Contrary to the reassuring
catchphrase "size doesn't matter," penis size may matter in bed — but
only for some women, and for certain types of orgasms.
A new study finds that women who
have frequent vaginal orgasms are more likely than other women to
say they climax more easily with men with larger penises. Women who tend to
prefer penile-vaginal intercourse over other types of sex also say the same,
researchers reported online Sept. 24 in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
"Male anxiety about penis
size may not reflect internalized, culturally arbitrary masculine stereotypes, but an accurate
appreciation that size matters to many women — just as men feel legitimate
anxiety when they enter the mating market about their intelligence, personality
traits, sense of humor, social status, height, wealth, and other traits known
to be favored by women across cultures," study
researcher Stuart Brody, a psychologist at the University of the West of
Scotland, told LiveScience.
But other researchers were less
convinced.
"There's such variability in
preference," said Barry Komisaruk, who researches female sexual response
at Rutgers University. Women who orgasm through vaginal stimulation may indeed
prefer longer penises, Komisaruk told LiveScience, but not everyone prefers to
orgasm that way.
"There are so many different
factors," said Komisaruk, who was not involved in Brody's study.
"Once it gets to the kind of specifics that they're talking about, I get
wary."
The female orgasm
Both penis size and female orgasm
are hot-button topics. There is still scientific debate about whether vaginal
and clitoral orgasms are different phenomena. Different nerves carry signals
from the vagina and from the clitoris, Komisaruk said, and stimulation of each
activates different brain regions. But some
researchers argue that vaginal
stimulation is simply activating a different, internal, section of the
clitoris. Women report different sensations from vaginal and clitoral orgasms,
Komisaruk said, but which one women prefer largely comes down to personal
preference.
In some cases, female orgasm is
even more complex. For example, Beverly Whipple, professor emerita at Rutgers
University and one of the discoverers of the
G spot, a sensitive area felt through the front wall of the vagina, has found
that women with complete spinal cord injuries can sometimes experience orgasm,
even though the nerves that carry sensation up the spinal cord from the pelvis
have been severed. It's likely that the sensory vagus nerve, which runs in the
abdomen but bypasses the spinal cord, is recruited to carry signals to the
brain in these cases, Whipple told LiveScience.
Other research has found that
abdominal exercises induce orgasm in some women, resulting in pleasurable spasms at the gym.
Brody holds a different view,
pointing to studies finding that the ability to orgasm with vaginal stimulation
alone is correlated with better psychological functioning, better relationship
quality and greater sexual satisfaction.
"Earlier research with a
large representative sample also found that women who are made aware in their
youth that the vagina is a source of women's orgasm are more likely to develop
the capacity for vaginal orgasm. Therefore, those who deny these findings (and
insist on maintaining the politically correct party line) are not doing women a
favor, but might be injuring women's health and sexual potential," Brody
wrote in an email to LiveScience.
Does size matter?
In the new study, Brody and his
colleagues asked 323 women, mostly Scottish university students, to recall past
sexual encounters. They were asked about their recent sexual behaviors as well
as how important penile-vaginal intercourse and other sex acts were to them.
They were also asked whether penis length influenced their ability to orgasm
with vaginal stimulation.
Defining "average" as
the length of a 20-pound banknote or U.S. dollar bill, which are 5.8 inches
(14.9 cm) and 6.1 inches (15.5 cm) long, respectively, the researchers asked
women if they were more likely to orgasm vaginally with a longer-than-average
or shorter-than-average penis.
They found that 160 of the women
experienced vaginal-only orgasms and had enough sexual partners to compare size
experiences. Of these, 33.8 percent preferred longer-than-average penises, 60
percent said size made no difference and 6.3 percent said longer was less
pleasurable than shorter.
Supporting the hypothesis that
size matters, Brody and his colleagues found the women who reported the highest
number of vaginal orgasms in the past month were most likely to say that longer
was better.
"This might be due at least
in part to greater ability of a longer penis to stimulate the entire length of
the vagina, and the cervix," Brody said.
Finding sexual satisfaction
The data supports Brody's claim,
Whipple said, but the sample is limited to Scottish university students and
should be replicated with a broader group. Nevertheless, she warned against
worrying about the findings in bed.
"To me, all of this is just
so goal-oriented, and it's difficult for me to see researchers setting up
another goal [vaginal orgasm] for women to experience," Whipple said.
Whipple argued that sexuality is
healthier when focused on the pleasure of acts from cuddling to kissing to
other sexual sensations rather than the goal of reaching orgasm.
"I recommend for women to
learn about themselves, learn about their body, find what they find pleasurable
and enjoy that, as long as it's not exploiting another person," she said.
Article source: Livescience
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