I've seen a variety of answers to this question in articles and magazines - can orgasm (for the woman) improve your chances of getting pregnant? We know the man must have an orgasm (unless high-tech fertility treatments are being used to extract sperm from the testes), but what about for women? Does orgasm help?
I just recently watched a fascinating lecture on the topic of orgasm at TED.com. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and in short, it's a forum for people with great ideas to share their research and inventions. (Be warned, their website of videos can become addictive!)
They just recently put up on their site a video lecture by author Mary Roach, entitled "10 Things You Didn't Know About Orgasm". One of the ten things she talked about was the relationship between orgasm and fertility.
She says that in the early 1900s, doctors routinely prescribed female orgasm to help couples with fertility problems. The theory was that orgasm helped the semen get "sucked up" from the cervix into the uterus. They called this "up suck".
In the 1950s, researchers Masters and Johnson wondered if "up suck" was real, and decided to conduct an experiment. They made artificial semen, mixed with radiographic dye, and placed it inside a cervical cap inside the woman. Then, they had the woman self-pleasure herself to orgasm in the lab. They then took x-rays, to see if the artificial semen had been sucked up.
The fake semen did not get sucked up, and so Masters and Johnson declared that the "up suck" theory was untrue.
This isn't to say that enjoyment of sex may not improve fertility in other ways. But at least as far as "up suck" theory, female orgasm does not seem to be a must-have ingredient for getting pregnant.
[EDITED TO ADD: I did more research on this topic, and discovered that some researchers feel the "upsuck" theory does happen. They used a different method to research it. Read more about the research on female orgasm and getting pregnant here.]
Personally, hearing about this research made me feel so much better. As if we didn't have enough pressure in our lives when dealing with infertility, the last thing we need is pressure to orgasm.
I know some experts will say, "Yes, but enjoyment of sex is still a healthy ingredient in trying to get pregnant." To them I say, yes... but one thing that will kill enjoyment right away for a woman is a feeling that you "must" have an orgasm. Then, it begins to feel more like homework. (Yes, I know for the guys, this is still a problem. I feel for you!)
More about sex and trying to get pregnant:
- Complete Guide to Baby Making Sex
- Is Female Orgasm Important for Getting Pregnant?
- When Can You Get Pregnant?
- How Often Should You Have Sex to Get Pregnant?
- Timing Sex for Pregnancy on Clomid
- How to Improve Your Sex Life When TTC
What are your thoughts on this research? Please share in the comments below!
eh.. bookmarked..
I never heard about an orgasm helping
a woman get pregnant, however I have heard of being preggo, and being over
40 wks very ready to deliver. Being overdue, that is! I heard the best thing to do in that situation when you want to induce labor is to masturbate! For some reason, the hormones that we have during sex somehow stimulates the uterus, or makes it contract, either one. But either way it was so tempting, that I had to try it and unfortunately it didn’t work! Well I had fun trying. Not really. I was kind of miserable being so big, hot and so preggers!
Actually, female orgasms do not help. In fact, they hurt your chances of becoming pregnant because the fluids interfere with the pH levels needed to become pregnant. The best way to become pregnant is for the female NOT to orgasm. The orgasm almost dilutes the environment needed for conception. Hope this helps!
I don’t know about this honestly – there is an evolutionary reason for orgasm. I think that women who can’t orgasm get flustered and need to hear this since they already have so much ‘pressure.’
here is a link for further review:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199601/the-orgasm-wars
If you cannot relax enough to have orgasms during sexual relations, you will not become pregnant. Orgasm is not something to stress about; It should come naturally. My four children were ALL conceived by my having an orgasm just after (within 15 minutes of) my husband. I’m definitely pro-female-orgasm!!!
Quirky, you’ re an idiot.
I am pro orgasm too! and I feel sorry for women who call idiots to people getting more satisfaction than them
)
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199601/the-orgasm-wars
If you go to the above link, the story reports more recent studies do indicate orgasm helps conception.
They asked volunteers to keep track of the timing of their orgasms during sex, and, after copulation, to collect male ejaculates from vaginal flowback–a technical term denoting a distinct form of material that emerges from the vagina several hours after sex (scientists have devised a way to collect it). The team counted sperm from over 300 instances of human copulation.
They discovered that when a woman climaxes any time between a minute before to 45 minutes after her lover ejaculates, she retains significantly more sperm than she does after nonorgasmic sex. When her orgasm precedes her male’s by more than a minute, or when she does not have an orgasm, little sperm is retained. Just as the doctors’ letters suggested decades earlier, the team’s results indicated that muscular contractions associated with orgasm pull sperm from the vagina to the cervix, where it’s in better position to reach an egg.
Thank you for sharing that!
I am searching for a way to bring my wife greater pleasure. You should know that she has never had an orgasm and has concieved every time I have gone near her.
“We know the man must have an orgasm”
Whooooooaaaaa….don’t tell people the male has to orgasm! Cowper’s fluid has sperm, although not as much, and can get the job done. This is the reason “pulling out” is not effective in preventing pregnancy.
I believe that the scientific reason that females take longer to orgasm than males……….is such that when the woman orgasms, the sperm is already in her vagina/uterus and the contractions help to draw the sperm up higher. Btw…I had 4 children…..all conceived on the first try purposely. I had an orgasm right after my husband came each time. Even if this theory isn’t true…….orgasm certainly didn’t hurt my fertility as one of the posters above mentioned. If you look at the way it works……men are giving output (sperm) and women are getting input. Orgasms do seem to go up rather than out…….so it makes common sense that there is a biological reason for the female orgasm in terms of reproduction.
well with my son i orgasmed within mins after other half came and i got pregnant first month of doing this and also i got pregnant agani this march and i did the same but sadly miscarriaged and i am doing the same this month to so yes orgasm after sex does work
Seriously, you’re saying that by feeling the need to have an orgasm it makes sex feel like homework? That shows just how little empathy you have for your male counterpart. Talk about pressure!
Getting a chance of becoming pregnant has a various ways, its not about an orgasm but there are more than that, an example of which is lifestyle
Becoming pregnant does not count with an orgasm, there are a lot of ways to become pregnant.
Just get a bullet vibrator to use after he comes
According to an interesting TV documentary about sex recently, fertility is higher when the woman has an orgasm during or after sex with a man. The man ejaculates semen deposits on the back of the woman’s vagina. When a woman orgasms, the cervix pushes forward.
i have a quick question DOes a female have to have orasm first or the man has to i heard if she finish first it will get in the way of his sperm of gettin in true or false please help i want to get pregnant n i am tring all kinds of remedies from marijuana teas n massages to online pills please any advice??? docs say my hubby has a few slow sperms
It is true an orgasm will help you to conceive a child! I recently met a gentleman friend of mine at a local saloon who I fancied. After an engaging conversation about fertility I proceeded to ask him if he’d care to join me for a passionate bout of coitus.
We went back to my place to sterilize our genitals with a hot shower and a bar of zest. We toweled off and much to my chagrin the chargeables in my oscillating turbo-trembler (from wals-mart)were dead.
The rest of the story would be far too graphic to retell so I will skip ahead to the point after we orgasmed.
By the time we returned to earth planetary orbit from moon-base ‘Orgasmos’ I had 7 babies waiting for me in the mouth of a stork.