Nipplegasm: Nipple Orgasms

By: Priti Kadam

I don’t like fingers on my clit. I prefer the mouth on my breasts more than my clit. I have rarely touched myself to reach climax because it doesn’t feel natural to me. When I tell potential partners this, they think I am bullshitting.

Nipple sensitivity exists across all bodies, even if the level of sensitivity varies among people. While some enjoy a quick pinch or a light kiss as foreplay, many prefer and actively crave nipple play in order to experience a full orgasm.

A popular belief around the mechanism of orgasm is that direct stimulus to genital regions leads to increased blood flow, tightened muscles and swelling up of erectile tissue, which in turn leads to an orgasm as its final stage. But contact with the genitals is not the only way to lead to increased blood flow.

A well-timed kiss on the neck, a bite on the earlobe, a hand on your inner thigh… these can also make your brain experience and express arousal, and you can have a genital reaction even without touching yourself. A 2011 study on the connections between clitoral, vaginal, cervical and nipple play was able to document how many cis women had the same part of their brains light up (the genital sensory cortex) even if only one of these parts was stimulated.

That’s what erogenous zones are. They can either lead to orgasms all by themselves, or they play a key role in your pleasure cycles to help you go from aroused to full climax and maybe even ready for round 2. Nipple play might get some people wetter and more ready for penetrative play, for others it can be the main event. It’s also entirely possible to only achieve a full orgasm when clitoral and nipple play are layered together.

For some people, orgasms depend on specific temperatures and on textures too. Ice cubes, heating toys or warm lubes, rough play vs. soft touch, back and forth motions vs. circular– all of these can affect the way you orgasm or how different parts of your body can take you to climax. Even good quality eye contact during a hot, intimate session in missionary can get you there.

Let’s deconstruct the notion that orgasms are just about genital play, or even just nipple play. Sometimes it’s all about the day you’ve had, the level of connection your partners are able to give and receive from you, the comfort of your mattress or even the setting that your air conditioner is on.

Let orgasms involve the rest of your body too. Because your usual “spot” might not be THE one.