This fascinating and comprehensive book is the first to explore the complex biological process leading to orgasm. Here, sexuality researcher and nurse Beverly Whipple, coauthor of the international best-selling book The G Spot and Other Discoveries about Human Sexuality, joins neuroscientist Barry R. Komisaruk and endocrinologist Carlos Beyer-Flores to view orgasm through the lenses of behavioral neuroscience along with cognitive and physiological sciences.

The authors explain how and why orgasms happen, why they fail to happen, and what brain and body events are put into play at the moment of orgasm. No topic is left unexplored, as the book describes the genital-brain connection, how the brain produces orgasms, how aging affects orgasm, and the effects of prescription medication, street drugs, hormones, disorders, and diseases.

Covering every type of sexual peak experience in women and men?from intense to phantom -- this informative and entertaining work illuminates the hows, whats, and wherefores of orgasm.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 7 reviews)

3.5 Stars for Text Book Style With Unbalanced Exhaustiveness of Subtopics

I read the original 2006 hardcover edition. As the reviews on this site show, some readers are distracted by the sell-word "orgasm", not letting the word "science" sink in. You should be aware that this is rather NOT a book about instructions of how to orgasm better. Instead, you may be interested in Female Ejaculation and the G-Spot: Not Your Mother's Orgasm Book! (Positively Sexual) (or similar books on that female topic). However, the intended pun of the "neutrally" brown sex shop paper bag design of the jacket is indeed a bit misleading as it suggests a popular science writing style. At times the book gets more of a dry text book.

The book details chemical processes of orgasm, the nervous system connection (and disconnection in paralyzed people who may experience orgasm nevertheless) and extensively on medication's influence on orgasm. As well as more recreational drugs' influences. Hormones, steroids and the brain's influence get chapters as well. A very important information are the chapters on orgasm's influence on health and ageing: The more orgasms you have, the older you get, statistically speaking. Studies which can't really explain themselves satisfactorily yet, but are counteracting some religious notions of the more you orgasm (and/or ejaculate), the sooner your life force will be used up. (Mostly east Asian theologies, such as Taoism getting globalized and secularized.)

My personal criticism is about the neglected prostate orgasm in men. It IS mentioned a couple of times that various parts of the anal anatomy contributes to orgasm and its quality in both, females and males. It IS mentioned that males may be able to orgasm and/or ejaculate in a flaccid state. It is also mentioned that males can have multiple orgasms. But the latter two facts are NOT referring to prostate orgasms in this book. Instead the book writes about the DIFFERENT orgasm potentials in women and men (as in different from each other). Whereas in reality there are basically the same variations of orgasm possible in both. The most strange thing is that the authors know about what they don't mention: They inform that MTFs (male-to-female transsexuals) may experience orgasm via stimulation of the "artificial" vagina, because of indirect contact of that neovaginal wall to the anterior prostate gland. This BEGS for the question, why none of the authors is even touching upon the same contact leading to orgasm from the other, natural orifice. I mean, not everyone may like the idea of erotic choice required for that orgasm, but hey: This is a science book about orgasm, for crying out loud! (But then again, there are strap-ons for women, who also have fingers, the latter of which are anyway more easily applied for that purpose.) I am positive that the authors have become acquainted with the studies of prostate stimulation in connection with prostate health issues. I vaguely know that the lack of stimulation may cause the various problems of that organ known in older males. One of the main reasons I bought this book was to find out about that. In vain.

Someone else is criticizing the lack of wondering about the necessity of female orgasm, evolutionarily speaking. I am a bit flabbergasted, as this is a topic within the first ten pages already. However, I am a bit concerned about the book's uncorrected quote in the same breath that supposedly female orgasm is as unimportant as male nipples. This is nonsense to begin with, but also: The book fails to mention the existence of male lactation. In today's world, this may be negligible, but in pure nature it is important that the possibility exists for the father to take over feeding the baby if the mother dies in childbirth or is prevented from breastfeeding for other reasons. In other words, on several issues, this book doesn't share as much scientific information as could and should be expected.

The most rewarding chapter for me personally was the last one. Unfortunately it's also the shortest one - or actually that may have contributed to its better readability. It connects science with faith, consciousness and E=m². Though I am interested in that, I didn't expect to read about this in this sort of book. Other readers may actually be put off. If you are NOT one of the latter, I recommend reading From Science to God: A Physicist's Journey into the Mystery of Consciousness which is more easy to read and much more fascinating, for sure different from the expectations suggested by its title.

A more popularly written version of the reviewed book is the similar Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex with little overlap.
August 29, 2008

Better as a reference.

This book was not designed to be read all the way through. Several pieces of information were repeated from chapter to chapter. In addition, the book was not targeted well. In some places, the authors discuss very basic details of brain anatomy, while in others, they reference facts that only a specialist could know. Overall, the repetitiveness made reading the book boring, and the way they treated the background information would make the book even more boring for the specialist reader and confusing for the lay reader. Some chapters are quite focused and interesting, but overall, I didn't feel the book was an enjoyable read.
March 27, 2008

Fascinating read on a universally relevant, though often unaddressed, topic.

This book is a well written review of the existing scientific literature concerning the orgasm. It provides a thorough and respectable - yet readable - introduction to the neurobiological and neuropsychological underpinnings of the orgasm. The book also discusses a variety of disorders which inhibit or enhance the orgasmic experience.

While it won't furnish the reader with miracle recipes for solving orgasmic disorders or achieving a tantric multiple orgasm, this book will provide helpful insights into the mystery of sexual pleasure. For those enduring sexual dysfunction as a result of antidepressant therapy, this book will explain how and why depression and its treatment can impair sexual function.

This book will also satisfy the simply curious mind with sections on sexual function and paralysis, gender reassignment, drug abuse, aging, males vs. females, and much more.
November 15, 2007

Well... *that* sorta took all the fun out of it!

OK... I was wandering through the library aisles (really!), and this book sorta jumped out at me... The Science of Orgasm by Barry R. Komisaruk, Carlos Beyer-Flores, and Beverly Whipple. I thought it might be fun to learn a little more about what happens at that "YES!" moment. But this book really takes all the fun out of it. You pretty much have to have a medical degree to understand a majority of it, and there's little spractical material for the layman (pun not intended... much).

Contents: Definitions of Orgasm; Different Nerves, Different Orgasmic Feelings; Bodily Changes at Orgasm; Are Orgasms Good for Your Health?; When Things Go Wrong; Diseases That Affect Orgasm; How Aging Affects Orgasm; Pleasure and Satisfaction with and without Orgasm; The Nervous System Connection; The Neurochemistry of Orgasm; Effects of Medication; Counteracting Medication Side Effects; Recreational Stimulant Drugs and Orgasm; Depressant Drugs and Orgasm; Herbal Therapies; Hormones and Orgasm; Mechanism of Action of Sex Steroids; Nonreproductive Hormones in Orgasm; Atypical Orgasms; The Genital-Brain Connection; Orgasms after Brain Surgery or Brain Damage; Imaging the Brain during Sexual Arousal and Orgasm; The Cast of Characters - How Brain Components Contribute to Orgasm; Consciousness and Orgasm; Glossary; References; Index

Anyway... this is an extremely clinical look at the physiological and psychological components that make up the, you guessed it, human orgasm. If you ever wanted to know exactly what role 5-alpha-DHT or dehydroepiandrosterone play in your body, this book will tell you... in detail. Probably every study on human sexuality in the past 50 years that's ever been published is referenced in here... multiple times. After a couple pages of explanation on evidence that a genital sensory pathway goes directly to the brain, bypassing the spinal cord, I was ready to switch over to something much lighter... like Reinventing Project Management. This was one of those library books that got renewed a number of times, as I just couldn't bear to read more than 10 to 15 pages at a time. Maybe I need a book on why I feel I have to finish a book if I start it. :)

Seriously, I can see how someone in the medical field would find this very useful. Also, if you're dealing with major issues like a spinal cord injury or severe reactions to medication, you'd probably be motivated to dig through the information to find answers and solutions. But for the average male or female with relatively normal functioning parts, this is written at a level that requires far more work than it's worth.

And now I think I'll go find something a bit more readable...

August 07, 2007

book review

This book was overkill on the scientific explanation and not enough on the practical side for those having problems.
May 08, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The G Spot: And Other Discoveries about Human Sexuality
by Alice Khan Ladas, Beverly Whipple, John D. Perry

Law of Attraction: The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don't
by Michael J. Losier

Orgasms: How to Have Them, Give Them, and Keep Them Coming
by Lou Paget

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by Mary Roach

Coping With Premature Ejaculation: How to Overcome PE, Please Your Partner & Have Great Sex
by Michael E., Ph.D. Metz, Barry W., Ph.D. McCarthy