American+Lesbians+and+Orgasm

=Female orgasm occurrence between orientations= toc Garcia, Lloyd, Wallen, and Fisher (2014) studied the difference in orgasm occurrence between various sexual orientations in the United States. In regards to women, l esbians reported a higher mean orgasm occurrence at 74.7%, while heterosexual and bisexual women had lower mean percentages at 61.6% and 58%, respectively (Garcia, Lloyd, Wallen, & Fisher, 2014). The graph below illustrates these findings.



Not only did lesbian women have a higher mean orgasm occurrence, but they also had a significantly higher interquartile range, meaning that the bulk of the women on the lower end of the interquartile range still had an orgasm during at least 60% of their sexual encounters (Garcia et al., 2014). When considering the lower ends of mean orgasm occurrence in other orientations, heterosexual women reached orgasm during at least 40% of sexual encounters, and bisexual women reached orgasm starting at lower than 20% of sexual encounters (Garcia et al., 2014).

Why do lesbian women have more orgasm occurrence?
Garcia et al. (2014) highlighted a few theories that try to answer this question. One explanation is that lesbians are more comfortable with the female body (since they are females themselves), and therefore are able to induce an orgasm on their female partner better than males (Garcia et al., 2014). Moreover, other research has concluded that sex between two women have a longer duration than that of heterosexual couples, which may have an affect on orgasm occurrence (Garcia et al., 2014). Author Jenny Block suggests this also might be due to the lack of a penis in bed, forcing lesbian women to be more creative with what they do sexually with one another, providing more variety in pleasure, thus reaching orgasms (Sieczkowski, 2014).

=Partnered vs Single lesbian women= A study by Tracy & Junginger (2007) looked at the differences of various aspects of sexuality between partnered and single lesbian women. They asked the 350 women in their sample to fill out the Female Sexual Function Index, or FSFI, which is a 19-item self-reported questionnaire that assesses multiple dimensions of sexual functioning (Tracy & Junginger, 2007). As shown in the graph below, both groups reported having orgasms during sexual encounters, yet partnered lesbians had a statistically significantly higher satisfaction rate in comparison to the single lesbians (Tracy & Junginger, 2007).



Disclaimer: Seventeen of the 350 women in this study were not American, and majority of these women were reported as white, had an education of at least a high school degree, middle-class, and employed. Although these women may not have been the most accurate representation of all American lesbian women, the study still provided significant results.

=References= Garcia, J., Lloyd, E., Wallen, K., & Fisher, H. (2014). Variation in orgasm occurrence by sexual orientation in a sample of U.S. singles. //Journal of Sexual Medicine, 11//, 2645-2652. doi: 10.1111/jsm.12669

Sieczkowski, C. (2014, August 19). Lesbians are having more orgasms than straight women. // The Huffington Post. // Retrieved from []

Tracy, J. K., & Junginger, J. (2007). Correlates of lesbian functioning. // Journal of Women’s Health, 16 // (4), 499-509. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2006.0308