
Getty Images stock
Women may be saying more with their mouths than you realize.
Here's a fun fact to share at parties this weekend: The shape of a woman's lips may predict the likelihood of her having an orgasm. (Seriously.)
Stuart Brody, a psychology professor at the University of the West of Scotland, is famous among researchers of sexual behavior for some of his studies, like ones linking a woman’s finger sensitivity to partnered sex behavior, and most especially a 2008 doozy that linked a woman’s gait -- “fluid, graceful,” “free of blocked or distorted pelvic rotation” -- with a greater chance of having so-called vaginal orgasms. In other words, he said, you can tell a lot about a woman by the way she walks.
Now, in a paper published last week by the Journal of Sexual Medicine, and called “Vaginal Orgasm Is More Prevalent Among Women with a Prominent Tubercle of the Upper Lip,” Brody has come out with another marker for female orgasm; the little spot just at the midline of the upper lip. Called the tubercle, it poofs out a little more in some people than in others. (Brody stresses he’s not referring to puffy Angelina Jolie lips, just to that one tiny spot.)
According to the results of an online survey featuring 258 mainly Scottish women with a mean age of 27 years, having a prominent tubercle means a woman has a greater chance of ever having had a vaginal orgasm.
If you think that sounds kooky, you may be onto something. There are a couple of controversies to consider. First, not all scientists believe that there is any real difference between a “clitoral” orgasm and a “vaginal” orgasm (mainly because the little man in the boat is really just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, that extends into the vaginal wall). In Brody’s research, tubercle size did not predict orgasm by clitoral stimulation.
Second, there could be confounding factors. When I asked if it was possible the women with the prominent tubercles may have been more attractive and so had more opportunities for sex and attracted better lovers, Brody replied that “I am not aware of research linking women’s attractiveness to their likelihood of vaginal orgasm. That could be a future study.” There is, however, “research that some male attributes are associated with likelihood of vaginal orgasm.”
Third, the women themselves, rather than an independent party, judged their own tubercle characteristics based on eyeballing their own lips.
Still, Brody may really be on to something, not only with this study, but with his gait research and what seems to be an ongoing hunt for markers that signify sexual response.
As he speculates in the paper, “anatomic study has indicated that by week 17, the human fetus may have already developed the tubercle of the lip.” While he could find no research relating the tubercle to sexual response, “we did locate evidence of an embryonic neural process that organizes midline cranial features, which could plausibly relate morphology to behavior in other contexts.”
In other words, it is probably not the lip feature itself that makes the difference (if any difference really exists), it may be that the same developmental forces that shape a fetus’ tubercle, also affects neural circuits. “It is possible,” Brody writes, “that a flatter or absent tubercle might have something in common with the at times subtle lip abnormalities associated with subtle neuropsychologic abnormalities” and these subtle differences may, in turn, affect vaginal orgasm.
It is true that prenatal events dramatically shape our future sexual lives. Perhaps the shape of our lips are one telltale sign.
Related:
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.


Hey now, kids: Keep the comments PG. I've had to delete a couple already. Don't make me turn this car right around because so help me I WILL.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I just can't stop laughing, ha, ha.....
....I'm thinkin' maybe responses on this subject should be limited to the experts: females only. Sorry, guys.
This explains so much <pout>
I have two types of orgasms. Very distinctively different. Clitoral orgasm is more of a one shot thing. But the vaginal orgasm can be multiple and continuous for minutes, coming in waves. I wouldn't trade my innie for an outie!! Eat your hearts out, guys.
OK, I will weigh in, I have found that a woman's most important sexual equipment lies between their ears!
If you can stimulate a woman's mind, you can pleasure her body, unlike men, who are ready to go at the glimpse of a bit of female leg exposed by a sudden breeze...
Ken, this is the typical male answer for someone who hasn't gotten laid in a long time.
Nice try though.
Ken sounds like a smart man. A lot of men haven't figured out that women are more like slow cookers while men are like microwaves. With women, the more time and effort you put into the preparation of the meal, the better the results. With men, push the button and enjoy.
Nice try Patrick, I've been married 35 years, and get laid 2-3 times a week...
"I'm a serious scientist! Really! LOOK AT ME!"
Bravo Ken, If only the majority of men thought like you? The world would be a better place. As far as a woman's pout? Most men cannot stand a pouty woman. that's a good indication she's one spoiled rotten human being!
A male researcher investigating vaginal orgasms. Sounds to me like a guy who might be too lazy or selfish to give a damsel's clitoris the, ahem, tongue-lashing it so richly deserves! Ladies, if he won't attend to your love button and help you enjoy the pleasures to which you are entitled, well, God gave you that delightful little organ and lots of fingers and fully expects you to put them all to good use!!! ;-)
My wife says some of my best foreplay is folded laundry and put away dishes
Ridiculous. High frequency of vaginal orgasm requires a correspondence between two items - the depth of cleft on the inside of the kneecap and the tensile strength of the hairs three rows above the left ear. BTW, all big eared women have orgasms during conversation about recipes and lawn care.
Wheeeeeee! I'm a scientist! Please notify all all appropriate grant granting institutions.
WStevens: Naw, old wives tale there. It's really the size of the nails on the little toes of the lady. If the nails on the little toes are smaller in proportion to the whole area of the little toes than appears on the other 8 toes, then we've got ourselves a "hottie". It's true! Look it up! Your post is a hoot!
That is the only way to perpetuate scienific research. Donors giving to a cause, that is dedicated to perpetuate it's need for financing. They have to come up with something new all the time to keep the money coming in. They have no regard for truth or real scientific research.
You have got to be kidding...
In other words, people are spending time doing research on why men can't give some women orgasms. It must be your lips, or your walk, it's certainly not their fault. Do these people actually get paid for this crap?
Gill, since when did it become the man's responsibility? Is it the woman's responsibility to make sure the man gets off?? I don't think so. Mankind has been around for a long time - when did knowing this become important?
I guess it depends on why you're having sex. If it's to give pleasure to someone else, then it's your "responsibility to make sure the man/woman gets off." If it's to just please yourself, then it doesn't matter.
Since it's the particular women that can't do it, not particular men, yes it probably does have something to do with the woman.
when will men grow up, and start listening to us females just a little bit!!!
Never, and that's why things will remain a mess! Answer to nankat, and a question that will never be answered, because everyone knows men are the superior gender (wink, wink) Laughing!
Hey now, not like we want them to next study orgasim rates correlated to penis color or whatnot. Going the other direction will not help matters. Don't give them any ideas.
Studies that rely on self-reporting are either: 1) Worthless or 2) a very preliminary pilot study. Either way, not worthy of reporting until a real study with objective measurements is done. Move along folks.
Correlation does not imply causation.
Is anyone else deeply disturbed that in an interesting article on womens sexuality the msnbc writer referred to a clitoris as a little man in a boat? Why would it be a man first of all--that's just stupid!!! It is rather demeaning term for such a wonderful ( trust me on this ) organ. Perhaps his pig- in- a- blanket is just jealous!
see what i did with that: sexist pig meets small penis
You would be banned from this website if you made such remarks about a woman's anatomy. The media can get away with anything, but you better not try! I'm beginning to believe freesom of speech only applies to the press!
More Stupidity brought to by whoever can their dumb 15 minutes of fame!Go kiss a horse with your pouty Lips.Just Stupid!
Your Scots tax dollars at work... great job if you can get it.
I knew it wouldn't take long before some dope starting bitching about tax dollars.
If you know what the hell your doing, you can bring a lipless woman to orgasm...
Ok, I have to say that this story is total BS. I happen to have a very small, almost non existant tubercle and experience vaginal orgasm very frequently...so maybe its just the Scots, but as for Americans this does not hold true.
Any volunteers hello ladies.
I thought that said, "258 manly Scottish women".
LOL!
Hahahahahaha
I'm skeptical on this....
Perhaps some further study could turn up some more unrelated events that may or may not have any relationship to one another.
In related news, you can tell how racist a man is by the shape of his eyes.
Which is just my way of demonstrating that some men are way too fixiated on SEX, and more specifically, trying to determine which woman will give them the most het sex.
Gill does seem to have a point. If some tiny spot on the human body did corelate to more orgasms, then one question becomes, "does this hold true for both men and women"? So why is the researcher only studying women? He seems to be fixiated on only women for some strange reason.
And, if some tiny spot on the human body did corelate to more orgasms, then it would hold true even if the men and women were masturbating by themselves. So why would the researcher focus only on women who have sex with men?
And, before someone would have sex at all, whether or not they orgasm, they would have to FIRST experience the desire to have sex. Has the researcher bothered to study assexuals, or people with low libido? Because if his theory was correct then assexuals would have an extremely small tubercle.
Really honestly, his sexist research appears to be: "this is what a slut looks like". In the exact same way that racist researchers used to claim that certain foreheads have this character trait, while people with big noses have that character trait.
I wish someone would do a study to find how women can have more vaginal orgasms, lip shape or not :P As a woman, I'd like to know since they are extremely rare for me :/
You can have an orgasm anytime, that you want one. You can't just lay there and expect your man to provide it. Get into it. Go for it. Get what you want.
sorry women with weird lip shapes, you're outta luck
Never heard anyone call it a " Pout" before.
"I'm a serious scientist! Really! LOOK AT ME!"
the article itself is disgusting enough. "find someone to have sex with by the shape of their mouth." you people are really disgusting!
Now wait a minute, makes perfect sense if oral sex (not mentioned) were the main objective..
Dumb, dumb dumb. A unscientific study that has no criteria for determining lip shape other then asking women to rate their own. Then based on how they rate their own, finds that these women have more "vaginal" orgasms then other women, but not "clitoral" orgasms, although there is absolutely no proof that there is even differences between the two kinds. And yet, this study makes the front page of a national news organization? Talk about falling standards.
A woman can have an orgasm any time she really wants to. It took my wife 45 years to get there. I don't do anything different than I did 40 years ago. She wants it and she goes for it. Thank God.