77 Women Reveal What An Orgasm Really Feels Like (+8 Men & 5 Trans)

We recently put a simple but loaded question to a wide range of people: what does an orgasm actually feel like? The answers ranged from steamy to genuinely useful, and sometimes downright intense. All told, 77 women, 8 men, and 5 non-binary/trans folks opened up about the joy, ecstasy, and closeness that orgasms can bring.

Their candid, detailed answers might also teach you something new about unlocking more pleasure for yourself.

What 77 Women Say An Orgasm Feels Like

1. Holding Your Breath for One More Second

It feels like I am about to explode. As though I need to scream just to release the pressure that has built up inside me. I always figured it’s like a balloon right before it pops when you blow it up too big. It stretches and absorbs the air until it finds its limit and then bursts. That burst during the orgasm when my muscles clench and release over and over is like the greatest pleasure and release you can feel. A warm glow spreads through you, and you hold your breath, hoping to get one more second of that feeling.

2. A Throbbing Sensation

Throbbing sensation through my vagina.

3. Multiple Distinct Sensations

Vaginally – small but controlled at the end. Clitoral – controlled but larger area of explosion. Vaginal and clitoral stimulation with penetration – whole body explosion.

4. Clitoral Gets There Fastest

Clitoral is the quickest, and I can come really hard this way. Vaginal is slower, a combination of the two is the best. I haven’t orgasmed anally but have come close.

5. Loud Enough to Wake the Neighbors

My spouse knows how to use his tongue in a manner that can cause an orgasm that I can only compare to skydiving. It causes my entire body to shake with tremors. I feel dizzy. We recently learned I become loud enough that we are actually disturbing and sometimes upsetting the wife of our next-door neighbors.

He can cause this orgasm multiple times in one session. Vaginally he can do the same. He has taught me numerous new positions that can cause the same effects. With the addition of taking time to be able to walk, think, or talk for a bit afterward. He puts me in positions that have deeper penetration than I’ve ever experienced.

I remember looking at him like he was out of his mind when he first mentioned some ideas to me, but I trusted him enough to follow, and I’ve never looked back. I’m new to blowjobs and trying to learn as I go. I want to do for him the same as he does for me. Hopefully, one day I’ll have him disturbing the neighbors too.

6. A Full-Body Shake of Pleasure

I love that my body shakes with pleasure. It is hard to describe the actual feeling, just that it leaves me breathless.

7. A Truly Heavenly Feeling

It leaves your body shaking, like electricity flowing through your veins. Complete and utter euphoria. It’s so intense at times that I literally zone out of this world. Every sense is stimulated and in harmony. I feel love, power, and sexy. An orgasm makes me lucky to be a woman because I get to have the privilege of experiencing something so heavenly.

8. Better When You Finish Together

If I’m cumming and they are cumming too, then my orgasm feels better than any other type (of orgasm). I adore feeling him release inside me while I’m in the throes. It’s beyond sexy and delicious.

Discover the secret to reaching simultaneous orgasms.

9. Warm and Pulsating

Clitoral orgasms send shivers down my spine and make my vagina pulsate. Vaginal orgasms are weaker and feel nice. Combined with clitoral orgasms, they’re just out of this world. Warm sensation through my whole body while my vagina squeezes around his penis multiple times.

10. Numbness and Breathlessness

When having orgasms, I just experience my body going numb and losing the ability to breathe most of the time.

11. Each Type Feels Different

It feels like letting go of all control, like being closer to heaven. Clitoral orgasms feel deep, while vaginal orgasms feel like a pleasurable pain inside.

12. Feeling Like Your Soul Leaves Your Body

Having an orgasm is breathtaking. It feels like your soul just suddenly leaves your body and smashes back down into you while he pumps his cum into you. But it’s not always that I orgasm. I have to really like someone first before I reach the pinnacle.

13. Unleashing Your Inner Animal

I feel a bit aggressive when I orgasm. I want to bite and claw and growl. However, I most often smother those impulses since my man doesn’t like it, aside from that.

• A clitoral orgasm feels like bubbly and honest laughter through my whole body.
• A vaginal orgasm makes me feel like a hunting lioness. Aggressive. Intense.
• An anal orgasm is more intense than clitoral but otherwise the same.

Related: Women Describe What an Anal Orgasm Feels Like

14. One Fades Fast, the Other Lingers

Clitoral – it feels pleasurable and then explosive and then SENSITIVE. Vaginal – pleasurable the entire time. There is this need to keep going. I like to be fucked hard. Then all of a sudden, I am relaxed and just want to lie down and sleeeeeeeep.

15. A Mind-and-Body Experience

I feel fulfilled, very happy, and more in love. Having orgasms is a turn-on. Afterward, my body is relaxed.

16. Fast Food Versus a Full Sit-Down Meal

Clitoral orgasm = fast food orgasm. It’s a quick release, but that’s it. Vaginal orgasm = wet gushing wide open orgasm.

Learn how female orgasm sometimes includes ejaculation.

17. Gone Too Quickly

I can only have clitoral orgasms. I’m not sure why that was, but it just feels really good, and I don’t want it to end since it lasts only seconds.

18. A Stirring Sensation and Waves

It feels like something is stirring from deep inside & it gets bigger until it consumes my whole body. Sometimes I squirt along with it. Immediately after, there’s a wave of just total relief.

Read: 119 women describe what squirting feels like.

19. Passing Out Afterward

Having an orgasm is a rare experience for me, but the times that I have had one, it was very intense to the point I passed out and woke up shaking uncontrollably. I almost felt sick. I tried to get up and go to the restroom, and I fell on my face because my legs were so weak.

20. Shooting Straight to the Stars

My orgasm always starts with cunnilingus, and as I am close to orgasm, I always feel like I am at the top of a high cliff and just need that last push to shoot me to the stars. That’s when I must have that vaginal thrusting. When I orgasm, I feel a vibration through my whole body. My FB actually could feel my orgasm. Now, if that didn’t just make him feel the cock of the walk!

21. A Feeling of Being Loved and Secure

It makes me feel loved and secure when my boyfriend makes me do it. We like pleasuring each other. I’ve only ever had a clitoral orgasm, but we keep trying vaginally.

22. Left Completely Breathless

My whole body just relaxes with a clitoral orgasm. There’s a deep feeling in and around the vagina. I usually hold my breath during orgasm. If I am lucky, there are two back-to-back, and I am out of breath but feel so good!

23. Multiple Orgasms Through Vaginal Penetration

With a vaginal orgasm from either penis or when he fingers me, there’s a feeling of needing to pee, then a strong burst of intense pleasure (I get the wettest this way). Any position vaginally always results in multiple orgasms.

24. An Electric Current

It feels like electricity going through my body. My vagina clamps down on his cock and I have no control.

25. Total Free Fall, No Holding Back

A total surrender; a free fall. There’s no inhibition, no return. It’s a sense of levitation followed by a toe-curling spasm.

26. Slow Build Versus Rolling Waves

Clitoral orgasms build up slower, and they feel bigger, while vaginal is more like waves of pleasure. Anal is the most intense when I have them, which is not that often.

27. A True Out-of-Body Moment

It’s an extreme sensation with anal orgasms, from pain to pleasure quickly once adjusted. An out-of-body type of experience.

28. Shaking Everything Loose

An anal orgasm feels like an earthquake at its peak, with my body shaking making me scream.

29. A Feeling of Completeness

Clitoral is satisfying. Vaginal orgasm is more intimate and can only be reached when you want to go to the next level. It is more intimate and takes your breath and your legs and leaves you complete.

30. Love Makes All the Difference

An orgasm feels like love and passion. Not everybody has given me an orgasm that I can brag about, but my husband is absolutely amazing at it and when it happens I just feel the love and passion he has for me.

31. Completely Overwhelming

It feels overwhelming. Takes me completely away. My body shakes, and it is hard to explain. It can be small or very intense.

32. Ice Water Compared to Hot Cocoa

Once during a girl’s wine/spa night, I asked, “Would you rather lose your G Spot orgasm or your clitoral orgasm?” I was surprised that every woman answered G Spot. A G Spot orgasm is different from a clitoral one. It feels dark and wild, while a clitoral orgasm feels kind of bright and spicy. I feel much more passionate about my G Spot orgasm because it’s easier to envision being fucked/having sex.

The clitoral orgasm is “spicy,” I think because it’s such a sensitive little bean. If I could compare them to everyday things that people do in the morning, I think about a clitoral orgasm similar to drinking ice water after brushing your teeth and a G Spot orgasm like having hot coffee and a biscotti. But that doesn’t mean that G Spot is mild 😉

33. Small Ones and Big Ones

I have little orgasms that are just a good feeling and a small release, but then there are big orgasms that are like a major release. That is harder for me to get to, but I will have a dozen once I have one. I am able to have both small and large (O, God) orgasms with anal and vaginal sex. I usually only get my O God Orgasm when I am having sex on top. He can be anal or vaginal as long as I am riding him.

34. Tingles and Full-Body Shivers

My husband gives me amazing orgasms every time we have sex. I have full body tingling, shivering orgasms whenever he plays with my clit, and we just recently tried anal and I had the most amazing clitoral orgasms.

35. Surviving Versus Truly Thriving

The only similarity between my orgasms is a release; otherwise, they’re all different. I can cum from my clit, G Spot, and nipples, and they all give me different orgasms, and a combined female orgasm is just epic. My least favorite orgasms are when I masturbate alone. That feels like eating a dry piece of bread when I’m really hungry. Whereas sex with the guy I’m dating feels like a four-course meal where I am completely satisfied.

The guy I’m dating gave me an incredible orgasm this weekend. I went to give him a hand job but realized how incredibly dizzy I still was from the orgasm, which was pretty sweet.

36. Like an Asteroid Impact

Having an orgasm from clitoral stimulation is easy. I like being on the edge, the heartbeat and stomach-tingling sensation that ends as if an asteroid of pleasure blasts in my whole body (clit being the asteroid).

37. A Full Course Meal

An orgasm for me is like a good meal with a starter at first to tease the palette, then a good main course and finished off with an amazing dessert. There’s a slow buildup to the point where I absolutely explode and never want it to stop.

38. A Surge, Then Legs Like Jello

It’s like a surge of energy rushing through my body. The best orgasms I’ve had were a combination of anal, vaginal, and clitoral stimulation simultaneously. My legs feel like jello after–almost like I can barely stand up.

39. A Wave That Washes Over You

A clitoral orgasm is like a huge wave of extreme pleasure that almost feels like you’re in another world. The room becomes blurry, and it is such a rush of powerful pleasure that lasts about 30 seconds, and then your body is completely relaxed and super sensitive.

40. A Mix of Pleasure and Pain

Having an orgasm is an intense, pleasurable experience. My vagina contracts and relaxes – almost like a controlled spasm. A clitoral orgasm is a quicker way to orgasm. It feels good but not as intense. A G Spot orgasm takes longer to achieve but is so worth the effort. It is deeply satisfying. It makes my whole body shudder with pleasure. An A Spot orgasm is painful pleasure. It hurts so good.

41. It Changes How Your Body Moves

It’s like a tension that builds up and then a sudden fall. I can’t help but move, and then I can’t move anymore. A vaginal orgasm feels deeper and longer to come.

42. Spreading Tingles

He goes down on me and starts a tingling between my legs that spreads all over. I start shaking, and then everything is too sensitive to touch, and I make him stop.

43. Like Something Else Takes Over

It feels like I’m outside of my body and my whole body seizes up, and I can’t control my body, and I literally feel like I’m possessed by a demon.

44. Riding an Orgasm Into Subspace

I’ve had orgasms before that have pushed me into subspace. For anyone not familiar with that, it’s when a very deep level of trust and respect is present, along with feeling sexually free. Not caring about feeling self-conscious but allowing your body and mind to connect to feel every touch, thrust, kiss, etc.

It doesn’t matter if it’s vaginal or anal. The feeling that all of this can be best described as a hard physical rush that makes me very warm, and the after-effects make me feel drunk. Then from there, the orgasm subsides, and I’m left feeling tired and drained. Both physically and emotionally.

Read More: BDSM Subspace

45. Building Toward a Boiling Point

I usually have clitoral orgasms. It feels like I am a thermometer, and the orgasm is working its way up to the top of the thermometer as things get hotter. Then, I get a “tingly” feeling that signals to me that I am about to have an orgasm. Finally, the orgasm is a matter of contractions, with each contraction giving me the feeling of squirting, which I am not physically doing.

46. A Euphoric Explosion

An orgasm is something that everyone needs to experience, if only once in their lifetime. It’s a feeling of epic euphoria when your inner being explodes with such intensity that you feel you’ve been shot into unknown territory.

47. Satisfying a Deep Hunger

Having an orgasm feels like I’m being taken to new heights, new levels of sensation that almost can take me out of my body, especially when we have sex in a position that stimulates my G Spot to orgasm.

Those are currently my favorite as I’m learning to have them in my 40’s during sex in certain positions. While a clitoral orgasm is, of course, great, I don’t feel as satisfied cumming that way alone, and usually, after two, it’s too intense. My favorite is having a simultaneous G Spot/clitoral orgasm.

Like biting into a burger after you have been starving for hours. A rush of delicious feeling over the whole body.

48. Tension, Then Total Calm

Twisting and pulling on a rubber band until it snaps, then a calm feeling with waves of warmth pulsating with a fast heartbeat, then a release with ears ringing.

49. Full-Body Chills

An orgasm feels so good. It’s letting your body do whatever it’s gonna do. An orgasm feels like a release of secretion coming from my pussy. It feels so good when someone is hitting the right spots, and that can be from oral sex, actual penetration, or from fingering myself or using a sex toy. When someone or something is hitting the right spot, and I cum, the feeling that comes over my body is good chills and sensations/good feelings. I’m also a squitter, and that feels 100% more intense than a regular nut, and it’s a BIG GUSH that squirts out, and OMG, it’s the best. Cumming is sexual sensations all over your body, including your vagina.

50. Hair Standing on End

I’ve only had vaginal orgasms, and it felt like my insides were vibrating, the sensation of being tickled, the back of my hair standing. I felt like crying, too overwhelmed with joy. It felt like peeing and blood running up and down my spine.

51. Losing Consciousness Under the Pressure

Clitoral orgasm; I need to be turned on first. The orgasm itself feels like a pressure that’s pulsing vaginally. Depending on the pressure added to my clit, this pulsating pleasure can be extended (which is awesome!).

For a G Spot orgasm, I’ve only had a few of these, but it feels like climbing. The hits to my g Spot can feel like a pull (the “Come Hither” move with the fingers) or a pulse that spreads upwards in my vagina (if my man is on his back and I am riding him). The pressure will eventually become so overwhelming that I squirt. The first time this happened, I actually lost consciousness.

52. It All Depends on the Type

I describe my orgasms differently.

• Clitoral: fast, explosive, short, hot, superficial.
• G Spot: ecstatic, explosive, pulsating, hot.
• Vaginal: deep, wholesome, satisfying, expansive, deeply relaxing, devoted, love expanding for the partner.
• Full body: orgasmic blissful state of magic in exchange with the partner, sharing love, vibration throughout the body. It is not local as with some other forms of orgasm but distributed all over the body/ Pulsing, vibrating, and tingling throughout the feet, legs, genitals, pelvis, belly, heart, nipples, throat, and arms.

53. When There Just Aren't Words

A vaginal + clitoral orgasm feels like my entire body just wants to close around and grip onto my partner, plus feelings of euphoria rush and wanting to explode. As for anal orgasms, I can’t even describe how it feels because so much goes on in my body and mind that I can’t even remember any words that could describe it?

54. A Full-Body Clench

I love all orgasms, but they’re all different. The most intense are from a vibrator or a good, slow tease into oral sex with fingers in every hole. A strong orgasm makes me scream and almost gives a strong warm pulsating ecstasy that makes you clench your whole body.

I will say very few men have the ability a vibrator can do. But the best orgasms are clitoral mixed with vaginal and or anal together.

55. Like a Phoenix Rising Again

Nirvana. It’s like exploding into millions and millions of pieces and then coming back as a whole, like the rebirth of the Phoenix. It feels like for seconds, you are in a different world like your soul has left your body.

56. A Roller Coaster Ride

I have no words to properly describe; there are only sounds! It’s like a roller coaster that shoots you out, and only the shooting is at the end.

57. Champagne, Craving, and a Volcano

A clitoral orgasm is tantalizing. It comes on slow and builds up like popping a bottle of champagne. A vaginal orgasm is soul-stirring when your partner has an orgasm at the same time. It’s like tasting something you’ve been craving, and your saliva glands go into overdrive. You want more of what you just had. Having a G Spot orgasm is like a freaking volcano erupting spewing lava everywhere.

58. When Your Brain Shuts Off

Everything is quiet, and I get extremely wet. It’s almost as if my brain shuts off.

59. A Shockingly Good Time

If I am having sex from behind either during vaginal or anal, pulling my hair, and suddenly pushing me flat on the bed with the full weight of his body and bites my neck, it makes my whole body tease up from the pain, and I have a full-body orgasm that feels like a million electric shocks all over my body. It makes my pussy clench around his dick, and he lets out a sound of pleasure as I had never heard.

60. Forgetting to Even Breathe

Vaginal – A good orgasm is one where you can feel the pressure build. The intensity of the orgasm warms my vagina, and I become more moist. The intensity builds, and I can feel the build-up in my legs. As long as he continues at the right pace, there is an explosion of feeling – hot and erotic inside me.

I can feel my heartbeat fast. My partner makes me squirt through vaginal play, and the intensity of that sort of orgasm is so much bigger, and I have to make a noise when I squirt as I release the orgasm.

Podcast: Squirting Orgasms, Getting Turned On, and Real Foreplay for Women with Female Orgasm Expert, Jason Julius

Clitoral is my favorite type of pleasure. I get the most intense orgasms from clitoral stimulation – multiple orgasms that grow, and when they’re good, gentle pressure makes the orgasm so intense. I almost forget to breathe as I’m focused on the build-up and then the actual orgasm itself.

Anal orgasms are not as pleasurable for me. It’s more of a pressure buildup than the enjoyment of the feeling. It takes longer for me to build up to an orgasm, and I don’t always achieve it.

61. A Surge Down Both Legs

I find it hard to have a vaginal orgasm. Clitoral gives me so much more. The feeling of muscles tensing up and the surge down my legs. That doesn’t happen with vaginal or anal for me.

62. Like Turning On a Faucet

The sensation feels like opening a tap to allow water to flow. It’s exhilarating and calming when it’s all done.

63. Felt Deep in Your Stomach

A clitoral orgasm begins with my legs literally shaking; I play with my nipples which seems to make it more intense. When it comes to me climaxing, it’s like a pulsing sensation but pins and needles at the same time. My clitoris feels ridiculously sensitive, and I feel like I can’t physically take it anymore. When I orgasm during penetration, it feels a lot like a clitoral climax deep in the pit of my stomach and covers a bigger area. It’s amazing.

64. Like Falling From a Peak

On the rare occasion that I do orgasm, it tends to feel like falling from a peak of almost unbearable pleasure, both for vaginal and clitoral.

65. Seeing New Colors Afterward

Vaginal orgasms are euphoric. I swear I could see new colors after. Clitoral orgasms are a full-body experience, and I feel extremely rejuvenated after.

66. A Push That Radiates Outward

The inside feels like a pushing sensation that starts pleasure in my stomach and pushes out of my vagina. External feels like it starts in my vagina and pulls pleasure up into my stomach. Both are awesome.

67. A Feeling I'm Still Chasing

The most intense orgasm I ever had was when someone went down on me, and while he used his tongue on my clit he slid a vibrator inside of me and kept rubbing it against my G Spot (learn how to find yours). I had no clue how good it was going to feel until, out of nowhere, I couldn’t stop my hips from shaking. I would describe the rest of my body as feeling the best high, the biggest permanent smile, the loudest moans. It was an out-of-control, amazing feeling. I still chase this feeling because it was the first intense orgasm I had.

Anal only once, but it was after someone ate my ass for a while then slowly did anal while he was rubbing my clit. It felt intense because it was the first time, and I wanted him so bad. The build-up was slow on this one but was so worth it. I would describe this one as intense with a rush of naughty because it was the first time someone ate my ass or did anal with the intention of getting me off, not just shoving himself in and pounding until he got off it.

68. Like a Force of Nature

Icy lightning.

69. Felt in the Hips, Back, and Spine

I don’t think my orgasms have just one way they feel. So many things can factor into the length and intensity of the orgasm. I guess, typically, I would say my breathing gets deeper first.

I feel my back start to tighten, and my hips curl upward. As my orgasm builds, the rest of my body tightens. When I reach my climax, everything kind of contracts together, and I can feel my clitoris throb. There’s some tingling in my genitals and this feeling of pressure being released. Kind of like I’m going to pee, but not. When we do anal, add a warm tingling up my spine to all that.

70. Letting Go Completely When You Squirt

I don’t know how to explain it. Honestly, it’s just this sensation that feels great, like a release of pressure. Also, squirting feels like you have to pee, and instead of holding that feeling in, you push out and release that feeling, and it feels amazing!! I can’t compare the feeling when cumming to anything because I don’t get that feeling with anything else other than clitoral stimulation.

71. Orgasms From Kinkier Play

Anal is different. It builds but seems faster than the others. The deeper and harder, the better. When I orgasm anally, it seems to roll, and I can feel myself clenching around him/it and spasms. This is so enjoyable.

Clitoral is my fastest. I feel like I am going to explode, and sometimes I will actually feel like I am peeing. I love to bring myself to the edge and try to stop before I go over; it just makes the orgasm more intense.

This one is new for me, but I have orgasmed using a sound in the urethra. This was interesting as I never would have thought you could orgasm from there. It wasn’t as intense as a clitoral orgasm, but it was right up there in the enjoyable aspect once I got the whole of the sound in. I even squirted.

Learn more about this kinkier activity in our guide to sex toys.

72. Throbbing That Lasts 15 Minutes

Vaginal is harder for me, maybe because I have only had several. Since discovering my G Spot toy, it has gotten a little better. They are intense, and many times I have rolling orgasms. I start shaking and feel a constant throb, not only in my vagina but in my clit as well. The throbbing can last 15 minutes and once in a while more. Love these.

73. Felt All the Way to Your Toes

Clitoral: heat sensation in clit and toes. Pulsing. Body twitches.

Vaginal: wet, every movement is intense. The deeper, the better. I guess I sometimes have a cervical orgasm.

Anal: more intense than vaginal. Great if you have a partner that knows how to do anal without hurting you.

74. Feeling One With Everything

Clitoral, vaginal, and anal orgasms all have different strength orgasms available for them. You can get the small little orgasms that are just like, “Yeah, that feels good, but it’s not really something I’d really come back for.”

Then you can have the big orgasms that are like a giant firework show on the fourth of July. This drives you to want more and more.

Or, if you are lucky and have someone who pays attention, you can get full-body orgasms with each. This is an out-of-body experience with each orgasm. You feel like you’re one with the universe, and nothing else matters in that time. Everything is perfect.

75. Your Whole Body Vibrates

It all depends on what kind of orgasm, which position, and how I feel about my partner. Clitoral orgasms feel like trembles of pleasure, but once I’m in the orgasm and for a few minutes after it, I hate to be touched. It tickles and is so sensitive I can’t move.

Vaginal orgasms are mind-shattering. They send ripples of pleasure through my whole body. I twitch and jerk and feel the vibration for a long time afterward.

Anal orgasms depend on if I’m playing with my clitoris at the same time. When I have anal and clitoris both, it’s almost too much. I shake and quiver and tremble. Sometimes I’ve passed out. It’s by far the most satisfying of all of them.

76. Like the Drop on a Roller Coaster

It’s like when you’re at the very top of the roller coaster with your entire body tensed up. Then the sudden vertical drop makes your body go limp. That’s what the climax does to my body, and if it’s a REALLY freaking good orgasm where I ride it out, I have to wait a hot second to go over that next drop in the coaster 😉

77. Like Molten Gold Flowing Through You

The best feeling in the world, like hot liquid gold all over my body.

8 Men Share What An Orgasm Feels Like

With a sense of the female orgasm now in hand, let's turn to the male experience. These accounts from our male readers highlight where their experiences overlap with — and diverge from — how women describe theirs.

1. A Surge of Personal Power

I’m a man. It is explosive pleasure. It starts from deep inside my taint and gradually builds in intensity. My anus and nipples light up. My personal power grows in leaps and bounds.

2. Total Release of Tension

It’s like a total release of all the tension and random thoughts leaving your body in a burst. My entire body tenses, including my core, when I fill a woman’s mouth.

3. Completely Spent Afterward

It feels like complete and utter satisfaction from head to toe. It usually leaves me totally spent.

4. A Genuinely Mind-Blowing Experience

Mind-blowing, explosive, tingly, intense.

Find blowjob tips to give your man this same experience.

5. Both Mental and Physical Release

How does an orgasm feel? It’s relief, excitement, physical ecstasy, then total relaxation.

6. Hands-Free Orgasms

Prostate orgasms are the best. They take over my whole body. I normally don’t even have to touch myself to have one.

7. Nearly Blacking Out

With a well-performing oral sex partner, I almost pass out when I cum.

8. Like a Pressure Valve Releasing

The extreme pressure that has been building up just being released in the form of a male orgasm is the best feeling ever.

5 Non-Binary and Trans Readers Describe What An Orgasm Feels Like

Because of identity and, sometimes, medical treatment, trans readers often describe orgasms that blend or diverge from typical descriptions of the male and female experience. Several of these answers stood apart from everything else in our survey.

1. Like a Sneeze

I find it difficult to orgasm due to antidepressants. When I do, the orgasm feeling is weak. They are primarily clitoral (I’m a transgender man), though vaginal penetration helps. build-up up of pressure, sort of like a sneeze (unromantic comparison to describe the feeling of an orgasm, I know) and I twitch and shudder for around 5 seconds, then feel sleepy.

Before antidepressants, orgasms were much more satisfying, longer, and would spasm through my whole body. If my partner had a penis and was penetrating me with it, they would feel these spasms strongly – this no longer happens. These days I rely more on sensuality and kink for pleasure rather than focusing on orgasms.

Related: Why Can't I Orgasm?

2. Rougher Sex Means a Stronger Orgasm

When having anal or oral sex, I’m always in a state of ecstasy. As a transwoman, I do come very hard when fucked. An anal orgasm can last a long time and increase in intensity the harder and faster you get fucked.

3. Like Actually Flying

Euphoria throughout my body as it makes me feel like I am flying off the bed. That’s the best description of an orgasm that I can think of.

4. Not Always Numb

Sometimes it kind of feels a little numb, and sometimes it’s so intense I feel it pulsing in my entire body.

5. Shivering and Shaking

I feel it coming on, and when I cum, my legs shiver and shake right down to my toes.

Now You Know What Makes Orgasms Feel So Good

Hopefully these firsthand accounts from our readers gave you a genuinely eye-opening look at the experience.

As you can tell, the sensation of orgasm varies wildly — not just from one person to the next, but by the type of orgasm and even by the emotional bond someone shares with their partner. Orgasms can be enormous or subtle, brief or drawn-out, even intense enough to cause someone to pass out.

All of this can make it genuinely tricky to know whether you're actually having an orgasm, especially if you've never experienced one before.

Still, a few patterns show up repeatedly across these accounts, especially for female orgasm. Shaking, tingling, and quivering come up again and again as physical descriptors. Sometimes the feeling straddles the line between pleasure and pain. And for a fortunate few, the sensation radiates through the entire body rather than staying confined to the genitals.

The emotional side matters just as much in these descriptions. Relief, release, and relaxation are recurring themes, whether we're talking about male or female orgasm.

With so many vivid ways people describe this experience, it's easy to see why chasing another one is so universally appealing.

Before you go off chasing your next orgasm, drop a comment below telling us what it feels like for you. And if you've never quite paid attention to how to put it into words, start noticing next time — then come back and share your own description. Now that's the fun kind of research!

September 8, 2021