Here's Why You're Confused About Her G-Spot
Are there really two types of orgasms? (photo: Getty)
Can’t find your girlfriend’s G-spot? It’s okay, most scientists can’t either.
Back in 1950, German gynecologist Ernst Grafenberg first described the elusive pleasure spot. But 65 years later, only 25 percent of women orgasm from intercourse alone, according to a review of 33 studies published in The Case of the Female Orgasm. And researchers still can’t agree on 1) if the G-spot actually exists and 2) if it’s part of the clitoris or a whole other erogenous zone entirely.
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In 2012, in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Adam Ostrzenski, M.D., Ph.D., declared that he had found the elusive spot by performing a postmortem examination on an 83-year-old woman in Poland. He uncovered a cluster of erectile tissue embedded in a less-than-one-centimeter-wide sac in the vaginal wall. But then, in 2014, a study in the Journal of Clinical Anatomy announced that the G-spot doesn’t exist and that we should throw out the term “vaginal orgasm” altogether. Some say it’s not so much of a “spot” as it is a region on the front wall of the vaginal wall. Basically, no two experts agree. And research from French gynecologist Odile Buisson M.D., published in
The Journal of Sexual Medicine suggests that the G-spot is just the internal part of the clitoris. But another study from Rutgers University, published in the same journal, suggests that the two aren’t connected, since different regions of women’s brains light up during penetration than do when they play with their clit. And Ostrzenski argues that clitoral orgasms shoot through the spinal cord while vaginal ones do not—which explains why some women with spinal-cord injuries still report orgasms through vaginal stimulation. “Every woman has two distinct methods of achieving orgasm,” he says. “Men should be jealous.”
“There is no doubt that some women experience orgasms originating in the vagina,” says gynecologist Sara Gottfried, M.D. “But scientists have not yet conclusively determined the G-spot’s anatomy and physiology. More research needs to be done to completely understand the G-spot and how it affects vaginal orgasm. Women’s health is still in the dark ages.”
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Which, sorry, guys, that leaves you in the dark, too. But, if there is any finding the (possibly) mythical land of the G-spot, the key might be not getting too caught up in the search. Worrying about it will torpedo both of your confidence (and pleasure) in the sack. “Orgasms are an intensely personal and subjective experience,” Gottfried says. Even if all women have this tissue, it doesn’t mean it can be stimulated in the same way or with the same results in every woman.
And, honestly, if she hasn’t had a vaginal orgasm in the past, you both may have more fun by focusing your efforts elsewhere. After all, no one is debating the clitoral orgasm.
By K. Aleisha Fetters
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