A study led by researchers in Malaysia found that women who engaged in sexual intercourse less frequently were less likely to achieve orgasm.

The study was meant to investigate the prevalence of orgasmic dysfunction and potential risk factors associated with orgasmic dysfunction in women at a primary care setting in Malaysia.

For the study, the researchers used a validated questionnaire for sexual function to assess orgasmic experience among a total of 230 married women aged 18 to 70.

They found that the overall prevalence of orgasmic dysfunction in the primary care population was 51 percent.

The rate was significantly higher among women age older 45, having low education, married longer and having more children, married to an older husband and being at menopausal state.

The researchers concluded that women with infrequent sexual intercourse are 70 percent less likely to be orgasmic compared to those who engaged in sex more frequently.

Low sexual desire or hypoactive sexual desire disorder, which results in infrequent sexual activities, is commonly found in older women, particularly in postmenopausal women.   It is a condition that is not only found in Malaysia, but everywhere in the world.

A common medical intervention is use of a male hormone called testosterone.  

A new study published in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine found that 300 micrograms of this hormone per day for 24 weeks more than doubled sexual episodes in postmenopausal women.

But the testosterone therapy comes with a risk.   Of 534 women receiving the treatment, 4 were diagnosed with breast cancer during the one-year study compared to one of 277 women in the control group.

It is unknown whether this testosterone treatment would increase odds of a woman experiencing orgasm.

The study was performed by Marhani Midin of Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and colleagues and published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, Vol. 20, No. 4, 298-306 (2008).