A Reversed Orgasm Gap? Gender Differences in Orgasm Frequency During Heterosexual Partner Sex

Large-scale surveys consistently show there is an orgasm gap in heterosexual partner sex of 20% to 36%—with more women not experiencing orgasm during heterosexual partner sex than men. In two Dutch/Flemish general population convenience samples (N = 1028; 756 women (73.5%), 271 men (26.4%), 1 non-binary (0.1%); Mage = 34.8 years; SDage = 12.7 years) of exclusively and almost exclusively heterosexual respondents, 140 women (20.4%) and 3 men (1.2%) who had sex in the last six months did not regularly experience orgasm during partner sex—representing an orgasm gap of 19.2% (p < 0.001). Women who did regularly experience orgasm during partner sex did more often than men experience orgasm more than once (24.2% of women versus 11.2% of men, a 13% difference; p < 0.001). MANOVA followed by post hoc ANOVAs were used to investigate group differences. Women who did not experience orgasm showed higher levels of sexual distress and sexual inhibition, and lower levels of sexual satisfaction and self-esteem than women who did experience orgasm. Also, higher levels of depressive symptoms and social anxiety were reported by the women not experiencing orgasm during partner sex. The strongest predictor of the number of orgasms during one sex session was the number of orgasms the partner presumably experienced. The current study confirmed the existence of a heterosexual gap, whilst results of this large-scale study also suggest a “reversed” orgasm gap: more women than men experience orgasm more than once during a heterosexual partner sex session.