Orgasms are one of the most studied and least talked-about parts of being human. The science and history behind them are stranger than most people realize. Here are three orgasm facts that sound made up, and every single one of them is true.
1. Do orgasms stop as you get older?
Not necessarily. A study that followed 806 women for more than 40 years found that among those who stayed sexually active, 67% reached orgasm every time or almost every time, including 47.5% of women in their 80s. The findings were published in the American Journal of Medicine.
Desire did dip for some: about 40% of the women reported little or no sexual desire, and how often people have sex tends to drop with age. But sexual satisfaction often holds steady or even improves, and the researchers noted that closeness with a partner can matter as much as the orgasm itself.
The takeaway: there's no built-in expiration date on pleasure. Healthy older adults can keep enjoying sex well into later life, even if it looks a little different than it did at 25.
2. What happens in a man's brain during an orgasm
In a 2003 study, neuroscientist Gert Holstege and his team at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands scanned the brains of 11 men during orgasm. The area that lit up most was the ventral tegmental area, a key hub of the brain's reward system.
The researchers drew parallels between what they saw and a heroin rush, which floods that same reward system. Meanwhile, activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain tied to vigilance and fear, dropped.
When the team scanned women, they found something different. Much of the female brain went quiet at the moment of orgasm, especially areas linked to fear and anxiety, which Holstege said need to switch off for a woman to climax.
3. The breakfast foods meant to curb sex drive
Graham crackers trace back to Sylvester Graham, a 19th-century Presbyterian minister who believed a bland diet could curb lust, especially masturbation. He thought meat and spices fueled sexual urges and preached a plain diet heavy on whole grains.
One of his followers was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. Kellogg believed flavorful foods stoked sexual desire and that plain cereals could help suppress it, and he and his brother developed corn flakes, partly by accident, as a bland breakfast for his patients.
His brother Will later added sugar and sold them to the masses, and the two reportedly never reconciled. And if that sounds strange, here's one more: the first written description of the female orgasm came from a 12th-century nun, Hildegard of Bingen.
