“Inability of a woman to reach orgasm”. This is how anorgasmia was defined in the mid-20th century by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, pioneers in the investigation of the nature of the human sexual response. It is, therefore, one of the first sexual dysfunctions described, and one of the most common among women, not so much among men. Anorgasmia manifests itself with the absence of climax after a phase of sexual stimulation considered “normal”.
Although all women are born with the ability to achieve this culmination of the sexual act, characterized by intense pleasure and loss of muscle control, a considerable percentage of them repeatedly suffer a blockage that prevents them from exceeding the previous plateau phase to the incontinence characteristic of orgasm , especially through coital stimulation. In Spain, this percentage is close to 40 percent of the female population, where a tenth of it has never even experienced an orgasm.
Behind this physiological problem lie, in 95 percent of the cases, psychological and cultural factors such as bad onanistic habits or previous traumatic experiences, which prevent maintaining a relaxed and natural attitude in the face of increased sexual tension. It is due to a lesser extent to organic causes such as excessive drug use, injuries or abnormalities in blood flow. However, a recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine has revealed another physical factor that would prevent the happy passage to the “petite mort”: the size of the clitoris and the distance between its internal area and the vaginal canal.
According to this work, a small clitoral glans and a greater distance from the body of the clitoris to the vaginal wall are associated with anorgasmia . To obtain this conclusion, researchers from the Good Samaritan Hospital in Ohio (USA) analyzed the sexual habits of around thirty women, both anorgasmic and of normal orgasmic ease, along with the anatomical characteristics of their genitalia. They found that the former had a clitoral glans (its structure is similar to that of the penis) of much smaller size and a 30 percent greater distance from the internal clitoris to the vagina. Although the authors ignored the predominantly psychological aspect of the disorder, they consider their results to be consistent and shed important light on a highly unexplored area of study.
For the moment and until more evidence of these physical limitations is obtained, consulting a specialist to get rid of psychosocial constrictions will continue to be the most effective treatment for this sexual dysfunction , which fortunately has an easy solution, but not the loss of sexual desire, second most common among women.
