/Q: Are sperm cramps a real thing?
A: I have to be honest, I’ve never heard of this before so I did a little research. Apparently sperm cramps are pain or discomfort a man may feel after ejaculation. While I certainly believe this can happen, I don’t see any biological reason why it should, and I’ve truly never heard of it until now.
/Q: Can a man orgasm without ejaculating?
A: Absolutely! Orgasm and ejaculation are 2 separate things. In most males they happen at the same time, but either one can happen without the other.
Orgasm without Ejaculation: Many young boys learn how to masturbate before they are in puberty. They can (and do) have orgasms but they don’t ejaculate because their body hasn’t yet begun producing sperm. Even after puberty that are many reasons why a male might have an orgasm without an ejaculation. This is called a dry orgasm. It can be the result of some surgeries, of diabetes or other illnesses, of a spinal cord injury, or even can be a side effect of some medications. It’s not a harmful condition in itself.
Ejaculation without orgasm: There is a condition called “ejaculatory anhedonia” where males are able to ejaculate physically but don’t have the accompanying feelings of release, pleasure, or orgasm. For some reason, the body is about to have an erection and experience sexual stimulation but the brain can’t recognize that sensation as pleasurable. This condition isn’t physically harmful, but it can be the result of some kind of injury. The underlying cause may also be psychological, which may require the assistance of a mental health professional.
/Q: Is the G-spot a real thing for guys?
A: The G-spot’s full name is the Grafenberg spot, named for Ernst Grafenberg, a German physician and scientist. (Note that this is another part of the female body named for a man – sexism much?) The G-spot is more precisely part of an area of tissue between the vagina and the urethra. See the image below. The red area is the urethral sponge and the yellow area is the G-spot. When stimulated, the G-spot swells and facilitates female orgasm and ejaculation. Remember that female ejaculation comes from the urethral opening and not the vagina. Stimulation of the G-spot causes fluid to be secreted from the urethral sponge into the urethra, and then the muscle contractions of an orgasm force that fluid out of the body.
Males do not have a urethral sponge or G-spot. What’s interesting is that the same cells that make up the urethral sponge in women create the prostate in men. See the image below. The prostate is one of the organs that makes the fluid that the sperm swim in. Like the urethral sponge, it is associated with the urethra. In fact, the male ureter (the tube that connects the bladder to the penis) actually runs directly through the prostate. The prostate is also very sensitive to stimulation and prostate stimulation can help facilitate male organs and ejaculation, but it’s not accurate to call it a male G-spot. When a male is sexually excited and moving towards an orgasm, the sperm cells travel up from the epididymis and when they get to the prostate they are bathed in fluid that both helps them swim and contains nutrients (mostly sugar) that feeds the sperm on their journey.
/Q: What is “Gooning”? and what is a “Goon Cave”?
A: To answer this question, we need to understand what happens to our body as it moves from being turned on through orgasm. This is called the Sexual Response Cycle. Take a look at this graph:
When we get turned on and start to masturbate or engage in other sexual activity, our body starts storing up nerve, muscle, and blood tension in our body. This puts us into a state called Excitement. We start at zero excitement and climb up from there. As our excitement increases, pleasure increases. In the Plateau phase, we’re really turned on. We’ve stored up and are holding a lot of tension in our bodies and we’re experiencing high amounts of pleasure. Here we have a choice. We can keep holding this high amount of pleasure in our body, or, with just a little more masturbation or sexual activity, we can have an Orgasm. That’s the third stage. An orgasm is a sudden release of all the body tension we’ve built up in one quick burst. After we have an orgasm, our body’s excitement falls back to zero. This is called the Resolution stage.
“Gooning” is holding one’s body in the Plateau phase of this cycle as long as possible. It’s also called “Edging”. The “Goon Cave” is a name for the feeling of holding all that high pleasure in one’s body. Some people say it puts you in a kind of trance where you’re just vibing with the pleasure and zoning out on everything else. It’s actually not easy to stay in the Plateau phase because the body wants to move to orgasm and you’re fighting against that. People have to practice to be able to stay in that Plateau phase. It takes really knowing how much stimulation your body needs to stay in the sweet spot of high pleasure without losing it or moving to orgasm.
/Q: Can girls get post-ejaculation clarity too?
A: If you don’t know what post-ejaculation clarity is, go back to the original question about it. You can find it here.
The only difference (and perhaps I should have made this clear in the original question) is that it’s the orgasm, not the ejaculation that brings about the feelings of relaxation, stress reduction, and possible clarity. Females certainly have orgasms, sometimes with ejaculation and sometimes without. But any person who experiences an orgasm can experience post-orgasm clarity. The ejaculation isn’t really a factor here. It’s about the orgasm.
/Q: Are you familiar with “post-(nut)ejaculation clarity”? if so, what is it? is it with all men?
A: First, I appreciate you including both the terms nut and ejaculation in your question. We’ll use ejaculation in class, but nut is OK to use in more informal settings. (By the way, if you want to know why ejaculation is referred to as nut or nutting, here’s a good website with that information.
Now to your question. When our bodies move through what’s called the “sexual response cycle” (arousal to excitement to orgasm), our bodies build up blood, nerve, and muscle tension to a peak and then release all that tension at once. It’s kind of like compressing a spring tightly and then suddenly letting it go. It goes “BOING!” and goes back to its original shape. That’s just what our body does when we have an orgasm. Orgasms can function like a body reset. They clear the body of tension so we’re more relaxed. In a more relaxed state, we feel less stress and often can think more clearly and feel more focused.
Post-ejaculation clarity can manifest in 2 different ways depending on whether one thinks masturbation is OK or not. People who accept masturbation as normal and healthy tend to feel more relaxed and focused after having an orgasm through masturbation. Sometimes they feel so relaxed that they get sleepy (that’s why many people masturbate before going to bed.) People who think masturbation is wrong may feel guilty or shameful after having an orgasm through masturbation. Their “clarity” reinforces their belief that there’s something wrong with masturbation. No physical or mental harm comes from masturbation, but that doesn’t stop some people from feeling bad about doing it.
Post-ejaculation clarity, if it happens at all, only lasts until the body begins to feel stressed, distracted, and anxious again. It can be very short or it may last a while. There’s no average or normal time for it to last.
/Q: Can girls really have orgasms?
A: Absolutely!! Orgasms are a biological event that both human and non-human animals, male and female, can experience. An orgasm is a sudden release of muscle and nerve tension that produces a very pleasurable feeling through the whole body, usually starting with the genitals and radiating out to the rest of the body. If a person is not having an orgasm the likely cause is either they’re not receiving the kind of stimulation their body needs to get to the point of orgasm or they’re nervous, anxious, tense, or otherwise not able to relax into the experience and let their body do what it wants to do. There is a myth that it is harder for a woman to achieve orgasm as opposed to a man. This isn’t actually true. What is true is that the idea of how to bring a man sexual pleasure that might lead to an orgasm is much more understood than how to bring pleasure to a woman that might lead to an orgasm. Here we see that sexism again; we’re expected to know about men’s bodies but not about women’s.