Urologist and sex education YouTuber Rena Malik, MD shares content on her channel aimed at helping people have a healthy and more fulfilling sex life. In a new video, she addresses one of the most common questions she is asked by subscribers: how long it takes for women—or anyone with a clitoris—to reach orgasm.
She begins by looking at the findings of a study comprising more than 2,000 women who were asked how long they estimated it took to reach orgasm during both partnered sex and masturbation. Medical history, sexual history, relationship status, and any difficulty in achieving orgasm were also taken into account.
“What they found was that the average time to reach climax in women with a partner was about 14 minutes,” says Malik. “However, when they masturbated on their own, that time was about 8 minutes… Very often women need clitoral stimulation in order to reach orgasm, and very often when masturbating, women focus on clitoral stimulation.”
The study also found that for many women, sex was not simply about climax, but also about fostering intimacy and trust with their partner, compared to masturbation, where pleasure is the primary goal. Quite possibly for this reason, the majority of women in this study found partnered sex more satisfying than masturbation, despite the greater amount of time it takes for them to reach orgasm.
“Interestingly, also, women who were older and who had a very satisfactory relationship status were more likely to have shortened orgasmic latency time, or shorter time to climax,” Malik adds. “This makes sense… Women who are older or have been in a relationship they’re happy in, can communicate better what they like, and understand their bodies a bit better so they can reach orgasm more quickly.”