Table of Contents
What is an orgasm?
The American Psychological Association defines an orgasm as the moment of maximum pleasure. It occurs due to sexual stimulation and involves the muscles, blood vessels, and a release of feel-good chemicals known as endorphins.
When experiencing an orgasm, men typically ejaculate, whereas women typically experience contractions of the vaginal wall. In the course of a sexual encounter or during an orgasm, females may also ejaculate.
In general, for women, during an orgasm, the vaginal and anal muscles contract about once per second for about 5 to 8 times. Heart rate and breathing rate may also increase. For some women, the vagina may become moist before and during orgasm. Studies show that the percentage of women who ejaculate varies from 10% to 70%.
After having an orgasm, one’s face, neck, and chest may get flushed. You might also feel sleepy, calm, or happy because of the endorphins released. But for some women, their clitoris might feel a bit more sensitive and uncomfortable when touched immediately after.
Now an orgasm happens to be just a small part of a larger cycle that one experiences during sexual arousal. This cycle is known as the sexual response cycle and differs for both males and females.
What is the sexual response cycle and its four stages?
A sexual response cycle is a series of physiological and emotional responses that occur as you become sexually aroused and engage in sexually arousing activities, such as sexual intercourse and sexual stimulation. Understanding how your body reacts during each stage of the sexual response cycle can improve your relationship and can help you identify any potential source of sexual dysfunction. There are several different models of the sexual response cycle that have been proposed. The one we’re going to look at here is the most popular.
This model is known as the Masters and Johnson four-phase model. It was proposed by Masters and Johnson in 1966 after looking at 10,000 recordings of changes in participants’ physiology during sexual intercourse. From this data, they identified four stages of the sexual response cycle. These are 1. Excitement/Desire, 2. Plateau, 3. Orgasm and 4. Resolution.
The following describes these stages during the female sexual response cycle.
Excitement/Desire :
A woman may be sexually excited by thoughts, fantasies, kissing, touch, or masturbation. This sexual excitation can then cause the following –
- An increase in muscle tension
- Elevated heart and breathing rate
- Flushing of skin
- Hardening and erecting of nipples
- Increased blood supply to the groin area
- Swelling of the clitoris and inner lips
- Secretion of lubricating fluid from the vagina
- Swelling of breasts and vagina.
Plateau Phase :
This is a more intense stage of arousal that reaches the point of orgasm, although it may not always happen. During this stage, a woman may experience –
- Changes that occurred during phase 1 in a more intense fashion
- Vaginal swelling with increased blood flow
- Clitoral sensitivity
- Clitoral retraction
- Elevated breathing rate, heart rate, and blood pressure
- Muscle tension and spasms in the legs, face, and hands.
Orgasm :
This is the shortest phase of the sexual response cycle. It is when a woman experiences climax or the highest point of sexual experience. It involves –
- Release of sexual tension
- Muscle spasms especially in the pelvic area
- Waves of pleasure throughout the body
- Involuntary muscle contractions of the vagina and womb
- Release of hormones like endorphins which make one feel relaxed and content
- Elevation in heart rate, breathing rate and blood pressure
- Largening of the vagina
- Ejaculation (for some women)
- Sexual flush (for some women)
Resolution :
This refers to the last phase of the female sexual response cycle. In this phase –
- Bodily functions gradually return to normal
- Swollen and erected body parts return to normal
- One feels more relaxed and intimate
In some women, you may quickly go back to your orgasm phase or have several orgasms with additional sexual stimulation.
What hormones are released during orgasm?
The above section makes it clear that the female body goes through several physiological changes during the various stages of the sexual response cycle. However, what hormonal changes occur during the cycle, particularly during the orgasm phase?
Understanding the female orgasm hormones
During orgasm, the brain produces a large number of hormones and neurotransmitters.
One of these neurotransmitters is dopamine. Dopamine is responsible for sexual pleasure, lust, and desire.
In addition to releasing dopamine, the brain also releases oxytocin during an orgasm. The pituitary gland, in particular, secretes this hormone into the hypothalamus. The hormone helps us feel connected to others and is known to promote feelings of love and affection. Oxytocin is also called the bonding hormone, as it is released during breastfeeding and helps to facilitate feelings of love and attachment.
In fact, one can consider oxytocin and dopamine to be the female climax hormones given that they are released during the female orgasm and associated with the rewarding effects of the same.
In addition to dopamine and oxytocin, prolactin is also released during orgasm. It is responsible for the feeling of sexual satisfaction that comes with orgasm. Prolactin is also the main hormone that stimulates milk production after pregnancy.
While sex and breastfeeding both release oxytocin and prolactin, it is important to note that these hormones play different roles in the body during these activities. Ultimately both hormones work to strengthen social connections.
Does estrogen help you climax?
Now you may be wondering whether the main female hormone, estrogen is involved during orgasm. Does this hormone help you climax? It turns out that estrogen plays a very important role in helping you climax. Local vaginal estrogen can increase blood flow not only to vaginal and vulvar tissue but also to the clitoris. An increased blood supply to the genital areas is paramount to achieving female orgasm making estrogen integral. That is why women who have difficulty achieving orgasm are advised to apply a dot of estrogen cream directly to their clitoris. Many experts believe that the clitoris becomes less sensitive because of estrogen decline. This decline could be because of aging or some hormonal disorder. Since many women climax through clitoral stimulation, less sensitivity may diminish the intensity of orgasms these women experience. Hence there seems to exist a correlation between orgasm intensity and estrogen levels. A higher orgasm intensity is associated with greater sexual pleasure and satisfaction. This highlights the role and influence of hormones like estrogen in female pleasure.
Do hormones affect sexuality?
While hormones like estrogen influence our sexual pleasure, it turns out they also influence our sexuality and sexual well-being. Now you may be wondering how.
It turns out that the hormone actually increases female sexual behavior. It does this by elevating one’s sex drive. Sex drive is the part of a woman’s body that makes her more receptive to sex. Women with higher levels of estrogen have a stronger sexual drive which makes them more open to flirting, having sex, and giving off “I am available” signals.
Besides helping increase sexual behavior, estrogen also helps increase one’s sexual well-being. This is because it helps keep your vaginal walls strong, flexible, and full of lubrication. This makes you not experience much pain when you’re having sex.
It turns out that testosterone also plays a role in initiating sexual activities, shaping sexual desire, and pursuing sexual behavior in women. It increases a woman’s sex drive by helping her produce norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is a key neurotransmitter regulating arousal, with studies showing higher levels of the same associated with a higher sex drive. According to Susan Davis, a senior author, and researcher at Monash University in Australia – “ Testosterone acts directly in the brain and influences sexual functioning at a central level (sexual desire, fantasy, thoughts, etc.) and it also increases blood flow to the genitalia, so women are more likely to feel sensation of arousal and orgasm”. Hence it turns out that testosterone akin to estrogen helps elevate a woman’s sexual behavior and sexual pleasure.
What about progesterone?
While there is limited research on the effects of progesterone on libido, some studies have suggested that it may be beneficial. For instance, one study showed that women who took oral contraceptives with high levels of progesterone reported a higher libido than those who took lower-level contraceptives. Other studies did not find any significant difference.
Progesterone levels can change during a woman’s menstrual cycle. They usually increase after ovulation, and some women may have a higher libido during this period. For this reason, progesterone therapy has been used to address some sexual dysfunction in women, including low libido, difficulty achieving orgasm, etc.
However, there is still a lot of research that needs to be done to get a better understanding of the effects of progesterone on sex drive.
This is because in many women progesterone has been found to numb the erogenous zones. This means you are likely to have a dull orgasm with more stimulation or no orgasm at all.
Is there a way through which I can optimize my orgasm?
It turns out that hormonal optimization is crucial to achieve better orgasms. In other words, having hormonal balance can help enhance one’s sexual pleasure. Find out why:
Estrogen
- Having too little amount – Having a lower-than-normal level of estrogen in your body can cause less blood flow to the vagina. This can then cause the vagina to become thinner, dryer, and less elastic making penetrative sex more painful. Having less estrogen can also lower blood supply to the clitoris making it difficult for women to achieve orgasm via clitoral stimulation.
- Having too much amount – In contrast, when estrogen levels become too high, this can cause estrogen to overpower the effects of other hormones like testosterone. Testosterone is crucial for sexual desire. This makes estrogen dominance and low libido go hand in hand, unfortunately.
Testosterone
- Having too little amount – Having a lower-than-normal level of testosterone in your body can decrease sexual thoughts or fantasies. It can also make it more difficult for you to reach orgasm and cause hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). This is a disorder characterized by a persistent or recurrent absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity. It affects around 10% of women in the United States.
Having too much amount – Overly high levels of testosterone in women can cause irregular menstrual cycles and low libido.
Conclusion
The female orgasm is a highly pleasurable bodily experience that occurs when a sufficient amount of sexual stimulation is present. There is no universal approach to achieving orgasm, and the sensation can vary from individual to individual and even from sexual encounter to sexual encounter. Establishing hormonal balance through a healthy diet and an active lifestyle can help you climax and receive the sexual satisfaction you so rightfully deserve!
Hormone University was created as an educational platform with the mission to improve hormone health through accessible knowledge and to advocate for social impact in our communities.
You’re not alone.
80% of the adult female population has experienced hormonal imbalance at one point in their life that affected not only their physical health but also their mental health. Coping with pain, infertility, anxiety, depression, body image issues, and, on top of this, judgment is the heavy load most of these women have to bear each day and an important problem we need to tackle as a society.
