[The duration of female orgasm]

Short orgasm lasting from 3 to 15 second was for a long time viewed as the only regularly occurring type of female orgastic experience. Bohlen et al. (1992) and other authors demonstrated in physiological experiments the occurrence of a longer female orgasm of the duration between 20 seconds and 2 minutes. Hubalek and Raboch (1984) found in structured interviews with marital couples that such long female orgasms were not exceptional. About 40% of 121 women estimated the duration of their orgasm to be 30 to 60 seconds or even longer, mostly in agreement with independent estimates of their husbands. Our own findings are based on our sexuological inventory SGZ, which contains one open question concerning the duration of respondent's orgasm. In a sample of 200 women treated for neurosis 37% reported long orgasm, 37% short orgasm and 26% did not answer the question. In a sample of 100 female health professionals and counselors, 48% experienced predominantly long orgasm and 44% short ones (8% did not answer). Our data confirm relatively frequent occurrence of long orgasm in females.