Having Trouble Reaching Orgasm? Perhaps Your Migratory Clitoris Is to Blame

Let us take a moment to talk about migration. Birds do it on a seasonal basis. So do some fish.

And now we know that the clitoris — as in the female sex organ devoted solely to giving women pleasure — is also a fan. It's a restless wanderer, according to a new study published in the journal Clinical Anatomy. It loves to take off and explore!

The authors of the study sought to investigate differences between how men and women achieve orgasm. They concluded that getting off is generally easier for men (duh), because their orgasms are the result of a clear connection between their ding-a-lings and their nervous systems. 

But for women, it's not so simple.

"For females, the autonomic component [of having an orgasm] is more complex," the authors wrote. "The clitoris is the primary anatomical feature for female orgasm, including its migration toward the anterior vaginal wall."

So does this mean that women's clits are literally, like, flying south for the winter, or what? Of course not! They don't have wings.

Apparently, it just repositions itself closer to the front wall of the vagina during sexual intercourse. One of the study's authors, Jason Siegel (lol) of Mayo Clinic, put it this way in an interview with the Daily Mail:

... the clitoris during sex tends to migrate up toward the vaginal wall. If a woman is trying to achieve a vaginal orgasm, it seems like it tends to be more successful if the front wall of the vagina is more stimulated.

This could be useful knowledge for any woman who might be interested in orgasming from penetrative sex alone, a feat that an estimated 80% of women, by some measures, find difficult to achieve. Siegel advised that front-entry sexual positions, such as missionary and cowgirl, are most likely to stimulate the front wall of the vagina and therefore lead to orgasm. So with positions like doggy-style, you're less likely to reach orgasm because the clit is all the way on the other side, waiting for you to notice it. It's dreaming 'bout the day when you'll wake up and find that what you're looking for has been here the whole time.

We've yet to reach any consensus regarding a foolproof way to reach vaginal orgasm (or if vaginal orgasm is even possible to begin with). Some researchers have even speculated that a "vaginal" orgasm is actually just a clitoral orgasm by another name, because much of the clitoral structure is internal rather than external, with the clitoris's "legs" extending inside the body.

"My view is that the G-spot is really just the extension of the clitoris on the inside of the vagina, analogous to the base of the male penis," Yale urologist Amichai Kilchevsky wrote in the Journal of Sexual Medicine back in 2012.

As we've learned many times in the past, in the end the study confirms one thing: that reaching orgasm is all about stimulating the elusive chanteuse that is the clitoris. But good luck keeping up with its migratory nature! Like a wildebeest of the Serengeti, the clitoris was clearly born to roam wild and free.

h/t GQ U.K.