Tuesday
(0)A few years ago I read of lower spine stimulation by a doctor working with paralyzed patients. It had 'interesting' effects when done in just the right spot. Another, or perhaps the same doctor, Stuart Meloy, a Winston-Salem, North Carolina anesthesiologist and pain specialist, has been experimenting with an FDA approved stimulation device for lower back pain. At least one woman in his pain trial had breathtakingly enjoyable orgasms along with the pain abatement.
Other work I have read reports there is a lower spinal nerve area which controls the timing of ejaculation in men. Perhaps it is the same? The article does not say. Dr. Meloy has completed an initial medical trial on the use of the stimulator, now dubbed the 'orgasmatron', by women with orgasmic dysfunction. According to women in the trial, it works exceedingly well.
It may beat the knickers off a vibrator, but at $17,000 for surgical implantation this will definitely be a rich girl's toy. I wonder if anyone has asked Woody Allen for a comment?
I would think that Larry Niven might have something to say about this, since he postulated such a thing in an SF novel years before Woody Allen did.
Niven assumed that direct electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex would be necessary, though.
Posted by David Hecht at November 16, 2004 12:38 PM
I don't really remember when Niven did his early Known Space series... I read most of them in the mid to late 70's myself; I do know that Woody Allen's "Sleeper" was out in the 1960's.
I'm sure someone here will come up with the dates. There is an online cinema guide whose URL I forget at the moment. I also do not remember which was the first Niven short story with wireheads in it.
In any case, the people in the test are calling it an "Orgasmatron" which is of course directly out of Sleeper.
Posted by Dale Amon at November 16, 2004 01:59 PM
The story is "Death by Ecstacy", original title "The Organleggers (an alusion to bootlegger, of course).
It's one of his Gil "The Arm" Hamilton stories. The stories are collected in Flatlander.
Posted by Ralf Goergens at November 16, 2004 02:30 PM
The story I read a few months ago about this device seemed to suggest that, as is often suggested, there's still a large mental connection to the whole mysterious "female orgasm". Though the implant works exceedingly well, the study they did suggested that women in a placebo group (of sorts) seemed to have "gotten over" their "dysfunction".
Though I can see a market for the device, the implication of the first study I read was that psychological therapy was just as important as physical therapy in treating "orgasmic dysfunction".
Posted by John Breen III at November 16, 2004 02:55 PM
I always thought Sleeper was a classic. And i dont really like Woody Allen, either.
Posted by The Last Toryboy at November 16, 2004 04:25 PM
Actually, I thought the "Orgasmatron" was a device in the movie "Barbarella", created by the films villain, Duran Duran.
Posted by Shawn Levasseur at November 16, 2004 06:48 PM
Not a single female response to this one, I note! Perhaps the girls have better things to do with their time! But that's for them to judge, I would never presume. Let's us blokes hope that perhaps they still prefer the traditional method!
Posted by Dr Eric at November 16, 2004 08:13 PM
This might make female genital mutilation a moot point if it comes down in price.
I am a female, btw.
Posted by Coydog at November 17, 2004 03:56 AM
Yep. I am female, too, and I say it's all in the head.
Posted by Alisa at November 17, 2004 02:34 PM
I would suggest that it's not necessarily all in the head. I can think of several physical reasons why a woman would have difficulty reaching orgasm - nerve damage, a lack of syncing between different parts of the body (my husband's hands work at two different speeds, a result of several factors including having his fingers broken), or insufficient "signal".
We know that males suffer impotence and other ejaculation dysfunctions; it seems really stupid to me to automatically assume that for women, it's "all just in their head."
Posted by B. Durbin at November 17, 2004 06:18 PM
From the Too Much Information Dept.:
(my husband's hands work at two different speeds, a result of several factors including having his fingers broken)
Posted by R C Dean at November 17, 2004 09:03 PM
B. Durbin: I was referring to factors that must be present to ensure orgasm for a woman, not those that can physically prevent it (being dead or in a coma is one of those, too). Sorry about your husband's fingers, BTW.
Posted by Alisa at November 18, 2004 04:48 PM
