Heterosexuality is the most common sexual orientation, but that does not mean that in terms of pleasure during intimate relationships it is the best option , necessarily.

Although it makes sense evolutionarily that at least a good part of the population of a species is attracted to the opposite sex, happiness and well-being do not necessarily have to fit into the survival mechanisms enhanced by natural selection; they can be governed by a totally different logic.

Research recently published in Archives of Sexual Behavior , for example, gives us an indication that the sexual orientation that some people consider “natural” (wrongly), in fact, might be less advantageous when it comes to pleasure. At least, if we take as a reference the frequency with which people have orgasms, an indicator that can give us a rough idea, although not exact or alien to the debate, about how much they enjoy sex.

Differences in people’s sex lives

Numerous studies have recorded a clear trend: women tend to experience significantly fewer orgasms than men, in general. Several explanations have been given for this phenomenon.

Some emphasize genetics, noting that “nature made us this way” for evolutionary reasons, while others, more linked to gender studies, point to the cultural, noting that female sexuality is only beginning to be oriented toward pleasure in recent years, and only in certain societies.

But… What happens when you not only consider whether you are a man or a woman, but also analyse the influence of your sexual orientation? This was the focus of the research we will be talking about.

How was the research conducted?

More than 52,000 men and women of all sexual orientations, all of whom are adult residents of the United States, collaborated in this study. These people had to answer a simple questionnaire about the sexual life of the participants, and then these data were analyzed to find correlations.

The results could somehow be interpreted as a sign that the male sex is not very efficient at producing orgasms in the other person. The people who most frequently claimed to have orgasms always or almost always during relationships were heterosexual men (95%), followed by gay and bisexual men (89% and 88%, respectively) and, in third place, lesbian women (86%).

From this point on, curiously, there is a significant statistical gap . In the case of bisexual women, only 66% answered affirmatively to this question, closely followed by heterosexual women.

Is female sexuality culturally limited?

There are several curious things in these results. The main one is the difference between lesbian women and bisexual and heterosexual women . Among them there is at least 20% less chance of responding that they always or almost always experience orgasms during sex.

In addition, another important conclusion is that the ability of women to have orgasms can often be at least very similar to that of heterosexual men, suggesting that cultural taboos and customs may be strongly influencing the way intimate relationships between heterosexuals occur.

Are men worse in bed?

Another interesting conclusion is that between men and women there is an inverse tendency: in them, heterosexuals have more orgasms, while in them the opposite happens. This could be interpreted as a sign that the male gender has a greater tendency not to focus so much on achieving a climax in the other person, or at least is not achieving it.

In any case, more research will be needed to see if these results are also found in other similar investigations and if these help to shed more light on the interpretation of these data.