Lesbians have more orgasms

 When it comes to achieving orgasms during sex with a
regular partner, straight women still lag behind men and
lesbian women, a new study suggests.
Using surveys of single people, the Kinsey Institute
research suggests that men, straight or gay, climax about
85 percent of the time during sex, while lesbians do so
about 75 percent of the time. Straight females placed third,
achieving orgasm during about 63 percent of sexual
encounters.
Why the discrepancies? Basic anatomy and gaps in
communication between partners may be key, the study
authors said.
"We need to take seriously the wide variety of factors that
may influence sexual outcomes, including orgasm, in
individuals and couples," said study lead author Justin
Garcia, an assistant professor of gender studies at the
Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and
Reproduction at Indiana University, in Bloomington.
The findings aren't definitive, he stressed, because they're
based only on people's recollections about recent sexual
encounters with familiar sex partners.
Still, the study does offer new insight into sexuality, Garcia
believes. "In their 1966 treatise, Masters & Johnson
suggested that lesbian women have more orgasms than
heterosexual women," he said. "Yet there have not been
many studies that have taken a careful look at orgasm
outcomes across sexual orientation categories. We
attempt to fill this knowledge gap."
To do so, the new study analysed the results of an
Internet-based survey of 2,850 single American adults age
21 or older, almost 1,500 men and 1,350 women. The
survey had higher numbers of gays and bisexuals than the
American population because the researchers wanted to
fully represent their experiences.
All the participants reported having sex with someone else
over the past year, and each answered a question about
the percentage of the time that they had an orgasm during
sex with a familiar partner over the past 12 months.
Does the answer lie in oral sex?
The difference in orgasm rates between straight and
lesbian women was significant, and the reasons why aren't
clear. Study co-author Elisabeth Lloyd, chair of history and
philosophy of science at Indiana University, said it may
have something to do with the fact that penetrative
intercourse is a more crucial part of sex for straight
women than for lesbians.
The anatomy of women, especially the difference between
the clitoris and the urinary opening, is crucial to the
likelihood that a woman will have an orgasm through
intercourse, she said.
Still, better communication between heterosexual partners
couldn't hurt, the researchers added.
"The most successful means of increasing satisfaction has
always been increased communication and attentiveness
to the partner's responsiveness," Lloyd said. In other
words, talk and pay attention.
Garcia agreed. He said partners of all types can help
women reach orgasm by paying attention to "both spoken
and unspoken communication."
"Some individuals may say what they want, or be willing to
state what they want if asked by a partner; others may
communicate with body language," Garcia said. "And for
others it may take getting to know each other, both in and
out of the bedroom, to understand what allows them to
experience positive sexual outcomes."
And does all this mean that lesbians are more sexually
satisfied than straight women? Not necessarily, the
researchers sad.
"Satisfaction is different from orgasm. Many women can
be sexually satisfied without orgasm," Lloyd said. "We can't
infer that there are legions of unsatisfied heterosexual
women because of this study. We'd have to ask them."