subject.
First orgasm at about 8 or 9 and haven’t stopped since. I’m fascinated by the reports of older women saying their orgasms have changed over the years, that had never occurred to me.
Similar experience to many on here: fiddled with myself more or less all my life, not really knowing until high school what I was doing. Yes, I had a book to tell me what masturbation was and everything, I just didn’t connect it to doing that rubby thing that feels good because nothing was going in anywhere, as it were.
I clearly remember the first orgasm – I was about twenty and taking a shower with one of those hand-held water massager things… I’d actually thought I’d had orgasms up to that point, but the difference between that flush of “woo, that’s intense!” and “WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA DID I JUST HURT MYSELF OR SOMETHING WHEEEEE” is, well, vast.
As far as I can tell, the whole clitoral v. vaginal thing is crap and often seems like an excuse to keep plowing away thoughtlessly. All female orgasms are clitoral. Even ‘hands-free’ orgasms involve the clitoris, directly or indirectly, either externally through grinding or internally by hitting the g-spot aka the roots of the clitoris.
Freud had what have turned out to be some very strange ideas about some subjects, particularly women. He is not taken seriously by many people at all these days, but apparently the idea that we should orgasm by penetration is still around. It’s crap, but apparently it’s there.
[NOTE: AWW CRAP - I ACCIDENTALLY POSTED ON MY BF’s LOGIN HOW DO I CHANGE THIS TO ME?]
I was not anorgasmic before 25, although up to that point I had only had clitoral orgasms due to masturbation.
My choice of husband, and his choice of sex every 3 years or so being normal, didn’t really change things.
Enter 33, clarity, and the end of a bad marriage.
Hello vaginal orgasm!
Not only do I enjoy clitoral orgasms, but I often have multiple simultaneous orgasms - because as my SO is pushing and i’m contracting and he’s expanding to touch certain spots I didn’t even know I had, I’m also often getting clitoral stimulation at the same time either by the motion of the ocean or other means.
And I’m not just talking about vaginal, roots of the clitoris g-spot things. I’m talking about the constrictions of the walls in to an extreme happy dance all of its own.
Vaginal orgasms are far from a myth. Just ask my wet spot.
But even so, I’d like to ask all the lady dopers who are willing to answer the following:
Did you have Primary anorgasmia at age 25? (that is, never had an orgasm by that age?)
NO
And if so, have you achieved orgasm after the age of 25?
Absolutely!
I flew solo for many years…losing my virginity very late…after the age of thirty. So by then, I had had plenty of “me time” to discover exactly how to drive my car.
By the time I began taking lovers, it was a matter of just instructing them how to drive my car.
As Melody Harmonius stated, I, too have had clitoral orgasms and the vaginal/multi orgasmic/split the atom/the angels are weeping orgasms. The nice thing is to have a partner who is willing to either take his time and really stimulate me, or otherwise build our rhythm to a crescendo and then be willing to stay with it.
Recently, I was able to actually count…(I know this has nothing to do with “research,” per se…but here goes.)…and in one hour of pelvic shaking, bone grinding, intense work on the part of my bf with some assistance from our magic wand vibrator, I achieved over 30 orgasms…both clitoral and vaginal.
Sex gets better the older you get, and having just stepped one year closer to forty today…I can’t wait to hit my forties.
An interesting side question would be, how many women have orgasms at some later stage of life and realise that what they thought were orgasms previously, really weren’t? The post above and a couple of others suggest that it sometimes happens. How often? And how does this affect the statistics on female orgasms that are gained by self reporting?
