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| Beyond the G spot: Where do we go from here? |
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| Written by Berverly Whipple, PhD, RN, FAAN | |||||
Page 3 of 3 We have also found a significant elevation in glucose in the ejaculate and other researchers report a significant elevation in fructose. (Most of these studies have been published in the Journal of Sex Research, ie Addiego et al 1981, Belzer et al, 1984, Zavicic et al, etc.) Cabello from Spain, reported at the last World Congress in Valencia that he tested the hypothesis that all women ejaculate, although some may have retrograde ejaculation. Using Microparticle Enzyme Immunoassay to detect prostate specific antigen (PSA), he found a significant difference in PSA between preorgasmic and postorgasmic urine specimens (published in the Proceedings of the World Congress of Sexology, 1997).Based on these findings, it is evident that some women expel a fluid that is different from urine during sexual activities and orgasm and some women may expel a little urine. In some women G spot stimulation, orgasm and female ejaculation are related, while in other women they are not related. Some women have reported experiencing ejaculation with orgasm from clitoral stimulation and some have reported experiencing ejaculation without orgasm. It is hoped that sexual health care providers can counsel women and their partners to feel more comfortable with the normal phenomenon of female ejaculation and therefore avoid surgery designed to eliminate it. This phenomenon is reported by most women who experience it as extremely pleasurable. Is the G spot just for pleasure or does it have adaptive significance? An extensive series of studies in laboratory rats demonstrated that vaginal mechanical stimulation produced a strong pain blocking effect, stronger than 10 mg of morphine per kg of body weight. However, the most convincing evidence that vaginocervical stimulation blocks pain requires a verbal confirmation from women. Consequently, we performed a series of studies in women, measuring pain thresholds during vaginal self-stimulation. Pain thresholds were determined by applying a gradually increasing force to teach finger of one hand using a Ugo Basile Analgesia Meter. The subject places one finger on the 1 mm diameter point of the analgesia meter and a controlled, steadily increasing force is applied ranging from 0 grams to a maximum of 1 kg. The subject reports by saying "now," when the finger pain is first perceived (defined as "pain detection threshold") and by saying "stop," when finger pain becomes too uncomfortable to continue (defined as "pain tolerance threshold"). The pressure device is lifted from the finger when the subject says stop. Tactile thresholds are determined by applying a graded series of nylon monofilaments of varied stiffness (von Frey fibers) to the dorsal surface of the hand. We found that the elevation in pain detection threshold increased by a mean of 47% when pressure was self-applied to the anterior vaginal wall (the Grafenberg spot). When stimulation was applied in a pleasurable manner, the pain threshold was greater (by 84%) than that in the resting control condition. The PD threshold increased by a mean of 107% when the women reported orgasm. There were no increases in tactile (or touch) thresholds. This demonstrates that the effect was analgesic not an anesthetic effect and not a distracting effect. This analgesic effect was produced by pressure and by pleasurable self-stimulation applied to the anterior vaginal wall (G spot). (this was published in the Journal Pain., 1985, by Whipple and Komisaruk) Pleasurable self-stimulation, but not pressure applied to other genital regions also produced an analgesic effect. (Published in Journal of Sex Research., 1988, Whipple and Komisaruk) It was then demonstrated that an analgesic effect also occurs naturally during labor. We believe that childbirth would be more painful without this natural pain blocking effect, which is activated when the pelvic and hypogastric nerves are stimulated as the cervix dilates and from pressure in the vagina produced by the emerging fetus. (Published in International Journal of Nursing. Studies, 1990, Whipple et al) Further animal studies revealed that when newborn rats are injected with the chemical capsaicin, they do not get this natural analgesia when they are adults. This led to a very interesting study that was based on my observations made of women during labor. That is, Spanish speaking women in my country seemed to have a harder time at labor, which I thought was cultural, until I learned of the studies with laboratory rats. I hypothesized that women who have chronically ingested a diet high in chili peppers (the main pungent ingredient of which is capsaicin) would have a diminished analgesic response to vaginal self-stimulation. We conducted this study in Mexico, where we found women who fell into 3 different groups, depending on their dietary consumption of chili peppers. The results of this study supported my hypothesis, that is women who had diets high in chili peppers did not have the elevation in pain thresholds that women in Mexico had who did not eat chili peppers. The group of women who did not eat chili peppers had pain thresholds very similar to the women in the United States; that is they had the natural pain blocking effect. (This was published in Physiology and Behavior in 1989, Whipple et al, and still tops the list for my most frequently requested publication) We are currently conducting a study in Mexico, comparing pain thresholds of women during labor who have had a diet high in chili peppers with those who had a diet low in chili peppers. Anecdotal reports from other countries, such as India, state that women are told not to eat hot spicy food about 3 months before they are due to deliver. Orgasm has been reported to occur in response to imagery in the absence of any physical stimulation. In another study, we (Whipple, Ogden and Komisaruk) documented orgasm from imagery alone in the laboratory. We measured heart rate, blood pressure, pupil diameter, and pain and tactile thresholds in women who had orgasm from genital self-stimulation and orgasm from imagery alone. Orgasm from self-induced imagery or genital self-stimulation generated significant increases in systolic blood pressure, heart rate, pupil diameter and pain thresholds over resting control conditions. In these women, there were no significant differences in the increases in the physiological and perceptual correlates of orgasm from genital self-stimulation and from imagery alone. Physical genital stimulation is evidently not necessary to produce a state that is reported to be an orgasm. (Published in Archives of Sexual Behavior., 1992, Whipple et al) We may have to re-look at our definition of orgasm and we may have to believe women when they say they have had an orgasm, even if no one, including the women themselves, has physically stimulated her body.
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 26 March 2007 ) | |||||
