Why Women Experience Contractions During Orgasm

Orgasm contractions.  You know what we’re talking about, ladies.  While it’s undoubtedly true that contractions during climax definitely feel good (as hell), the question remains:  Below, we break down why women experience contractions during orgasm, according to science.

Contractions. In both men and women, orgasm involves contractions of the pelvic floor muscles. With sufficient amount of arousal, these muscles experience a series of fast, wavelike contractions. Typically, both sexes experience around four to 10 contractions, separated by less than a second — 0.08, to be act, according to Psychology Today. If you’re sexually active, chances are you know what we’re talking about.

Men vs. women. Orgasm contractions differ for men and women. In women particularly, the muscle contractions that come with reaching climax are usually visible. This is especially true when the contractions involve the anal sphincter and the vaginal opening. In some ladies, orgasm also releases fluid — hence the term female ejaculation. Contrary to popular belief, the fluid is not urine; rather, it’s more like men’s prostatic fluid.

Ejaculation. Even though women can ejaculate during climax, it differs from that of the male ejaculation experience in a very distinct way: Unlike the female orgasm, the male orgasm plays a key role in human reproduction, as men who cannot reach orgasm — and thus, cannot ejaculate — are likely to have a difficult time procreating. But women who can’t reach orgasm, let alone ejaculation? In most cases, their ability to reproduce isn’t hindered at all.

Female orgasm. In other words, a man who cannot reach orgasm generally cannot father children. In contrast, a woman can become pregnant regardless of whether or can not she can reach orgasm. For scientists, this observation has triggered a lot of research — and debate — about why women orgasm at all to begin with. This begs the question: If it’s not necessary for reproduction, what is the purpose of the female orgasm?

Sperm retention mechanism. To date, scientists have hypothesized three possible explanations, one of which is dubbed the sperm retention mechanism. The basic idea: That the contractions women experience during orgasm may serve as a way to draw sperm further into a woman’s reproductive tract. Think: Vacuum cleaner.

Conception. The purpose of drawing sperm further into a woman’s reproductive tract? To increase the odds of conception, of course. "Some researchers hypothesize that when the vagina and uterus contract, they retain more sperm, possibly due to the way they close up and related to some sort of suction created by the contractions,” according to HowStuffWorks.com. "This suction could reduce the amount of sperm that drips out of the woman's body after sex, meaning more sperm would get a shot at reaching an egg."

Research. In recent years, scientists have found some evidence suggesting that this might indeed be the reason why women experience contractions during orgasm. In one study, for example, female volunteers were asked by researchers to collect “flowback” after unprotected intercourse. This means that the the women collected semen that seeped out of the vagina post sex, according to Sex And Psychology.

Findings. The researchers then did a sperm count on each flowback sample, relating this count to whether or not the female volunteers reached climax. So, what’d the scientists find? When women reached orgasm around the same time as their partners, the flowback contained less sperm than when women didn’t reach orgasm at all or reached the big finish much sooner than their lovers.

Flaws. Overall, the study’s findings suggest that the female orgasm helped in retaining sperm. That said, the study should be taken with a grain of salt. Why? Because it definitely has its flaws. For instance, we don’t know how much sperm was actually released during each ejaculation.

Flaws. Because we don’t know how much was released during each ejaculation, it’s difficult to make certain claims about how much of it was actually retained. We mean, how can one be sure? But that’s just one flaw: As SexAnd Psychology points out, there are definitely more.

Flaws. A second flaw of the study? If we accept the claim that the female orgasm truly does help to retain sperm, then that leaves us with two remaining questions. One: Why do many ladies experience difficulty climaxing during vaginal sex? And two: Why does it often taken women way, way longer to reach orgasm in comparison to men?

Fantastic bonus. Contractions aside, an alternative theory as to why the female orgasm exists deconstructs the phenomenon in a much more basic way: It’s simply a “fantastic bonus” for ladies, according got Sex And Psychology. Unlike the sperm retention mechanism belief, this one states that there is no adaptive value to the big O in ladies. Rather, it’s just something that feels good.

Byproduct. The “fantastic bonus” theory hypothesizes that the female orgasm is merely a byproduct of how the tissues in the female anatomy are set up. "Regardless of one's biological sex, everyone initially looks the same in the womb,” Sex And Psychology reports. "During the first two months of development, the genital structures are undifferentiated and have the potential to develop into either penises and scrotums or vulvas.”

Byproduct. The blog continues: "The male and female genitals actually develop out of the very same embryonic tissues and nerve structures, and these structures are laid out in order to ensure orgasm if a male develops, given that the male orgasm is necessary for men to reproduce. Because men’s ability to reach orgasm is so heavily favored by our biology, it could be that the female orgasm is simply a byproduct of this.” In other words, it’s like the male nipple in terms of its reason for being.

Takeaway. Bottom line? There are a slew of theories that claim to know the the purpose of the female orgasm, but the truth is, no one really does — not yet, at least. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t keep trying to find out though. And what better way to do than to have lots and lots of orgasms? In the name of science, of course.