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How did we NOT know this?!
By Christine Schoenwald — Written on Apr 29, 2016
If you have trouble having an orgasm from penetrative sex, you're not alone — most women can't.
Apparently, a woman's ability to orgasm during sex depends on a physical development that happened while she was still in the womb, at least according to new research. During gestation, the clitoris begins to drift up and away from the vaginal opening.
For some women, their clitoris has drifted too far up, which can make it very difficult or even impossible to have an orgasm during sex. If the clitoris and urinary opening are closer together, the woman will have a better chance of having an orgasm than those with a larger distance between the area.
If there's a large space between the clitoris and the vaginal opening, it isn't just challenging to have an orgasm — it can be damn near impossible. The reason for this difficulty is because traditional sex doesn't provide enough friction to stimulate the clitoris.
The magic number (for the distance) is 2.5 centimeters, slightly less than one inch.
"It's so strong a correlation that if you give us a woman who has a distance of three centimeters, we can very reliably predict she won't have orgasm with intercourse," said Elizabeth Lloyd, an affiliated faculty scholar with the Kinsey institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Other factors, such as penis size, the ability and skill of the partner or the desire "might have some effect, but it really is the anatomical distance that seems to be predictive," Lloyd said.
But what's the reason for the clitoris drift in the first place? The answer is exposure to male hormones in the womb. "If she's exposed to a lot of androgen, the clitoral bud migrates far away," Lloyd said.
If you or a partner do the measuring and your clitoris is far away from your urinary opening, don't say goodbye to orgasms forever — just pay a little more attention to your clitoris. It's a key player in the orgasm game.
