orgasm, prepubescenceAre prepubescent children of both sexes able to have orgasms?
This question notes that prepubescent males can have erections. This answer claims that masturbation has been observed in young children of both sexes.
As a young boy I would certainly “play” with my amusing penis, but I don’t recall having anything like an erection until I hit adolescence, nor any behavior or results I would call “masturbation.”
Confining the question to children who are unquestionably prepubescent – say, under the age of seven: Is there any evidence of masturbation that leads to orgasm? If so, is the physiology of a prepubescent orgasm the same as that of an adult orgasm (or, in males, one in adolescence prior to semenarche)?
I do remember many years ago reading (probably Kinsey) summary anecdotes of mothers who observed their young daughters appear to masturbate to the point of orgasms. But I don’t recall anything more definitive, and presumably a child that can masturbate to orgasm would continue doing so (unless disciplined or shamed into stopping the behavior) past the age of childhood amnesia and therefore we should have first-person accounts.
That certainly seems to be the case.
I've interviewed people of both genders who have strong, clear memories of masturbating to orgasm as young as 4 or 5. I've talked to parents and pre-school teachers who have described girls and boys masturbating and having what certainly looked like orgasms. As you note, Kinsey described numerous cases of young girls using their hands or humping furniture or cushions and appearing to orgasm.
As for boys prior to semenarche, this is from a private communication:
Many boys continue to masturbate after orgasm, and since they do not ejaculate they maintain their erection. Alfred Kinsey... reported that half of all preadolescent boys(around 12 or younger) were able to experience two orgasms in a row, and almost a third were able to experience five or more one after the other.
Then there's this exchange on Reddit: Guys - were you multi-orgasmic before your first ejaculation? Did your orgasms change after you reached puberty?
And this comment on it:
I don't remember when I had my first orgasm, so it must have been pretty young. I do remember a bunch of Cub Scouts on a camping trip talking about it in a tent, away from the grownups, and then one boy whipped it out to demonstrate for the boys who'd never done it. So of course this turned into a circle jerk with i think 4 boys having orgasms for the first time and several more including me having multiples for the first time. We were, maybe 8? or 9? at the time. Based on that tiny sample I'm guessing all boys can do it, but only some figure it out or get told about it.
And finally, this letter to AJOG, which takes us back to the womb:
Giorgi, Giorgio, and Siccardi, Marco (1996). "Ultrasonographic observation of a female fetus' sexual behavior in utero," American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 175, 3(1, part 1), 753.
To the Editors: Fetal movement offers the opportunity for observing fetal behavior in utero. Parents, curious to know their child's sex, frequently request visualization of the fetal genitalia.
During second-trimester ultrasonographic examinations it is usual to see fetuses explore their body and their environment. They handle their own feet, head, genitalia, umbilical cord, and so on.
We recently observed a female fetus at 32 weeks' gestation touching the vulva with fingers of [her] right hand. The caressing movement was centered primarily on the region of the clitoris. Movements stopped after 30 to 40 seconds, and started again after a few moments. Further, these light touches were repeated and were associated with short, rigid movements of the pelvis and legs.
After another break, in addition to this behavior, the fetus contracted the muscles of the trunk and limbs, and the climax, clonicotonic movements [rapid muscle contractions] of the body, followed. Finally she relaxed and rested.
We observed this behavior for about 20 minutes. The mother was an active and interested witness, conversing with observers about her child's experience.
Evidence of male fetuses' excitement reflex in utero, such as erection or ″masturbation” movements, has been previously reported.
The current observation seems to show not only that the excitement reflex can be evoked in female fetuses at the third trimester of gestation but also that the orgasmic reflex can be elicited during intrauterine life. This would agree with the physiologic features of female sexuality: The female sexual response is separate from reproductive functions and doesn't need a full sexual maturity to be explicit.
No one is going to allow adults to do serious research on kids having orgasms, so your last question - Is the physiology of a prepubescent orgasm the same as that of an adult orgasm? - probably can't be answered scientifically. However, all the people I've talked to about this agree that the physiology appears to be the same, and as Giorgi and Siccardi say, it appears to be fully mature by the third trimester of pregnancy.
Not only Kinsey has written about childhood sexuality and the possibility of children to achieve orgasms. Also the sexual scientist Ernest Bornemann, did researches on this topic.
(Bornemann was born 1915 in Germany, lived in Germany, UK and since 1970 in Austria, where he founded the “Österreichische Gesellschaft für Sexualforschung” = “Austrian society of sexual research”. He died in 1995. In the last two decades of his life he was respectfully called the “Sex-Papst” = “pope of sex” in TV and print-magazines, because when ever any sex-related topic was discussed in public, he was asked in talkshows and interviews.)
During his researches (mainly interviews with adults who talked about their childhood, but also findings from journeys to other cultures), Bornemann came to the result, that when ever a child has found out how to masturbate, it does it again and again, because they experience it as something lustful. And during this interviews he also found out, that many adults remember to have had spasms combined with an intense feeling of arousal, which can be interpreted as an orgasm.
And this is exactly what I have in memory from my own childhood. I remember, that those moments was rare, and way less intense then the orgasms that I had when I was able to ejaculate, but there definitely was some kind of mini-climax.
Since the “hardware” of a child’s body is fully equipped with everything that is necessary to react on sexual stimulation, I find it not very surprising that also children can have orgasms, even if they might be less intense. But as far as I know, there is very little research on this topic nowadays. So I’m not sure, if there are any serious resources, which can tell you, if all children can have orgasms, or if some of them only become able to it when they reach the age of puberty.
Let me add some words on Ernest Bornemann:
Bornemann did not interview only people from Europe. He also made journeys to foreign countries where he met cultures, that many of us tend to call “primitive”. Most of those cultures have thoughts of morality, that are very different from western world’s morality. So Bornemann also met cultures, where sexual interaction with minors is not a tabu, and Bornemann learned a lot about prepubescent sexuality from those cultures. But when in the early 1990ies publications of Bornemann form the 1970ies became public, he was strongly attacked and he quickly lost his glorious state of a “pope of sex” and from those days on he was shunned by magazines and TV-stations.
In those publications Bornemann said, that sexual interaction among children and between children and adults can help to lower the level of aggression of children, and would lead to mentally healthier kids. In 1977 in an Austrian Newspaper (“Arbeiterzeitung”) he also advocated rooms in schools, where children could experience their sexuality without repression. This of course found no majority, but in 1977 this was not a big deal and soon was forgotten. But 15 or 20 years later, when it was announced again, it marked the end of his career.
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