Why Do Orgasms Feel So Good? 6 Physiological Reasons You Melt
This is what happens to your body at climax...
getty Whether you find it easy or difficult to climax, knowing just what happens to your body when you orgasm is a good way of learning to understand your body and your sexuality.
After all, with more knowledge, comes more pleasure!
Orgasms are the result of lots of things taking place in both your mind and your body.
They might not always be the earth-shattering experiences they’re described as, but climaxing certainly affects us, physically.
So, why do orgasms feel so good?
Here are the 6 things that happen to your body that make orgasms feel so good.
1. Your pelvic floor muscles contract.
Your pelvic floor muscles consist of several muscles that stretch from your pubic bone to your tailbone. These muscles are important, as they help prevent things like incontinence and pelvic floor prolapse.
They’re also highly involved in orgasms.
When you climax, your pelvic floor muscles contract rhythmically. This movement is involuntary and the longer and stronger these contractions are, the longer and stronger your orgasm becomes.
This is why kegel exercises are a great route to increasing your orgasm abilities.
2. Your pain is abolished.
Feeling like having sex when you’re in pain isn’t all that common. (Hence, the phrase "I have a headache," as a way of saying "no" to sex without actually saying the word "no.")
In fact, pain or other medical and biological issues are one of the causes of low libido in men and women.
However, if you feel like a bit of hanky-panky despite your headache, back pain, or period pain, sexual pleasure — especially climaxing — can effectively kill it off, even if it's only temporarily.
The orgasm acts as a painkiller. This, combined with sexual arousal naturally increasing your pain tolerance, works like a charm.
3. Your body is flooded by oxytocin.
When you have an orgasm during sex, your brain releases oxytocin. This is a "feel-good" hormone responsible for bonding with others.
And it’s part of the answer to the question of why orgasms can feel so amazing and make us feel closer to the person we’ve had them with.
Since orgasms make us feel good, some people use partnered sex or masturbation as a means of relieving stress. Oxytocin enables relaxation and, thus, climaxing can make it easier for you to wind down after a busy day — and even fall asleep.
4. Your blood pressure increases.
Orgasms are usually referred to as the peak of a sexual experience — both in pleasure and from a timeline perspective.
For many people, orgasms signal that sex is over. However, it’s also your body, in a sense, literally peaking.
When this explosive goodness occurs, your heart starts working overtime. This means your blood pressure goes up and your breath gets heavier.
So not only does your pleasure mount, your body’s reactivity to the situation does, too.
5. Your logical side takes a break.
What happens to your body when you have sex and reach orgasm can sometimes feel a little science fiction.
For example, the part of your brain that steers logic, the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, is temporarily tuned out.
This helps explain why sex can make some of us throw caution to the wind and make bolder decisions than we would otherwise.
For example, perhaps your otherwise anxious nature morphs into one of confidence and risk-taking. Maybe you feel like you can let go in another way during sex and orgasm than you do otherwise.
Without the angst and fear-stirring, orgasm and sexual arousal become easier.
6. Your body might emit liquid.
People of all genders have the ability to ejaculate when they have an orgasm.
For those with penises, this is more of a common occurrence and if you don’t know otherwise, you might think that ejaculation and orgasm are one and the same thing — they’re not.
Having an orgasm is the actual feeling, whereas ejaculating is a separate event that can either be accompanied by a climax or not.
This is why some men and people with penises feel like their orgasms are a bit "meh," whereas others have what is referred to as a "dry orgasm."
The same goes for women and those with vulvas and vaginas. Not everyone experiences them, and it’s yet to be determined if everyone is capable of it.
For some who do squirt when they have an orgasm, it’s sometimes described as an even more intense experience.
So, here’s what happens to your body when you orgasm: Your heart rate and pain threshold increase.
You might emit liquid, your brain floods you with oxytocin and turns off your logical side, and your pelvic floor muscles contract rhythmically.
No matter how big an orgasm, it’s obvious all climaxes are all the result of some pretty major things going on in your body.
Leigh Norén is a sex therapist and writer with a Master of Science in Sexology. She’s been featured in Women's Health, Thrive Global, The Good Men Project, Elephant Journal, Glamour, The Minds Journal, and more. To learn more about your body and orgasms, visit her website. To learn more about how your sex drive works, download her free resource: The Desire Test.