Abstract
An important review paper on disorders of orgasm in women noted that orgasm disorder is second only to hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women's sexual disorder prevalence. A recent meta-analysis of studies (limited to English language publications published between 2000 and 2014) on the prevalence of female sexual dysfunction among premenopausal women reported an overall female orgasmic disorder prevalence of 20.9%, increasing to 25.7% when a statistical model meant to adjust for the quality of studies was applied to the analysis [2].
That meta-analysis noted substantial variability in the diagnostic criteria used for ascertaining female orgasmic disorder (including variability in the qualifying period for prevalence) and also reported that prevalence of female orgasmic disorder in Africa was highest, followed by Asia and the Middle East, with the lowest nominal prevalence in Europe and the non-European West. Optimal nationally representative sampling was used in only a minority of studies included in the meta-analyses, which raises issues of selection bias and participation bias in many studies in the review, as well as other studies pertaining to sexual function and sexual dysfunction that were not part of the review.
Interestingly, the authors of the metaanalysis concluded that studies of the prevalence of orgasmic dysfunction funded by pharmaceutical companies tended to be of higher quality than other studies. The meta-analysis did not differentiate between orgasm triggers (specifics of the sexual behavior intended to induce orgasm; see discussion of the Sexual Behavior Questionnaire in the Scales section for a list of major orgasm triggers), and unfortunately many, perhaps most, studies also fail to differentiate between orgasm triggers.
As should become clear in this chapter, there are substantial psychological, interpersonal, and physiological differences between women's various sexual behaviors and corresponding orgasm triggers.