All The Ways You Can Have Orgasms That Have Nothing To Do With Sex

Now, if having an orgasm in response to the way someone looks at you sounds strange, get this: A 2018 study1 published in the International Journal of Sexual Health studied 687 self-reported cases of nonsexual orgasms, with triggers including exercise, breastfeeding, riding in vehicles, listening to certain kinds of music, getting tattooed, childbirth, defecating, and more.

The researchers also cited some cases documented by scientists in the past, including orgasms induced by stimulating one's knees, by using one’s imagination without any physical touch at all, or even by mundane activities like brushing your teeth. Yes, really.

Whether it's a breastfeeding orgasm, a car orgasm, or a totally spontaneous orgasm, how is it possible to have an orgasm from something other than genital stimulation?

To answer that question, it’s important to consider what we know about what an orgasm actually is. Most sexually triggered orgasms are a head-to-toe experience. As the body is aroused, the brain sends more blood to the genitals (causing swelling, heat, and a flushed appearance), the heartbeat and breathing increase, your muscles tense, and your nerves kick into high-gear, sending information back up to the brain. MRI scans of the brain during orgasm have shown its pleasure and reward centers light up, as well as the areas related to sensory touch, muscle tension, memory and emotional regulation, unconscious body control, problem-solving, and even pain. Yes, it seems as though nearly the entire brain is involved—meaning so are the various parts of the body other than your genitals that these brain regions control.

But the scientists behind this study—including Debra Herbenick, Ph.D., noted sex researcher and director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University Bloomington—emphasize that the cause of these physical reactions has not itself been researched in great detail. "Much of the research related to human sexual orgasm has focused on physical mechanisms of orgasm (e.g., stimulation of specific body parts and/or nerve pathways in the genital area)," they write. "Less is understood about how feelings such as joy, ecstasy, or love might act alone or in concert with physical stimulation to facilitate orgasm."

"Even in one specific sexual behavior such as penile-vaginal intercourse, it is unclear how much weight to give vaginal stimulation versus clitoral stimulation versus emotions or cognitions," the researchers explain in the paper. "It is not obvious, during sex or apart from sex, the extent to which orgasms are caused by singular triggers versus a perfect storm of physical, mental, and/or emotional stimulation."

Analyzing the less common, nonsexual ways people described climaxing, the researchers found some orgasms that still came down to physical stimuli (for example, riding in a vehicle that's particularly bumpy, causing a stimulation of the genitals, or a workout routine that particularly worked the abdomen area typically tensed during a genitally induced orgasm). Other orgasms, however, came from totally psychological experiences (like the feeling of intensity and passion I got when I looked directly into my partner's eyes).

"It may be that orgasm is not necessarily a sexual or genital event but may be better considered as a set of neuropsychological processes, with genital orgasms and/or sexual orgasms being some but not all of the kinds of orgasms available to humans," the researchers write. "This analysis supports the idea that orgasm may be best considered a variably experienced neuropsychological process associated with diverse forms of stimulation including sights, sounds, tastes, textures, imagery, and/or pain and its relief."

Orgasms are clearly extremely complex. Not only can some people never experience an orgasm ever, but clearly some can experience them in pretty nonsexual situations. It's important to recognize that having a physical pleasure reaction in response to an event—especially involuntarily—doesn't necessarily make you some kind of sexual deviant. (Nor does it mean you necessarily "enjoyed" it. Case in point: Some sexual assault survivors experience lubrication, erection, or even orgasm during their trauma.)

An orgasm is your brain's natural response to a certain set of physical, mental, emotional, and environmental stimuli. Keyword: natural.

"Numerous people described feeling strange or unusual, or having never previously told anyone about their nonsexual/nongenital orgasms," the researchers write. "Some commenters, such as the women worried about orgasms during breastfeeding, expressed comfort and relief after reading that others had similar experiences. Counselors, educators, midwives, and clinicians who are aware of the range of human orgasm can share this information with students and patients and help to normalize or contextualize their experiences."

Although these aren't common ways to have an orgasm, there's nothing inherently wrong or "dirty" about them. Here's a comment from one of the users analyzed in this study that encapsulates just how important it is to shed some light on the seemingly endless variability of the human orgasm:

And by the way, about 44 percent of these folks described these nonsexual orgasms in positive terms—that is, happily and without shame.