What Comes Between Arousal and Orgasm? | Female Orgasm Difficulty Explained | The Orgasm Hour Q&A, Episode 16

Some women are risking surgery to improve orgasm. One nearly died. So why are these procedures still sold as a fix?When women can’t orgasm, many go from provider to provider looking for an answer, and some end up paying for procedures that promise one. On this episode of The Orgasm Hour, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill looks at what women are willing to risk for an orgasm and what the research says about what they’re being sold. She starts with the 2009 documentary Orgasm, Inc. and asks one question across cosmetic surgery, female genital mutilation, and a healthcare system with no clear path for women’s orgasm difficulty.In this episode:• The story from Orgasm, Inc. that shows how far one woman went to orgasm, and a doctor’s words that are hard to forget• Why the FDA issued a warning about “vaginal rejuvenation” devices, and what a review of 16 labiaplasty studies never measured• What research on female genital mutilation, which affects at least 230 million women and girls, reveals about orgasm• Men with erectile dysfunction have a clear treatment path. Where do women with orgasm difficulty go?• A different question: what if orgasm isn’t about what’s wrong with your body?Learn about Orgasmic Learning: https://femaleorgasmtraining.com/orgasmic-learning/Explore the Orgasm Library (free): https://femaleorgasmresearch.org/orgasm-library/Live every Wednesday at 12 PM ESTThis video is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice.#TheOrgasmHour #FemaleOrgasm #WomensSexualHealth #OrgasmResearch #Orgasmology #orgasmiclearning

Men have FDA-approved drugs for erectile dysfunction. Women have none for orgasm difficulty. So where do women go for real answers?Most women who struggle to orgasm are told to relax, stop overthinking, or accept that it’s “just how they are.” Very few are ever shown what the research actually says. On this episode of The Orgasm Hour, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill opens up the Orgasm Library: more than 800 studies, books and articles on female orgasm, free and in one place.In this episode:- Take a guided tour of the Orgasm Library’s 12 major research categories.- Explore female orgasm difficulties: Discover research on barriers, contributing factors, and conventional treatments.- Understand the science of female orgasm: Explore orgasm physiology, neurobiology, function, and experience.- Discover orgasmic learning: Learn what it is and explore the research on different pathways to orgasm.Learn how to navigate the library: Search more than 800 research sources by category, subcategory, keyword, and year to find answers to your questions.Explore the FREE Orgasm Library: https://femaleorgasmresearch.org/orgasm-library/Female Orgasm Training: https://femaleorgasmtraining.comLive every Wednesday at 12 PM ESTThis video is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice.#TheOrgasmHour #FemaleOrgasm #OrgasmResearch #WomensSexualHealth #Orgasmology #orgasmiclearning

Why do some women get so close to orgasm but still can’t get there?In Episode 17 of The Orgasm Hour, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill analyzes two real Reddit cases from women describing the frustrating experience of getting close to orgasm and then losing it.Rather than treating “I can’t orgasm” as one problem, we look closely at each woman’s pattern: what happens as arousal builds, what changes right before orgasm disappears, and what may be interrupting the response.We explore sensory overwhelm, self-monitoring, fear of losing control, embarrassment, changes in attention, and the Hope-Frustration Cycle, a concept developed by Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill to describe how repeated attempts to orgasm can create increasing hope, monitoring, pressure, frustration, and inhibition.In this episode, we look at how to identify the pattern, find the interruption, and begin changing what happens right before orgasm disappears.If you keep thinking, “I’m so close, but I can’t get there,” this discussion may help you ask a different question:What changes right before I lose it?The Orgasm Hour, Episode 17October 28 | 12 Noon ESTHosted by Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill, Clinical Sexologist and OrgasmologistFemale Orgasm Research InstituteFemale Orgasm Training Institute

What Comes Between Arousal and Orgasm?Why can a woman feel sexually aroused, enjoy stimulation, and still be unable to orgasm?For decades, influential sexual response models have taught us to think of orgasm as following increasing stimulation and arousal. Masters and Johnson's classic 1966 model moved from excitement to plateau to orgasm. But for many women with female orgasm difficulty, anorgasmia, or Female Orgasmic Disorder, arousal alone does not reliably lead to orgasm.So what happens between arousal and orgasm?A major scientific review of women's orgasm described orgasm as creating an altered state of consciousness. Research has also linked altered states of consciousness with greater sexual responsiveness.This raises an important question:Could the transition into an absorbed, altered, or otherwise orgasm-supportive state begin before orgasm and help make orgasm accessible?In this episode of The Orgasm Hour, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill explores the science of the absorbed state: what it is, what happens when we become deeply immersed in sensation, and why reduced self-monitoring may matter for women who struggle to orgasm.We explore the Masters and Johnson sexual response model, the scientific definition of orgasm, research on altered states and female sexual responsiveness, Mishara and Schwartz's concept of altered states as “paradoxically healing,” and the emerging hypothesis that orgasmic access may depend not only on arousal but also on a transition in state.The question may not simply be:“Am I aroused enough?”It may be:“Can I enter the state in which orgasm becomes accessible?”The Orgasm Hour, Episode 16October 21 | 12 Noon ETHosted by Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill, Clinical Sexologist and OrgasmologistFemale Orgasm Research InstituteFemale Orgasm Training Institute

Why can’t I orgasm even after trying treatment? Why do some women with female orgasm difficulty, anorgasmia, or Female Orgasmic Disorder try sex therapy, behavioral treatments, or other approaches and still struggle to orgasm?In this episode of The Orgasm Hour, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill examines what the research reveals about the limitations of current female orgasm treatment. Some of the strongest treatment evidence is decades old. Orgasm difficulty is studied under multiple terms and is often folded into the broader category of female sexual dysfunction. And treatments may improve desire, arousal, distress, or overall sexual function without necessarily creating reliable orgasmic access.We’ll explore a deeper question: What actually has to happen for a woman to gain, strengthen, and maintain the ability to orgasm?Dr. Mulvehill discusses orgasmic access, neuroplasticity, context-dependent learning, treatment matching, and why improvement in sexual function is not always the same as solving orgasm difficulty.She also introduces the Orgasmic Learning framework:Access → Learning → Strengthening → GeneralizationCould the future of female orgasm treatment depend on identifying the mechanisms and pathways that allow each woman to reliably access orgasm?

If you have never experienced orgasm yet, this episode is for you.Across different forms of orgasm difficulty, one pattern keeps appearing in Orgasmic Learning: learning to access orgasm may require learning to access an altered, absorbed, or otherwise orgasm-supportive state.A common question emerges:What helps the brain and body move into a state where orgasm becomes accessible?In this episode of The Orgasm Hour Q&A, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill explores three areas:1. What may be getting in the way of orgasm?2. What has research shown can help women who had never experienced orgasm?3. What do newer findings add?This episode looks at older and newer research on female orgasm difficulty, including directed masturbation, sensate focus, systematic desensitization, hypnotic induction, cannabis and orgasm-related outcomes, and Orgasmic Learning.The central idea explored in this episode is:Learning to orgasm may not only involve learning what to do. It may also involve learning how to access an altered, absorbed, or otherwise orgasm-supportive state in which orgasm becomes possible.That is the lens of Orgasmic Learning.So instead of asking only:“Why can’t I orgasm?”we may also need to ask:“What state does my brain and body need to access for orgasm to become available?”The Orgasm Hour Q&AOctober 7 | Episode 14 | YouTube Live#WhyCantIOrgasm #FemaleOrgasm #Anorgasmia #OrgasmicLearning #FemaleSexualHealth #WomensSexualHealth #OrgasmDifficulty #Hypnosis #CannabisAndSex #SexualHealthResearch

What if the way you orgasm now is one of several pathways your body can learn?Many women discover one reliable way to orgasm, perhaps with a vibrator, fantasy, a certain kind of touch, a particular position, or under certain conditions, and then wonder whether they can expand from there.In Episode 13 of The Orgasm Hour Q&A, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill explores what research tells us about learning, strengthening, and widening orgasmic access.Through the lens of Orgasmic Learning, we will explore how a woman can build from a pathway that already works and gradually expand the situations and conditions in which orgasm becomes accessible.A reliable orgasm pathway can become a foundation for greater orgasmic flexibility and choice. We will explore the different routes through which women may access orgasm and what the science can teach us about expanding orgasmic capacity.#FemaleOrgasm, #OrgasmicLearning, #OrgasmDifficulty, #WomensSexualHealth, #WomensHealth, #SexualHealth, #OrgasmResearch, #SexEducation, #TheOrgasmHour

What if being sexually aroused is not enough to make orgasm accessible?For a long time, sexual response has often been explained as a step-by-step process: a woman feels sexual desire, engages in sex, gets aroused, and then has an orgasm. But many women know from experience that it does not always work that way. A woman can feel very turned on, experience pleasure, and still be unable to reach orgasm.In Episode 12 of The Orgasm Hour Q&A, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill explores what may be happening between arousal and orgasm, and why simply becoming more aroused may not be the answer.Through the lens of Orgasmic Learning, we will ask a different question: instead of “How do I get more aroused?” what if we ask, “What is happening between arousal and orgasm, and what does my body need in order to experience orgasm? #FemaleOrgasm #OrgasmDifficulty #OrgasmicLearning #WomensSexualHealth #WomensHealth #SexualHealth #OrgasmResearch #TheOrgasmHour

What if difficulty reaching orgasm is not always about needing more stimulation, trying harder, or finding the “right” technique?In Episode 11 of The Orgasm Hour Q&A, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill introduces Orgasmic Learning, a new framework for understanding how women may gain, strengthen, and expand access to orgasm.Orgasmic capacity can be learned, strengthened, and expanded. Research spanning decades suggests that women can develop orgasmic capacity through structured learning, that orgasmic response can transfer from solo to partnered experiences, and that attention, bodily awareness, sexual context, and altered states can influence orgasm access.Orgasmic Learning shifts the focus from trying to produce an orgasm to understanding the conditions, states, and pathways through which orgasm becomes accessible.We will explore the difference between trying to make an orgasm happen and learning how to access the conditions that support orgasm, and why repetition, state, and generalization may be important missing pieces in how we understand and treat orgasm difficulty.#OrgasmicLearning #FemaleOrgasm #OrgasmDifficulty #WomensSexualHealth #WomensHealth #SexualHealth #OrgasmResearch #TheOrgasmHour

Episode 10 | Part 2 of a Two-Part Series on Partnered OrgasmWhen a woman has difficulty orgasming with a partner, trying harder, repeatedly asking whether she is close, or taking her orgasm personally can create even more pressure.In this episode of The Orgasm Hour Q&A, Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill examines what partners can do that actually helps, including increasing their knowledge of female orgasm, developing better sexual skills, learning the stimulation that already works, listening without defensiveness, maintaining consistent rhythm and pressure, welcoming self-touch and vibrators, allowing sufficient arousal time, and understanding the importance of clitoral stimulation.We will also look at the research on orgasm pressure, sexual communication, faking orgasm, partner misperceptions, and the kinds of responses that can either create safety or make orgasm more difficult.You can support your partner by helping create the conditions that make pleasure, arousal, and flow more accessible. This includes bringing curiosity instead of assumptions, moving ego and self-judgment out of the bedroom, and recognizing that you do not have to know everything in advance. Knowledge, sexual skill, communication, effective stimulation, emotional safety, sufficient time, and freedom from pressure can all help make partnered orgasm more accessible..Live Tuesday, August 25 at 12:00 noon ET. This is for educational purposes only.#FemaleOrgasm #PartneredOrgasm #HowToHelpHerOrgasm #OrgasmDifficulty #SexualCommunication #ClitoralStimulation #CouplesSexualHealth #WomensSexualHealth #SexEducation #BecomingOrgasmic #Orgasmology #TheOrgasmHour #DrSuzanneMulvehillHN5pnAuGy876gqxywfgQ