Science has come a long way.
Researchers from Lund University in Sweden say they have determined how to tell if a person is faking an orgasm, based on recordings of 2,239 sexual encounters submitted by couples, the Daily Mail reports.
This study — which is said to be the first to analyze authentic sexual episodes — found that excessive moaning and a higher volume are signs a woman is faking it, while variation in pitch and the unexpectedness of some sounds likely mean the orgasm is real.
For example, Meg Ryan’s screaming, table-pounding performance in 1989’s “When Harry Met Sally” would be … too much.
“For both men and women, vocalizations became longer, louder, more high-pitched, voiced, and tonal as the excitement peaked,” the Lund psychologists wrote.
“Men are not less vocal overall,” they added. “Speech or even minimally verbalized exclamations are uncommon. Very few vocalizations could be described as screams.”
The recordings included 21,314 sighs, 74,422 syllables, and 54,145 moans or grunts.
Mild moans from women began slightly earlier during sex, the researchers noted, while men sighed and grunted until the arousal level became very high, typically peaking 15 seconds before climax.
“This study asks some intriguing questions. Sex is an anxious affair about which there is more boasting than business — especially in a world where up to 80% of women claim to have faked a climax, with the same admission from up to a third of all men,” UK sex therapist and author Phillip Hodson told the Daily Mail.
“Loud grunting in bed is no more authentic than loud grunting on Wimbledon’s center court.”
Meanwhile, a UK surgeon on TikTok recently explored the claim that drinking coffee before sex can heighten orgasms.
Dr. Karan Rajan said that in low doses, caffeine “has mainly a vasoconstrictor effect” — it narrows blood vessels. But in higher doses, “it has a vasodilator effect,” which means that it “widens the blood vessels and improves blood flow.”
“The better your circulation, the more flow to your erectile tissue,” he explained. “Thus, the more likely you are to reach states of arousal that sets the stage for a great [orgasm].”