Many women find that sexual stimulation of their erogenous zones, such as the vagina, clitoris, and nipples/breasts, sets them on the path to orgasm. Keep in mind, erogenous zones on a woman’s body may vary between women. In addition, some women may reach orgasm even when they’re not in a typical sexual situation.

It is difficult to know how many women experience orgasms this way or how often such orgasms occur. However, the following pathways have been described:

• Thinking. Sexual health experts often talk about the brain being an essential sexual organ. For some women, fantasizing about a romantic or sexual situation is enough to make them climax. This method may take some time and practice, and women might combine the activity with relaxation techniques, deep breathing, or pelvic floor exercises.
• Sleeping. Like men, women can have spontaneous orgasms while they sleep. (In men, these are called “wet dreams.”) Nocturnal orgasms usually occur after a sexual dream during which women become aroused. Women may wake up with an intense feeling of pleasure.
• Exercising. Orgasms are also possible while working out. Research suggests that abdominal exercises, climbing, and weightlifting are the most common methods. Biking, spinning, rope-climbing, and pole-climbing may also lead to “coregasms.”

While they might seem pleasurable, spontaneous orgasms aren’t always welcome events. Women with persistent genital arousal disorder/genito-pelvic dysesthesia (PGAD/GPD) feel continuously sexually aroused without any sexual contact or thoughts. Symptoms can last for hours, days, or longer. Orgasms might relieve symptoms to some degree, but not permanently, and often orgasms aggravate symptoms. PGAD/GPD is a distressing medical condition, and patients sometimes feel embarrassed.

Resources

• DailyMail.com
  Rice, Maureen
  “Yes, yes, yes! How women can think their way to an orgasm… with no help from their man”
  (August 19, 2010)
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1304258/Yes-yes-yes-How-women-think-way-orgasm–help-man.html

• International Society for Sexual Medicine
  “Do women have wet dreams?”
  https://www.issm.info/sexual-health-qa/do-women-have-wet-dreams/

• Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
  Irfan, Muna, MD and Carlos H. Schenck, MD
  “Sleep-Related Orgasms in a 57-Year-Old Woman: A Case Report”
  (Abstract. January 15, 2018)
  http://jcsm.aasm.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=31155

• The New York Times
  Broad, William J.
  “I’ll Have What She’s Thinking”
  (September 28, 2013)
  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/sunday-review/ill-have-what-shes-thinking.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

• Medical News Today
  Nordqvist, Christian
  “Some Women Orgasm During Exercise”
  (March 21, 2012)
  https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243153.php

• Psychology Today
  Seltzer, Leon F., Ph.D.
  “The Three Surprising Types of Spontaneous Orgasms”
  (October 7, 2013)
  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201310/the-three-surprising-types-spontaneous-orgasms

• Sexual and Relationship Therapy
  Herbenick, Debby and J. Dennis Fortenberry
  “Exercise-induced orgasm and pleasure among women”
  (Abstract. Published online: March 20, 2012)
  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14681994.2011.647902

• Women’s Health
  Brown, Maressa
  “The 8 Erogenous Zones He Needs To Hit (+ How) For Better Orgasms”
  (August 31, 2017)
  http://www.womenshealthmag.co.uk/sex-love/sex-tips/4122/where-key-female-erogenous-zones-for-better-orgasms/