Every cold and flu season, you’ll stand in the supplement aisle staring at a $40 bottle of something that promises to support your immune health, and you’ll probably buy it. The wellness industry will sell you mushroom tinctures and zinc lozenges. Science, however, would like to suggest something more fun.Research has linked orgasms to measurable immune benefits, and the case is more solid than it sounds……Continue reading….
By Ashley Fike
Source: Vice
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Critics:
Discussions of female orgasm are complicated by orgasms in women typically being divided into two categories: clitoral orgasm and vaginal (or G-spot) orgasm. In 1973, Irving Singer theorized that there are three types of female orgasms; he categorized these as vulval, uterine, and blended, but because he was a philosopher, “these categories were generated from descriptions of orgasm in literature rather than laboratory studies.”
In 1982, Ladas, Whipple and Perry also proposed three categories: the tenting type (derived from clitoral stimulation), the A-frame type (derived from G-spot stimulation), and the blended type (derived from clitoral and G-spot stimulation). In 1999, Whipple and Komisaruk proposed cervix stimulation as being able to cause a fourth type of female orgasm.
Female orgasms by means other than clitoral or vaginal/G-spot stimulation are less prevalent in scientific literature, and most scientists contend that no distinction should be made between “types” of female orgasm.[35] This distinction began with Sigmund Freud, who postulated the concept of “vaginal orgasm” as separate from clitoral orgasm.
In 1905, Freud stated that clitoral orgasms are purely an adolescent phenomenon and that upon reaching puberty, the proper response of mature women is a change-over to vaginal orgasms, meaning orgasms without any clitoral stimulation. While Freud provided no evidence for this basic assumption, the consequences of this theory were considerable.
Many women felt inadequate when they could not achieve orgasm via vaginal intercourse alone, involving little or no clitoral stimulation, as Freud’s theory made penile–vaginal intercourse the central component to women’s sexual satisfaction. The first major national surveys of sexual behavior in the U.S. were the Kinsey Reports.
Alfred Kinsey was the first researcher to harshly criticize Freud’s ideas about female sexuality and orgasm when, through his interviews with thousands of women, Kinsey found that most of the women he surveyed could not have vaginal orgasms. He “criticized Freud and other theorists for projecting male constructs of sexuality onto women” and “viewed the clitoris as the main center of sexual response” and the vagina as “relatively unimportant” for sexual satisfaction, relaying that “few women inserted fingers or objects into their vaginas when they masturbated.”
He “concluded that satisfaction from penile penetration [is] mainly psychological or perhaps the result of referred sensation”. Masters and Johnson’s research into the female sexual response cycle, as well as Shere Hite’s, generally supported Kinsey’s findings about female orgasm. Masters and Johnson’s research on the topic came at the time of the second-wave feminist movement and inspired feminists such as Anne Koedt, author of The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm, to speak about the “false distinction” made between clitoral and vaginal orgasms and women’s biology not being properly analyzed.
Various studies have linked emotional and cognitive aspects to female orgasm and sexual satisfaction. Negative thoughts about failure have been associated with difficulty achieving orgasm, whereas positive emotions during sexual activity are significantly and positively associated with orgasm. A study examining the relationship between body awareness and female orgasm found a positive association between awareness of bodily sensations and emotions and both the frequency of orgasms and satisfaction with them.
Specifically, the facet of Noticing predicted orgasm frequency, Body Trusting predicted orgasm satisfaction, and Attention Regulation predicted both. Cognitive-behavioral factors that impair the ability to achieve orgasm include “spectatoring” (observing oneself from an external perspective), .
Cognitive distraction, maladaptive sexual beliefs, performance anxiety, deficits in attention and interoceptive awareness, and behavioral avoidance. Feelings of stress, as well as poor emotional connection with a partner, are negatively associated with female orgasm.
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