<< Genital Spasms and Convulsions >>

The genitalia of both the female and the male are usually included in the spasms or convulsions which follow orgasm. In the female the perineal muscles may go into convulsion, and the levator muscles of the vagina may also move convulsively and sometimes may grab the male’s penis or any other object which has been inserted into the entrance to the vagina. The fact that some women experience vaginal spasms or convulsions may provide some basis for the references in the psychiatric literature to a “vaginal orgasm.” These vaginal spasms are, however, simply an extension of the spasms which may involve the whole body after orgasm.
Genital spasms at or immediately following orgasm are also noted by: Roubaud 1876:13. Rohleder 1907(1):310-311. Bloch 1908:50. Moll 1912:25. Urbach 1921:125-126. Malchow 1923:135. Kisch 1926:295-296. Bauer 1927(1):156. Dickinson 1933, 1949:98. Van de Velde 1930:199. Havelock Ellis 1936(11,1): 159. W. Reich 1942:83. Hardenbergh 1949:228. Faller in Hornstein and Faller 1950:238.

While the vaginal contractions may prove a source of considerable pleasure both for the female and for her male partner, it is a more difficult matter to determine whether the lack of vaginal spasms represents any loss of pleasure for a female. The absence of vaginal contractions in a woman who customarily has them may, however, provide some evidence that she is not responding in that particular relationship.

Strong rhythmic contractions of the abdominal muscles sometimes push the uterus and the attached walls of the vagina closer to the vaginal entrance (Figure 118) if it is not blocked by the inserted penis. Recently the action of the uterus has been studied with electrical instruments which can follow the movements of fine particles that are inserted in the cavity of the organ. These studies show that the upper end of the uterus goes into rhythmic contractions of considerable frequency whenever there is sexual arousal. The rate of movement, however, decreases in the body of the uterus, and the cervix at the lower end of the uterus shows a minimum of movement. There is, in consequence, an actual sucking effect which may pull semen through the cervix into the uterus.
The descent and/or sucking of the uterus is mentioned in: Rohleder 1907(1): 531. Talmey 1912:56-57; 1915:87-89. Urbach 1921:133. Malchow 1923: 135-136. Kisch 1926:295-300. Hirschfeld 1928(2):226. Dickinson 1933, 1949:90-93. Havelock Ellis 1936(11,1):160-162. Haire 1937:199, 202, 283. Kahn 1939:85, fig. 17. Weisman 1941:109-110 (a good summary of opinions). Hutton 1942:71. Hühner 1945:454-455. Gardner in Howell (Fulton edit.) 1949:1179. Faller in Hornstein and Faller 1950:238. Such uterine action has been described in animals (e.g., Marshall 1922:173-174, and Baker 1926:32), and data on its occurrence in human females are brought together in Colmeiro-Laforet 1952:125-126. Extensive work done under the direction of Carl Hartman is not yet published.

In the male, spasms or convulsions following orgasm may involve both the penis and the scrotum. The scrotal walls may suddenly relax, or expand and contract in rhythmic movements; and the testes, which have been drawn up into the groins during sexual arousal, may undergo considerable movement within the scrotum as a specific aftereffect of orgasm.

In most males there are only limited gross movements of the penis following orgasm, but in some individuals the movements may become spasmodic jerks of some magnitude. The most pronounced movements appear to depend upon contractions of the muscular attachments of the two spongy bodies (the corpora cavernosa) which constitute the main shaft of the penis. For most of their length the two spongy bodies are joined to form a single body, but at the base of the penis the two corpora separate into divergent roots which are fastened at their tips (the crura of the penis) to the pelvic bones. Movements of either the flaccid or erect penis may be effected by voluntary contractions of these crura, and at orgasm there may be strong and violently convulsive contractions of the crura. In consequence, the whole penis may sometimes move in strong jerks; but sometimes there is hardly any gross movement of the penis even though the crural contractions may be strong. Ejaculation may depend in part upon these contractions of the corpora cavernosa, as well as upon contractions of the urethra.

Any contraction of the muscles in the crura simultaneously contracts the anal sphincters, and the anus may open and close in violent convulsion as an after-effect of orgasm. Most persons are unconscious of this anal action unless they have had anal intercourse or utilized anal insertions as a source of erotic stimulation.

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