If college-aged women wish to have a satisfying sex life, they'll be more successful in a relationship. A team of researchers from SUNY Binghamton and Indiana University found that women in relationships are nearly twice as likely to have orgasm-inducing sex as women in casual relationships, The New York Times reported.
Whereas the chance of reaching sexual fulfillment is skewed in favor of men during casual encounters, 40 percent to 80 percent, respectively (according to another college-aged study from earlier this year), the split is closer in relationships, where women said they reach orgasm 75 percent of the time. (The percentage for men in relationships was not given in the Times article and the full study was not available yet online.)
"The notion of sexual liberation, where men and women both had equal access to casual sex, assumed a comparable likelihood of that sex being pleasurable," Kim Wallen, a professor of neuroendocrinology at Emory University, told The Times. "But that part of the playing field isn't level."
In a relationship, men listen to their partner and try harder, said Karen England, whose earlier study discovered that only 40 percent of college women achieved orgasm during casual sex. At the same time, women are more likely to communicate their needs. In casual encounters, participating parties are basically "strangers" according to Duvan Giraldo, 26, who was interviewed by The Times, and may be uncomfortable giving detailed instructions.
"I haven't hooked up with anybody who was so cavalier as to just, like, not even care," Vanessa Martin, 23, told The Times. "But I think most of them were somewhat baffled that it would require more than just them thrusting."
Deepening the issue further, women may seek casual sex because of its spontaneous and unplanned nature, according to Debra Hebenick, a research scientist at Indiana University, and thus they are knowingly sabotaging their own gratification. That was the case for filmmaker Kim Huynh, 29, who went five years without a relationship (and a consistent orgasm) "for the freedom to be able to enjoy it all."
"As far as my ability to climax consistently, that's something I was able to have in my monogamous relationships that I never had" in other circumstances, Huyhn told The Times.
Women may also not be communicating how they best achieve orgasm, The Times pointed out. Only about a quarter of all women (not just college-aged) reach their apex consistently through intercourse alone, according to a Elisabeth Lloyd, a professor of the history and philosophy of science at Indiana University, and her 2005 book, "The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution."
Hebenick thinks that maybe an orgasm doesn't always have to be top priority.
"Something we don't talk about is why having an orgasm is the main goal or the only goal" of sex, Dr. Herbenick said. "Who are we to say women should be having orgasms?"
