Fake it: women pretending orgasms

Abstract

Introduction: During intercourse, a man and a woman send each other signals about their true state of pleasure. Some of these signals may be deceptive. For example, if one of the partners is not in ecstasy, then he or she may decide to fake it.Aim: The current study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of pretending orgasm and the possible causes of this behavior in a sample of married Egyptian women.Patients and methods: A total of 403 sexually active married women participated in this work. The tool used in this cross-sectional study was a self-report questionnaire designed by the authors and guided by the Female Sexual Function Index.Results: Among our participants, 84.9% admitted that they faked orgasm with different frequencies ranging from ‘usually’ to ‘rarely.’ The most common reasons for faking were to save husband’s self-esteem, distraction by outer causes, to comply with husband’s high libido, and to hasten the end of intercourse owing to fatigue or inability to have orgasm rapidly.Conclusion: Faking orgasm is a common behavior in this sample of Egyptian women. Women do it as a method to retain the interest of their husbands or to try to hasten the end of intercourse out of being tired or in pain or unable to have timely orgasm.