Interesting Sex Facts
Many individuals express concerns and fears about sexual functioning and fantasies. Part of the work that I do is to dispel sexual myths and misperceptions. It is difficult to hold accurate beliefs when we don't talk about sex openly in our society. Much of our information comes from the media, porn, or the limited information that we received from our parents, friends, and/or religion. It is my hope that some of these facts help individuals feel more educated and empowered. Other facts I just find interesting.
Women (or vulva-owners):
• 70-80% of women have difficulty reaching orgasm from vaginal intercourse alone.
• As age and education increase, so do women’s rates of orgasm—because older and better educated women are more likely to speak up and ask for direct clitoral touch.
• The average vagina is around three inches in length – stretching to four when aroused – and can adapt to accommodate almost any length. The vagina has the remarkable ability of lengthening when something is introduced into it slowly, and can grow by 200% during sex.
• The clitoris has 8,000 nerve endings, which is double the amount of nerve endings in the glans of a penis.
• Decreased sexual desire becomes much more common in women starting in their late 40s and 50s but the effect of age differs from individual to individual: some women experience a significant decrease in sexual desire beginning in midlife, others notice no change, and some report increased interest in sex at midlife.
• Vaginal wetness does not indicate how turned on your actually are. This misalignment is called arousal non-concordance and happens 50 percent of the time in individuals with vulvas.
• About one-third of women in their 80s still remain sexually active.
• The medical term for painful intercourse is dyspareunia. Nearly 3 out of 4 women have pain during intercourse at some time during their lives. Approximately 20% (1 out of 5) of women experience persisting sexual pain.
• On average woman with sexual pain will see 7 different doctors before receiving an accurate diagnosis for their pain.
• 40% of women will experience painful intercourse up to a year postpartum
Men (or penis-owners):
• The average man lasts about 5-6 minutes in bed, while the average woman needs abut 18 minutes to climax. The average (median time) for men before orgasm is about 6 minutes, and ranges from 6 seconds to 53 minutes. The majority of men last between 4-11 minutes, with anyone lasting longer than 21 minutes considered an outlier.
• Men tend to overestimate the duration of their sexual encounters by ~31%.
• Nearly 9 out of 10 women are satisfied with their partner’s penis size. Yet, almost 1 out of 2 men believe they have a small penis.
• It is perfectly normal for a hard penis to partly deflate every 15 minutes or so.
• It is estimated that up to half of all men between the ages of 40 to 70 suffer from erectile dysfunction to some degree. 5% of 40 -year-olds and 15-25% of 65-year-olds suffer this condition on a longterm basis.
• Physiologically, erections require the following three things: 1) adequate blood supply to the penis; 2) the brain being able to send the right signals to the penis; and 3) healthy erectile tissue.
• Certain medications (SSRIS, diuretics, antipsychotics, high blood pressure medications) can impact sexual arousal/functioning.
• PDE-5 Inhibitors (e.g., Viagra, Cialis) are not aphrodisiacs. These drugs will not help you get or stay hard if you’re drunk, with someone you dislike, and/or not aroused.
• Average number of sperm in a teaspoon of semen in a healthy man: ~300 million. There are 5-25 calories in that teaspoon.
• Average speed of ejaculation: 28 miles per hour.
• Phallophobia is the fear of a penis.
LGBTIA+:
• 29% of transgender people live in poverty, compared to 14% of the general population.
• LGBT youth are almost five times as likely to have attempted suicide compared to heterosexual youth. LGBT youth who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to have attempted suicide as LGBT peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection.
• Atypical genitalia occur in about 1 in 1500 to 1 in 2000 births. A lot more people are born with subtler forms of sex anatomy variations, some of which won’t show up until later in life.
• Not everyone is sexually or romantically attracted to others. Some people experience little or no sexual attraction to others while others might experience romantic, but not sexual, attraction.
• PrEP is a daily medicine that can reduce the sexual transmission of HIV by more than 90% when it's used consistently. Another medication, PEP, can reduce your chances of HIV infection when it's taken within 72 hours of being exposed.
• Homosexual women are more likely to achieve orgasm during sex than their heterosexual or bisexual peers.
Porn and Masturbation:
• Utah: State with the most porn addiction treatment centers.
• The terms "sex addiction" and "porn addiction" are not endorsed by the DSM-5, the Journal of Positive Psychology, or AASECT.
• In 2016 alone, Pornhub got 23 BILLION visits. That’s 729 people a second, or 64 million a day.
• 4,599,000,000 hours of porn were watched on the Pornhub in just one year. That’s equal to 5,246 centuries.
• 1 in 3 porn viewers are women.
• Approximately 16.1% of men reported watching sexually explicit material at work either on a tablet or smartphone and 5.4% watched porn at work on a computer.
• The most popular day of the week to watch porn is Sunday.
• John Harvey Kellogg created both Corn Flakes and Grape Nuts to hinder individuals from masturbating. He believed that these starchy and flavorless foods would successfully turn sexual impulses.
Sex:
• Greek couples have sex an average of 138 times a year, placing them at the top of the world sex league. Japanese couples have sex just 45 times a year, which puts them in last place. The average American couple reports having sex 66 times a year.
• 20% (1 in 5) of American couples are in no-sex marriages. While the definition of a sexless marriage varies, a sexless marriage is commonly defined as having sex less than 10x/year. An additional 15% of couples are in low-sex marriages, which is defined as having sex less than every other week (~25x/year).
• 1 in 10 European babies is conceived in an IKEA bed.
Sex Toys:
• Sex toys and vibrators are banned in shops in Alabama and Mississippi. The attorney general stated: “There is no fundamental right for a person to buy a device to produce orgasm."
Animals:
• Social and sexual monogamy is rare in the animal kingdom.
• The black widow spider eats her mate during or after sex. Black widows can consume as many 20 lovers in a single day.
• Banana slugs (the mascot of my alma mater) mate using penises on their head. The invertebrates' penises can be 6 to 8 inches long—the entire length of the slug's body. When it's time to have sex, the penises grow out of pores in the head. It is not unusual for the penis of one slug to get stuck inside the other during copulation; to solve this awkward situation, the slug on the receiving end will eat the penis that's stuck inside it.
• Mouse sperm is bigger than elephant sperm.
Abstinence-Only Sex Education:
• Abstinence-only sex education programs do not succeed in reducing rates of teen pregnancies, STD's, or helping adolescents to delay intercourse.
• Texas: The state with the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the country (~40-50% above the national average). The majority of schools in Texas teach abstinence-based sex education or no sex education at all. Every year, about 35,000 teens and young women in Texas get pregnant before they turn 20.
• California has invested in comprehensive sex education and access to contraception. The teenage birth rate dropped by 74% from 1991 to 2012.
• About half of high school students say that they have had sexual intercourse. The average age for initiating sexual activity has remained around 17 or 18 since the early 1990s.
To learn more about participating in sex therapy, visit my website: https://www.drpomeranz.com