You may have heard that vaginal orgasms are “more intense” than clitoral ones.
The idea dates all the way back to Freud, says sex researcher Nicole Prause, Ph.D.
But a new study, authored by Prause, puts that myth to rest.
Researchers surveyed 88 women about what type of stimulation usually caused their orgasms—vagina, clitoris, etc.,—and how intense those orgasms were.
The researchers didn’t find a link between the source of orgasm and how good it felt, on average.
Related: These 5 Science-Backed Tweaks Will Make Her More Likely to Orgasm
And in fact, it doesn’t really make sense to distinguish between “clitoral” and “vaginal” orgasms at all, says Prause.
“We’ve been asking women the wrong question for a very long time,” she says.
When scientists ask a woman about what causes her orgasm, she’s usually forced to choose between just vaginal or just clitoral stimulation, when, in fact, most women often need multiple types of stimulation to climax, says Prause.
(For in-depth instructions on how to please her in bed, check out How to Pleasure a Woman—the ultimate sex manual from the editors of Men’s Health.)
Plus, it’s nearly impossible to penetrate a woman’s vagina without also stimulating her clitoris, says Prause.
In this study, Prause and her coauthors allowed women to answer “both” to the orgasm source question, and 64 percent of them chose that option. That means that two thirds of the women usually climaxed from clitoral and vaginal stimulation combined—not one or the other.
Related: 16 New Ways to Touch Her Vagina
So don’t worry about giving her one particular type of orgasm.
Instead, just check in with her about what she wants you to do to her. And depending on what she says, you make be able to make use of these articles on How to Find the G-Spot and 13 Things You Should Be Doing To Her Clitoris.
