KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 — Ever since American biologist and sexologist Alfred Kinsey launched modern sex research in 1947, the mystery of female orgasm has been confirmed and re-confirmed over and over again.

Unlike men, studies have argued that women are considerably less likely to have orgasm.

American sex researcher Elisabeth Anne Lloyd debated in her book titled The Case of the Female Orgasm, that only 25 per cent of women are consistently orgasmic during vaginal intercourse.

But why is that so?

Is it something about the women, or something about the sex?

A new study by Finnish sociologist and sexologist Osmo Kontula argues that it has got to do with women’s attention span.

The study, which was recently presented at the annual meeting for The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality in Denver, Colorado, looked into the reasons why women don’t reach climax as often as their male counterparts.

As a result, it found a common reason in women have difficulties staying focused throughout intercourse.

To determine this, Kontula surveyed 7,000 women and 1,000 men last year in a bid to discover how they experienced orgasms.

It also examined if the participants found it easier or harder for themselves to orgasm than other people, and why they believed they had trouble reaching climax.

According to the survey results, the majority of women reported having trouble experiencing orgasm simply because they couldn’t relax their minds in order to enjoy the pleasure.

Other reasons that stopped women reaching climax included low self-esteem, medication side effects, not enough clitoral stimulation and feeling they were incompatible with their partner.