The Big O

Post Reply New Topic

This question is about orgasms, but I didn't put it in the sex section on purpose because I'm asking from a biological pov, not emotional. I figured I would just get joke responses there.

My question is, has science ever been able to figure out if the physical (not emotional), strictly the physical sensation of having an orgasm is the same for a man as it is for a woman? I mean we call it the same thing, and maybe we have similar reactions to having one, but is it possible that they could be two different things?

I can't figure out how, evolutionarily, we could have both developed the same thing. Unless, some predecessor developed it, then split into different sexes. Does that even make sense?

Does anybody even know how sex developed in animals?

embryologically, male and female sex organs come from the same early structures. we're more alike than different.

I thought this thread was about Roy Orbison, than I found it was of a completely different topic.

That's kind of weird though, it's like the the glove and the hand coming from the same structure. Do you know any books that I can read on this subject? (I think I remember that you are a doctor.)

I thought this thread was about the big O notation and the complexity of algorithms.

I don't know if the sensation is the same. Men generally need recovery time between orgasms. Women do not.

There are "trigger points" that can push a person to orgasm. They generally are not the same for men and women, but they do exist.

cathylynn is correct -- the genitalia of both genders are actually the same stuff, just developed differently once the fetus starts developing.

Every fetus starts out with all the same "bits". The clitoris is the part that was ready to grow into a penis should the fetus form into a male. Thus once it develops it's made of the same kind of tissue, and has the same nerve endings that the penis does, making it highly likely that our speculation of similar sensations in sexual arousal is probably correct.

The ovaries and testes start out as the same organ embryonically, but the testes then descend into a scrotum formed by what, in females, remains split apart and becomes her outer labia.

All the major players down there in both men and women are formed from the same kind of tissue, they just went down different roads once the gender of the fetus you once were in the womb began to assert itself.

Thus, it's very likely that what we each experience in an orgasm probably feels much the same.

.

The orgasm developed to provide incentive for sex. The chemical soup of oxytocin dopamine and testosterone probably evolved cumulatively since humans with greater incentive passed on genes.

The refractory period for men is probably related to the body needing to replenish sperm? Women need to have as many opportunities for fertilisation however.

We have no way to identify qualitatively how it feels. We can only pin down the organs and processes involved and infer from that. There are of course empirical studies too.

Same thing.

---

Thanks everyone!

I'm surprised nobody thought it was about Oprah!

No idea what this is: big O notation and the complexity of algorithms.

Dye/MRI testing of the brain has shown that it is quantitatively different between male and female.
Similar areas of the brain increase in activity but the amount and types of peptides released, and overall profile of activity and timing differ.
One researcher said that the woman's brain shuts down more for the event than the man's brain.

Excellent tool used for programming.