June 20, 2011

Female ejaculation and ancient sex wisdom

They say you learn something new every day. Today I learned a little about the mysteries of female ejaculation and, tangentially, some ancient sex advice… always interesting. According to the Bering in Mind blog from Scientific American, science still doesn’t understand female ejaculation, but that doesn’t stop it from leading to hilarious situations like this:
…most female ejaculators report "copious" amounts of fluid being released around the time of orgasm, enough to "soak the bed" or "spray the wall" or have their partner scream in terror and misunderstanding
Anything that causes screaming in terror during sex is pretty funny in my book. But if you ask me, this particular situation is nothing to get scared about.

While tracing the history of sexual knowledge of the female body, the article also provided this ancient wisdom:
The 4th century Taoist text, Secret Instructions Concerning the Jade Chamber, written for the enterprising man in the art of satisfying a woman in bed, suggested that he decipher the following "five signs" of feminine arousal accordingly:
  1. "reddened face" = "she wants to make love with you"
  2. "breasts hard and nose perspiring" = "she wants you to insert your penis"
  3. "throat dry and saliva blocked" = "she is very stimulated and excited"
  4. "slippery vagina" = "she wants to have her orgasm soon"
  5. "the genitals transmit fluid" = "she has already been satisfied"
All great advice. So naturally, it got me wondering, where can I find this sacred text? A Google search led me to this from an Eastern massage website:
In the Secrets of the Jade Chamber it states that “a man should put forth great effort in expanding his abdomen with his breath during sexual activity so that he may increase his physical strength and stamina. So when the woman is stimulating his Jade Stem with either her Red Lotus or Jade Gate, he is to take a deep breath, hold it for a count of thirty, and then exhale. He should repeat this several times. This will ensure he maintains a hard erection.”
Amazing. But alas, I couldn’t track down the complete text. The closest thing I could find was a contemporary guide to the teachings. But no a literal translation.

That’s ok, the Scientific America article also led me on a random walk to the original 1950 article that first described the infamous G-spot. The article is worth a full read, but here are a couple choice bits, starting with this humorous anecdote:
One of my patients, who married early a very much older, rich man and had two children, pestered me persistently with questions as to why she could not experience an orgasm. I explained that physically there was nothing wrong with her. Bored by the repeated discussions with her, I finally asked her, if she had tried sex relations with another male partner. No, was the answer and reflectively she left my office. The next day in the middle of the night, I was awakened by a telephone call and a familiar voice who did not give her name asked: "Doctor are you there? You are right," and hung up the receiver with a bang! I never had to answer any further sexual questions from her.
And of course, the major finding:
Hardenberg mentions that nerves have been demonstrated only inside the vagina in the anterior wall, proximate to the base of the clitoris. This I can confirm by my own experience of numerous women. An erotic zone always could be demonstrated on the anterior wall of the vagina along the course of the urethra. Even when there was a good response in the entire vagina, this particular area was more easily stimulated by the finger than the other areas of the vagina.
I too can confirm this with my own experience of numerous women. I hope you can too.