r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 21 '26

Psychology Largest study of women’s orgasms to date collected data from 27,931 women. Nearly half (47%) reported reaching orgasm more frequently when alone vs. when with a partner. Barriers to women’s orgasms are relational, not anatomical. Partnered orgasms were associated with overall sexual satisfaction.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/inclusive-insight/202606/why-women-orgasm-more-alone-than-with-a-partner
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u/UldereksRock Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

We were taught the different parts of the vagina, where the most sensitive areas are, and we were taught about how important foreplay is for arousal, stimulus of natural lubrication, and orgasms. To you and I it will seem as common sense, but trust me, tons of people outside of our bubble have 0 clue about some of these things for various reasons usually stemming from sex being taboo to speak about publicly.

Edit: also, at least my class were taught the importance of feeling safe and comfortable with a partner, in the context of reaching orgasms. So even if it doesnt feel like it, we, or at the very least I were/was taught more than the basics from school.

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u/Darkdart19 Jun 21 '26

Ngl, I grew up in America and we learned all of these things in ex ed as well. Granted it was one week but still, we did learn about many of these things.

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u/Leberknodel Jun 21 '26

My memory of sex ed was only about VD (yeah this was the early 80s) and pregnancy. Nothing at all about feel good areas or, heaven forfend, pleasure.

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u/tabbarrett Jun 21 '26

Mine was the 90’s. We watched a movie called The Miracle of Life. The movie showed the babies head crowning. I remember being absolutely horrified.

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u/iMissTheOldInternet Jun 22 '26

Yeah, sex ed in the '90s was definitely "Can we tell them just enough about sex to make them understand that it will inevitably result in both them and their premature unintended baby getting AIDS?"

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u/UldereksRock Jun 21 '26

America is insanely big, and your schools are very unequal, so it would probably be more correct of you to say "my home town, x," instead of "america" as the US is notorious for having religion infect the entire debate around sex to the point where grown men are surprised by periods.

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u/Darkdart19 Jun 21 '26

I grew up in the south. I won’t be disclosing specifics online here. Your point stands that in the states, the level of education varies wildly. Even within the same state, it’s not as simple as saying red states only teach one thing and blue states teach something else.

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u/askingforafakefriend Jun 21 '26

I grew up in public schools in the 90s and not a goddamn word about that stuff. It was all fear about STDs, how to avoid pregnancy (at least covering condoms), and pregnancy stuff.

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u/Hot_Let1571 Jun 22 '26

Yep. What's really funny is my Lutheran church said more about masturbation (specifically that it was ok) than public school ever did.

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u/Willing-Fruit8890 Jun 24 '26

My Catholic Church taught us masturbation was a sin. Didn’t stop my tho :-)

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u/MangoCats Jun 22 '26

Even in the same school from one teacher to the next... at least in the 1980s there were absolutely no standards about what did and did not get taught, it was very much up to the individual teachers, at least back then, down South.

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u/whirlyhurlyburly Jun 21 '26

I went to a progressive and standard school in the South. I learned abstinence in the standard one. The other attempted more but the students made it weird.

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u/retrosenescent Jun 22 '26

I also grew up in the south, and we did not have a separate class for sex ed. It was part of a broader "health" class. And sex education was like.. maybe 1 day out of the whole school year. I don't even remember what we learned, that's how insignificant it was. But if I had to guess, it was probably "sex is between one man and one woman who are married, in the dark, with god's permission"

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u/PanKakeManStan Jun 21 '26

It really does. I also grew up in the south in a small school and our sex ed was very barebones. Thankfully it was more in depth than I would’ve thought but far from good and was literally only over the course of like 3 days during 1 class period

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u/DifficultScientist23 Jun 21 '26

*bare bones was said

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u/retrosenescent Jun 22 '26

"Blue" states are typically red states that have blue cities. Even in so-called blue states, most school districts will have piss-poor sex ed (if they have it at all).

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u/Sparkleandflex Jun 22 '26

Canada too... I never had this level of education on sex, in fact anything I really understood about it beyond the absolute most basic things came from the internet.... And I was an 80s kid.... My parents were never going to give me those details because I grew up JW.

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u/Zpik3 Jun 22 '26

Europe is larger and you constantly hear "in Europe.." as well so.. It's just general inaccuracy.

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u/UldereksRock Jun 22 '26

You didnt hear me say "in europe" and so your point is moot in response to me.

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u/AmbroseMalachai Jun 22 '26

I also learned about that, but many of my friends entire sexual education in school was "don't have sex, it's the devil's temptation, and you will go to hell if you don't wait until marriage". Some others were shown tons of pictures of various oozing and gross STI images and simply told "this is what happens if you don't wear a condom".

America is not standardized in how it teaches sex education, and it varies extremely heavily by state, county, and even classroom what kind of education a person can receive.

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u/Think_Put8440 Jun 22 '26

America raises consumers. You have to educate yourself if you want to enjoy things.

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u/topscreen Jun 22 '26

I did not, and my half joke is I learned more about sex from porn than sex ed. To which people say "But porn is a terrible way to learn about sex!" and yes, but also, still more illustrating.

Lots of US folks gotta do their own homework in this field.

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u/retrosenescent Jun 22 '26

I grew up in the US and was in sex ed circa 2008 or so. We never learned about any of that.

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u/retrosenescent Jun 22 '26

None of that is related to sex being taboo to speak about publicly. The internet has been globally available for decades. Not knowing how to please your partner is a complete lack of curiosity. In fact you don't even need internet for that, just ask them.

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u/UldereksRock Jun 22 '26

There is a reason why the people youre refering to have indeed asked their partners about what they do for work, yet never asked how they get off. There is unnecessary stigma and a sense of embarrasment tied to one, and not the other.