According to mainstream women's magazines, there are about as many types of female orgasms as there are brands of flattering workout pants. There's the storied g-spot orgasm, the cutting edge "a-spot" ("anterior fornix") orgasm, the even more obscure "u-spot" (urethra) orgasm, the cringe-y sounding cervical orgasm, and for boring underachievers, the basic and accessible clitoral orgasm. Scientifically speaking, though, just how many orgasms are there?

There's no consensus yet from the medical community, in part because there's disagreement about how to define an orgasm in the first place. Some researchers and sexperts favor a definition like the one sex educator Emily Nagoski provided in last year's best-selling Come As You Are: "Orgasm is the sudden, involuntary release of sexual tension," a description that carefully omits mention of concrete physical markers.