Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T02:11:12.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Men and Women Who Do Not Have Orgasms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

G. S. Brindley  and
Patricia Gillan
G. S. Brindley
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
Patricia Gillan
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Guy's Hospital and The Maudsley Hospital
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

In the well-known condition of primary complete anorgasmia in women, the glandipudendal (‘bulbocavernosus’) reflex is often absent, and this is strongly correlated with failure of treatment. From these facts, and from properties of the glandipudendal reflex, we argue that organic abnormalities in the spinal cord contribute to causing the condition in some cases.

We report nine cases of complete primary anorgasmia in men, two of whom lacked glandipudendal reflexes. The condition need not imply sterility; in all these nine (as also in three incomplete cases) we were able to obtain semen by electroejaculation or vibratory stimulation, and the wife of one patient is now pregnant.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 140 , Issue 4 , April 1982 , pp. 351 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brindley, G. S. (1981a) Electroejaculation: its technique, neurological implications and uses. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 44, 9–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brindley, G. S. (1981b) Reflex ejaculation under vibratory stimulation in paraplegic men. Paraplegia, 19, 300–3.Google ScholarPubMed
Brindley, G. S. (1981c) Sexual function and fertility in paraplegic men. In Male Infertility (ed. Hargreave, T. B.). Berlin: Springer (in press).Google Scholar
Cooper, A. J. (1968) A factual study of male potency disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 719–31.Google Scholar
François, N., Lichtenberger, J.-M., Jouannet, P., Desert, J.-F. & Maury, M. (1980) L'éjaculation par le vibromassage chez le paraplégique à propos de 50 cas avec 7 grossesses. Annales de médecine physique, 23, 24–36.Google Scholar
Gillan, P. & Brindley, G. S. (1979) Vaginal and pelvic floor responses to sexual stimulation. Psycho-physiology, 16, 471–81.Google ScholarPubMed
Gillan, P., Golombok, S. & Becker, P. (1980) NHS sex therapy groups for women. British Journal of Sexual Medicine, 7, 64, 44–7.Google Scholar
Kaplan, A. H. & Abrams, M. (1958) Ejaculatory impotence. Journal of Urology, 79, 964–8.Google Scholar
Masters, W. & Johnson, V. E. (1970) Human Sexual Inadequacy (p 129, para 3). Boston: Little Brown.Google Scholar
Newell, A. G. (1976) A case of ejaculatory incompetence treated with a mechanical aid. Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 7, 193–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ovesey, L. & Meyers, H. (1968) Retarded ejaculation: Psychodynamics and psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 22, 185–201.Google Scholar
Pryde, N. & Woods, B. (1980) A case of absolute ejaculatory incompetence treated without extra-vaginal ejaculation. Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 11, 219–22.Google Scholar
Schellen, T. M. C. M. (1968) Induction of ejaculation by electrovibration. Fertility, Sterility, 19, 566–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwale, M., Frosch, P., Tölle, E. & Niermann, H. (1980) Behandlung retrograder Ejakulation und Anorgasmie mit einem Alpha-Sympatho-mimetikum (Midodrin). Zeitschrift für Hautkrankheiten, 55, 756–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Sobrero, A. J., Stearns, H. E. & Blair, J. H. (1965) Technic for the induction of ejaculation in humans. Fertility, Sterility, 16, 765–7.Google Scholar
Waynberg, J. (1981) Anéjaculation. Gazette medicate française, 88, 53–5.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.