Women reach orgasm more often alone, but partnered orgasms are more closely tied to sexual satisfaction

Women tend to reach orgasm more often during solo sex than with a partner, but a new study suggests that partnered orgasms are the ones more closely tied to overall sexual satisfaction. The survey of nearly 28,000 users of a period-tracking app, published in Archives of Sexual Behavior, also found that a wider variety of partnered activities was linked to greater satisfaction, while variety in solo sex showed no such benefit.

Sexual satisfaction refers to a person’s overall evaluation of how fulfilling and pleasurable their sex life is, a measure closely tied to overall health and quality of life. Past research has consistently linked women’s sexual satisfaction to how often they reach orgasm and to sexual variety, which is the number of different sexual behaviors a person engages in. For instance, a 2017 national survey of U.S. adults found that people in long-term relationships who incorporated a wider range of intimate behaviors and had more frequent orgasms tended to feel more satisfied with their sex lives.

Reaching orgasm with a partner, however, is far less consistent for women than reaching orgasm alone, a disparity examined in a 2024 review of the partnered orgasm gap. That review noted that 38 to 92 percent of women usually or always climax when masturbating, and that women’s orgasm rates rise sharply when sexual activity includes direct stimulation of the clitoris, a small, highly sensitive organ at the top of the vulva. During partnered sex with men, routines often center on vaginal penetration alone, leaving many women without the stimulation needed to climax.

Because solo sex is such a reliable source of orgasms, one might expect frequent masturbation to boost sexual satisfaction, yet prior research has yielded mixed results. Among studies of women in a 2024 systematic review, 40 percent found no link between masturbation and sexual satisfaction, a third found a negative link, and about a quarter found a positive one.

The review’s authors argued that negative links may arise when masturbation compensates for unfulfilling or absent partnered sex, but they found that for women, masturbation more often seemed to complement partnered sex rather than replace it. The context of solo activity may also matter: a study covered by PsyPost in 2020 indicated that women who used vibrators both alone and with a partner reported higher sexual satisfaction than those who used vibrators only alone.

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Most earlier studies examined only a narrow set of partnered behaviors or treated masturbation as a single category without comparing specific solo and partnered activities side by side. To explore how distinct behaviors, variety, and orgasms relate to satisfaction across both contexts, Yella Hewings-Martin and Adam C. Cunningham of Flo Health UK Limited and their colleagues surveyed users of the Flo health app to test whether solo orgasms and variety relate to overall satisfaction the same way partnered ones do.

The researchers recruited participants between April 11 and May 5, 2024, via in-app messages shown to adult English-speaking Flo users. From 70,424 initial responses, the team excluded users who did not complete the survey, lacked a valid app ID, or failed two attention-check questions, leaving 27,931 participants with an average age of 28 years. Nearly all respondents were biologically female (98.9 percent) and identified as women (96.4 percent); 70.7 percent identified as heterosexual, 23.1 percent as bisexual or pansexual, and 81.3 percent had a male partner.

Respondents reported on their sex lives over the previous six months, rating their overall sexual satisfaction on a five-point scale and their orgasm frequency from never to almost always. They also rated how often they engaged in 13 partnered and 13 solo sexual activities, including vaginal penetration, clitoral stimulation by hand or vibrator, watching erotica, and role-play, and how often each behavior led to orgasm. Multiplying activity frequency by orgasm frequency yielded weighted orgasm scores for solo and partnered contexts. Those who climaxed more often in one setting than the other selected up to three reasons from 22 options to explain why.

Across the full sample, 56.2 percent of participants were moderately or very satisfied with their overall sex life, while 19.5 percent were moderately or very dissatisfied. Roughly 36.9 percent reached orgasm almost always or always, and 22.9 percent did so most of the time, whereas 20.6 percent climaxed less than half the time or never. Overall orgasm frequency had a moderate positive correlation with sexual satisfaction (r = 0.38, on a scale where 1 would be a perfect match): 61.2 percent of very satisfied respondents reached orgasm almost always, though 19.5 percent of very dissatisfied respondents also climaxed almost every time.

The data showed a difference between the behaviors performed most consistently at every encounter and those practiced by the widest share of women overall. Vaginal penetration without other stimulation was the partnered behavior most consistently performed every time (39.7 percent), but clitoral stimulation by a partner’s hand, mouth, or tongue was the most widespread partnered activity overall (90.2 percent at least sometimes), followed closely by vaginal penetration paired with other body stimulation (90.1 percent) and by vaginal penetration paired with clitoral touch (90.0 percent).

The authors noted that clitoral stimulation topping the list of widespread partnered behaviors contrasts with older surveys where vaginal intercourse was most common. They suggest this likely reflects their more detailed questions about a six-month period, though they also speculate that it could partly reflect a younger sample (38 percent of respondents were aged 18 to 25).

In solo sex, clitoral stimulation by hand was both the most widespread behavior (84.6 percent) and the most consistent (44.5 percent every time), while only 5.5 percent practiced solo vaginal penetration alone every time. Across all 13 paired comparisons of similar activities, women reached orgasm more frequently when alone than with a partner, with differences ranging from small to moderate. Overall, 47 percent of participants reported reaching orgasm more often during solo sex, compared to 21 percent with a partner and 27 percent who reported no difference.

In solo sessions, clitoral stimulation with a vibrator or dildo, watching erotica, and clitoral stimulation by hand were linked to the highest orgasm rates. During partnered sex, the highest orgasm rates came from using sex toys together, combining vaginal penetration with clitoral stimulation, and masturbating with a partner present, while vaginal penetration alone and anal stimulation were linked to the lowest rates in both contexts.

Participants’ own explanations pointed to both psychological and physical factors. Women who climaxed more often alone most commonly cited inadequate stimulation from a partner, an absence of pressure to perform, reduced body image self-consciousness, and feeling safer to let go because they controlled the stimulation. Many also pointed to partnered obstacles such as a partner finishing too soon, difficulty communicating preferences, life stress, or painful intercourse. By contrast, those who reached orgasm more often with a partner emphasized emotional intimacy, adequate partner stimulation, and heightened arousal from attraction to their partner.

To examine how solo and partnered experiences predicted overall sexual satisfaction, the authors analyzed the 19,469 respondents who had engaged in partnered sex during the past six months. Partnered orgasm frequency was the strongest positive predictor of sexual satisfaction, whereas solo orgasm frequency showed a tiny negative association in initial models and was not statistically significant in the final model. Participants averaged 7.79 of the 13 partnered activities and 6.45 of the 13 solo activities; greater partnered variety predicted higher satisfaction, while greater solo variety was weakly associated with lower satisfaction. Together, these factors accounted for about 16 percent of the differences in satisfaction between participants.

In a separate model of 20,805 partnered-sex participants controlling for relationship status, being in a relationship and engaging in greater partnered variety both predicted higher overall orgasm frequency, whereas solo variety was not statistically significant. That model accounted for about 7 percent of the differences in orgasm frequency between participants.

The positive tie between partnered climax and satisfaction aligns with research covered by PsyPost in 2018, which examined heterosexual newlywed couples rather than a broad sample of female app users and similarly found that a woman’s partnered orgasm frequency is positively linked to her sexual satisfaction. At the same time, the findings on solo sex and variety stand in tension with a study covered by PsyPost in 2022, which linked frequent masturbation in women to higher sexual satisfaction alongside frequent intercourse and variety. That earlier study, however, looked at overall masturbation frequency across a broad adult population, whereas the new study specifically evaluated solo orgasm frequency and sexual variety among female app users.

There are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting these findings. Because the survey captured data at a single point in time, it cannot establish cause and effect: women who already feel happy and secure in their relationships may simply feel more comfortable exploring a wider variety of activities with their partners, while women experiencing an unfulfilling partnered sex life may turn to solo masturbation and try more solo techniques to compensate. In addition, sexual satisfaction was measured with a single question about a respondent’s overall sex life, which many people may naturally judge based on their partnered relationships rather than their solo habits. The large sample size also makes it possible to detect tiny statistical differences that have little practical impact in daily life.

The sample consisted of English-speaking users of a health tracking app who were mostly young, White, and heterosexual, and about half held a bachelor’s degree or higher. Because participants volunteered for a study described as being about female orgasms, they may be more comfortable discussing sex, or more sexually active, than women in general. Four of the authors are employees of Flo Health with equity in the company, and the other three are consultants for it.

The authors suggest that bringing elements of solo sex into partnered encounters, such as open communication about preferences and less pressure to perform, could help narrow the gap between solo and partnered orgasms. Future research tracking couples over time could help explain how emotional closeness, trust, and communication interact with physical stimulation to shape sexual fulfillment.

The study, “Sexual Satisfaction and Orgasm Experiences During Partnered and Solo Sex Among 27,931 Users of the Flo App,” was authored by Yella Hewings-Martin, Adam C. Cunningham, Jordan Rullo, Karen L. Blair, Carley Prentice, Anna Klepchukova, and Liudmila Zhaunova.