Skip to content
The Female Orgasm episode artwork

Dec 5, 2016 17 min

The Female Orgasm

from The Why Factor Hosted by BBC World Service

Why don’t we understand how the female orgasm works? After years of scientific research, the male body is understood but when it comes to how women work, we are a long way behind. Why is there this gap in knowledge? It appears research has been hindered by the assumption that the female body works in the same way as the male body and that for women, arousal is all in the mind. There’s also a general attitude that studying sexual pleasure isn’t important and that female orgasms aren’t important to study as they serve no purpose for reproduction. Researchers are slowly correcting these assumptions and making surprising discoveries. We’ll take you behind the scenes to two orgasm labs to bring you the latest research on how orgasms work for women. We’ll also hear from Callista, who struggled with excruciating pain during sex for many years but was told the problem was all in her mind. Her journey to diagnosis shows how little is known, even amongst gynaecologists and doctors, about female sexual pleasure. Presenter: Aasmah Mir Producer: Phoebe Keane (Image: Woman's hand grasping a bed sheet. Credit: Shutterstock)

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

The Female Orgasm

0:00 17:27

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of The Why Factor?

This episode is 17 minutes long.

When was this The Why Factor episode published?

This episode was published on December 5, 2016.

Can I download this The Why Factor episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.