And an epileptic seizure can be an orgasmic experience for others. Now science can help explain some of these and other more unusual ways to orgasm without genital stimulation.
Orgasmic body parts
- Mouth
A good make-out session could just be an orgasmic one – stimulating the lips, tongue and other parts of the mouth can lead to whole body orgasms for some people.
There are women who say they get off just by kissing and others who have had orgasms while giving their partners oral sex. The mouth is the main sensory organ, so it’s no surprise that both men and women can have oral orgasms.
- Anus
Both men and women can also have anal orgasms. Putting a lubricated finger, penis, dildo or even a fist into the anus or rectum can be orgasmic. So can kissing, licking or sucking.
It’s the pelvic nerve that’s to thank for anal orgasms. Besides the anus, it’s also linked to the vagina and when it gets activated, an orgasm is the result. That’s good to know, since touching both the the anus and a guy’s penis, or a girl’s vagina or clitoris, can make orgasms more complex and intense – which is science speak for mind-blowing.
- Breasts and nipples
Some women’s breasts and nipples can be so sensitive that touching or kissing them can even be orgasmic. The breasts share neural pathways with the vagina and other parts of the genitals that lead to a part of the brain involved in an orgasm.
That’s why stimulating a woman’s nipples can be so pleasurable – it can have a similar effect in the body as touching her vagina or clitoris.
Other unusual orgasms
- Hypersensitive skin orgasms
A neck-shoulder orgasm? That’s right, some people even have skin orgasms. After a spinal chord injury, the skin covering a part of the body can be extremely sensitive and even orgasmic.
One woman able to have skin orgasms got off with a vibrator which she placed between her neck and shoulder. When she orgasmed she felt a tingling in her vagina. Interestingly, the same part of the skin that can be so pleasurable when touched the right way can also be very painful when the touch is all wrong.
- Epileptic seizure orgasms
Orgasmic auras are experienced by some people with epilepsy right before they have a seizure. In fact, there are many different reports of orgasms being linked to epilepsy. Take the woman who had an orgasm lasting up to a whole minute every time she had a seizure. And one man’s epileptic seizures left him feeling so horny that every time he had one his thoughts went straight to sex and he headed for his wife.
Similar things happen in the brain during both seizures and orgasms – in both, a huge number of neurons get activated, it’s just that during an orgasm it happens in a more controlled way.
If a person’s seizures start in a part of the brain linked to their genitals, they’ll probably feel their orgasm as if it were the real deal – that is, it’ll be no different than an orgasm they’d have during oral sex or intercourse, for example. But if they have seizures in another part of their brain, the orgasm likely won’t be felt in their genitals at all.
- Orgasms in dreams
Sweet dreams can take on a whole new meaning when they’re wet dreams, or orgasms that happen during sleep. For men, wet dreams usually mean coming, whereas for women it’s a question of their vaginas getting wet.
Research shows that wet dreams begin in the brain without any stimulation of a guy’s penis or a girl’s vagina or clitoris, which makes them one of the few kinds of orgasms that can take happen without touching the genitals in any way.
This article was originally published on 25 April 2012.
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