Excerpt:

In our sample we found that orgasm was curvilinearly related to sexual and relationship satisfaction for both men and women, with no significant gender/sex difference. That is, there appeared to be a peak point where both men’s and women’s satisfaction no longer continued to increase with a higher proportion of orgasm.

The Journal of Sex Research

Matthew Rivas-Koehl, Kiersten Dobson & Brian G. Ogolsky (2022), , DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2022.2144989

Abstract

Orgasm is commonly considered an important aspect of sexual activity. The current study sought to replicate and extend prior work by examining gender/sex differences in the association between orgasm and satisfaction in a sample of same-gender/sex couples. We also examined how desire for an orgasm moderated this association. Although prior research found a curvilinear association between orgasm and satisfaction for heterosexual women (but not men), we found that orgasm curvilinearly predicted relationship and sexual satisfaction across genders/sexes, indicating more frequent orgasm was associated with higher satisfaction only to an extent for all individuals in our sample. We also found that when desire for orgasm was high, orgasm was associated with higher relationship and sexual satisfaction than when desire was low, suggesting that desire for orgasm may differentially affect how orgasm is related to satisfaction. We discuss our findings in terms of sexual scripting theory, contextualizing our results by considering the socially constructed nature of sexuality and how sexual scripts may vary across individuals with different sexual and gender identities.