Orgasm Consistency in Mixed-Gender Couples: Actor, Partner, and Discrepancy Effects from Dyadic Response Surface Analysis

ABSTRACT

The potential link between orgasm consistency (i.e., the percentage of time an individual experiences orgasm during sexual interactions with a partner) and sexual satisfaction in mixed-gender sexual relationships remains underexamined in the literature. We combined two dyadic samples (N = 725 couples) and utilized Dyadic Response Surface Analysis (DRSA) to examine how both partners’ orgasm consistency and their discrepancy of orgasm consistency predict both partners’ sexual satisfaction. We found that partners’ discrepancy in orgasm consistency was not uniquely connected to higher sexual satisfaction for either women or men; rather, the overall consistency of orgasm was connected to better sexual satisfaction for both partners. In addition, there was some evidence tentatively suggesting that men were more likely than women to report lower sexual satisfaction if his partner was orgasming more consistently than he was, as opposed to her reporting lower sexual satisfaction from him orgasming more consistently than she was; though this appears to be a rare scenario as only 5.9% of couples had women who orgasmed more consistently than men. This study may assist educators and clinicians as they help couples consider the sexual scripts surrounding orgasm consistency, and how they can attend to each others’ desires in a way that maximizes sexual satisfaction for both partners.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Something that may increase confidence in the validity of the dyadic data is the percentages of orgasm consistency being similar to a representative study of couples in the United States, with a more thorough vetting of recruiting couples through phone calls (Leonhardt et al., 2018). If the data for men or women orgasm consistency differed substantially from a nationally representative sample, it may be suspect. Fortunately, the relative consistency with a gold standard dataset suggests that there may be validity to these numbers. Additionally, there is also some evidence with some basic data checks. For example, the correlation between partners for orgasm consistency was only r = .14, p = .02 in MTurk and r = .31, p < .001 in Bovitz, which makes sense considering the differences between men’s and women’s orgasm consistency. If there was no correlation between partners for orgasm consistency, we might suspect that someone could be completing the survey for a partner at random. If there was an unusually high correlation for orgasm consistency between partners, than we might suspect that someone was copying their answers into information for a partner. The small to moderate correlations are fairly consistent with other datasets. On a similar note, sexual satisfaction between the two partners was correlated at .44, p < .001 in MTurk, and .64, p <.001 in Bovitz. These correlations being higher between partners than the orgasm consistency correlations between partners also speaks to the validity of the data. These constructs would be expected to have a moderate to high correlation due to the interdependence of sexual satisfaction being great in a relationship, even more so than orgasm consistency because of the complicated dynamics we have highlighted throughout this article.

² We originally used six items from the GRISS subscale that have been validated as a subscale (Busby et al., 2001). In order to obtain adequate fit in combining the GMSEX and GRISS, however, it required correlating some of the error terms. Upon a closer statistical and conceptual evaluation, we determined that it made more sense to just retain the one face valid item from the GRISS that best combined with the GMSEX.