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Men and Women Who Do Not Have Orgasms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

G. S. Brindley
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
Patricia Gillan
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Guy's Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital

Summary

In the well-known condition of primary complete anorgasmia in women, the glandipudendal (‘bulbocavernosus’) reflex is often absent, and this is strongly correlated with failure of treatment. From these facts, and from properties of the glandipudendal reflex, we argue that organic abnormalities in the spinal cord contribute to causing the condition in some cases.

We report nine cases of complete primary anorgasmia in men, two of whom lacked glandipudendal reflexes. The condition need not imply sterility; in all these nine (as also in three incomplete cases) we were able to obtain semen by electroejaculation or vibratory stimulation, and the wife of one patient is now pregnant.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

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