My name is Dr. Justin Lehmiller, and I am a social psychologist and sexuality researcher. I'm here to answer questions submitted by the plusOne community.

Today's question is, what is the pleasure gap?

Great question. The pleasure gap, also known as the orgasm gap, refers to the consistent finding that in partnered activity between men and women, men are substantially more likely to reach orgasm than women are.

To put some numbers on this research finds that heterosexual men reach orgasm on average about 95% of the time. By contrast, heterosexual women only reach orgasm about two thirds of the time, on average.

The pleasure gap is largest in casual relationships and smallest in committed relationships, which points to factors such as trust, intimacy, and communication as being really important in closing the orgasm gap.

But that's not all.

What we see in the research is that specific activities matter too. The women who orgasm the most frequently and consistently are the most likely to receive clitoral and oral stimulation, to be trying new and different positions and to be sharing and acting on their fantasies.

Follow along to see what question is answered next.