Mind the orgasm gap

Researchers say women are less likely than men to reach climax during sex. That's no surprise – but why do women put up with it?

The question "What do women want?" famously perplexed the world's most preeminent psychoanalyst. I'm not surprised Sigmund Freud couldn't figure out a good answer. After all, he may have been one of the great geniuses of modern times, but he was also a man.

Still, at least Freud wanted to know. Which makes me wonder what a one-night stand might have been like for him. There he'd be with some fleshy paramour, both of them on the couch, both exposed. "Is that what you want?" he'd ask, a look of anxious concern on his face as he probed her. Afterwards, he'd pick up his cigar from where it had been idling in the ash tray, get back into his chair, cross his ankle over his knee, and say, "Zo ... now zat's done, tell me about zis fixation on your father."

But like I said, at least Freud was curious. At least he was concerned. Men these days could care less about what a woman wants, or so the evidence suggests.

Researchers from Stanford and Indiana University recently found that heterosexual undergraduate women have orgasms only half as often as the men they're hooking up with, and only a third of the time during a first sexual session. Read on >>