August took part in a study using functional MRI. Scientists had to look at how different areas of the brain are activated during arousal and orgasm. The girl admits that when she signed up for the study, it was not easy for her to imagine herself enjoying the noise and roar of a huge tomograph.

The scientists warned her that immersion in a CT scan was claustrophobic for some people, and told her not to turn her head because any movement could ruin the entire study.

To prevent this from happening, August was given a specially fitted mask that reminded her of Hannibal Lecter’s muzzle in The Silence of the Lambs. The mask was supposed to hold the head in a fixed position and keep the mouth closed.

As August prepared to begin the experiment, Rutgers University New Jersey laboratory researchers Dr. Nan Wise, a longtime sex therapist, and Prof. Barry Komisaruk, a renowned orgasm expert, explained to her what to do.

Lying flat on her back in the scanner, she will hear text prompts such as “imagine stimulating your nipple” followed by the command “stimulate your nipple with your fingers.” The final set of commands would be to imagine that the girl is stimulating her clitoris and then actually physically stimulate it until she has an orgasm.

“But I’m used to a completely different type of stimulation – vaginal!” August thought and admitted that she might have difficulties with this.

The scientists assured her that the study did not depend on whether she reached orgasm or not, then kindly offered her two options for reaching orgasm: using her fingers to stimulate the clitoris for the first round, and a dildo that she would insert inside for the second time. “How generous! August smiles. “I was determined to deflower my unscanned brain during sex.”

August in a dressing gown, socks and her ingenious mask climbed onto the bed of the tomograph. She was given earplugs to distract from the mechanical noises and make the atmosphere at least a little more intimate. If the subject felt uncomfortable, she could press the call button at any time and stop everything.

And so the experiment began.

“The first thing I realized,” August says, “is that arousal is almost entirely in our mind.” When the team began the MRI study, they were surprised to learn that thoughts of clitoral, nipple, and vaginal stimulation activate classic sensory nodes in the brain that were previously thought to be activated only through physical stimulation.

“After spending a few minutes in the car, I could confirm this. Imagining my lover sucking my nipple (okay, maybe I deviated from the instructions) made me feel even more erotic than touching my body myself.

The most amazing thing happened when I physically began to masturbate. When one patient asked sexology pioneer Virginia Johnson how to tell if she had an orgasm, Johnson famously replied, “Trust me. You will understand”.

Komisaruk’s MRI studies showed the opposite. Caressing my clitoris with my fingers, I felt a rise in arousal, and then relief, which I interpreted as “everything broke.” Surely I didn’t finish, or did I? Later, as I described my experience and all of its symptoms to scientists, I was struck by the thought: yes, I had an orgasm without even realizing it.

Komisaruk was not surprised by my insight; scores of other women in the study reported not having orgasms when scans showed they did. I’m probably not the only woman accustomed to the combination of vaginal and clitoral orgasm that you get using a Rabbit vibrator or during penetration sex who chalked up these “small” orgasms to foreplay or was frustrated for years that they were anything. receive less.

Now that I know that I can be satisfied with just clitoral stimulation, it’s easier for me to cum and I experience much more pleasure. This is consistent with Komisaruk’s finding that our beliefs about our own sexuality tend to be self-fulfilling. In a world riddled with myths about our bodies and sexual potential, this discovery is incredibly beneficial for women.”

It is often written that the majority of women are not able to experience an orgasm only from penetration, and up to 30 percent do not experience an orgasm at all.

There is an authoritative opinion that these data from one study have been misinterpreted, taken out of context and too often cited out of place. The more often we hear that the female orgasm is rare, the less often we experience it.

Recent studies lead to much more useful conclusions. The study, which followed more than 600 women aged 40 to 65 over eight years, found that women’s perception of sex plays a bigger role than age or even menopause. Participants who valued sex as important were three times more likely to remain sexually active in middle and old age than women who did not value it, regardless of their physical abilities.

Finally, August admits: “I did not expect that the experiment would affect my own knowledge about my sexuality, but I am grateful to him for what he did. During the session, I experienced two orgasms and 16 micro-fantasies involving my clitoris, nipples, and—in one case (thanks to the combination of a control line with my overzealous imagination)—a gynecological tool, which could brighten up my next visit to the gynecologist. But the main thing that I took away from this experience is the realization that I made my tiny contribution to a huge scientific work on the study of the largely unexplored world of female sexuality. If at the age of 35 I can find out that I experience an orgasm in a way that I did not expect, then imagine what other discoveries can await all of us.