The G Spot Orgasm: Saying Goodbye

According to Cosmopolitan magazine, several studies released in the past decade confirmed that the so-called “G spot,” or the pleasurable spot on the anterior wall of the vaginal canal that creates or intensifies orgasms, was never really there after all. And because rumors about this so-called hot button began swirling in the 1980s, there’s 40 years of how-to articles, toys, and sex positions to help us “find” this non-existent area — and they are all now relics from the past.

To recap: Inside the vaginal canal is a short, ribbed piece of your vaginal wall that researchers suspected had something to do with pleasure. After all, why else would your body make that bit of your body different from what surrounded it? When research about the G-spot first came out in the ‘80s, people became eager to find a new way to orgasm — especially given that the concept might help with the dreaded “never-had-an-orgasm-during-intercourse” problem that the majority of women who have sex with men face. And as Cosmo noted, people have Googled “Where is the G-spot?” more times than they have searched for both Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson.

There was a lot of buzz around the promise of a G-spot. Some people even sold shots of collagen to inject into this so-called region to intensify the feelings everyone was hunting for. Meanwhile, the speculation about this theory became increasingly elaborate. Evolutionary ideas started floating around, such as the belief that the spot could be there to relieve pain sustained as a baby begins to crown during birth, Laurie Mintz notes in “Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters — and How to Get It.”

In recent years some experts started suggesting the “spot” never was a spot in the first place. Instead, they hypothesized, the overall concept of a “G-spot” was essentially an area that included the vaginal wall, urethra, parts of the internal clit, or the spongy area of the erectile tissues (1).

Cosmo Makes It Official

So in 2020, Cosmo issued an apology that states:

“We’re done with the damn ‘spot’ and we’re sorry, again, that we ever brought it up. And actually: Unless sex researchers make a surprisingly major breakthrough, Cosmo won’t be publishing any more G-spot sex positions or ‘how to find it’ guides.”

Where to Now?

So now that the search is over, where has this left us? Well, it is important to know that if you think you found it, even if it's not officially called “the G-spot,” you did find something worth targeting!

During the 40-year long hunt, one study tasked a group of participants with pleasuring themselves. The results:

37% couldn't find it,

17% found it but didn’t experience pleasure,

46% found it and experienced orgasmic pleasure (1).

So if you are in the 46th percentile, congratulations! You have more nerve endings in this region.

Other people with vaginas can keep exploring their vulvas, as they may have more sensitivity in places like the hood of their clitoral glans, the inner labia lips, the touch-sensitive vaginal opening, and so on. Because bottom line? Everybody is different, and whatever brings you and your partner pleasure is worth exploring.

References

1. Mintz, Laurie B. Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--and How to Get It. HarperOne, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2018.
2. Kiefer, Elizabeth. “The G-Spot Doesn't Exist.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 16 June 2020, www.cosmopolitan.com/interactive/a32037401/g-spot-not-real/.

Images

1. @Dipseastories