The Relationship Between Sexual Concordance and Orgasm Consistency in Women

Abstract

Sexual concordance (the relationship between genital and self-reported sexual responses) may be associated with orgasm consistency (OC; the proportion of sexual acts leading to orgasm) during penile–vaginal intercourse (PVI) in women. We investigated the relationship between women’s sexual concordance (assessed using different stimulus modalities and self-reported sexual arousal methods) and OC during various sexual activities (assessed using different types of questions). For Study 1 (n = 51), when sexual concordance was assessed using audiovisual sexual stimuli, we did not find a statistically significant relationship between OC and poststimulus self-reports of sexual arousal or genital sensations, raw values of OC, or ranges of OC. For Study 2 (n = 44), where sexual concordance was assessed using audionarrative sexual stimuli, we did find a statistically significant relationship between PVI OC and sexual concordance using change in self-reported sexual arousal, and ranges of orgasm consistency. Two findings were inconsistent with previous research. First, OC varied significantly by activity type in both studies; masturbation yielded the highest OC. Second, PVI OC was significantly related to oral sex and masturbation OC (Study 2). We discuss the need for further research and various factors that may affect women’s orgasm consistency and sexual concordance.