by After masturbating, Melissa, a 35-year-old event planner who lives in Chicago, sometimes studies a graph that resembles the output of a heart rate monitor or that of a seismograph that captures an earthquake.
The data is generated by her vibrator, the Lioness, which measures her arousal and uploads information about her orgasm patterns to the company’s app. Sensors built into the toy track pelvic floor movements. With each involuntary compression and release of your pelvic floor muscles, the app displays a graph showing your rhythmic pattern in a series of peaks and valleys. She usually uses it alongside her other clitoral-stimulating vibrators, so she can compare the orgasms she experiences with each.
“I use it basically as a data-gathering dildo,” said Melissa, who asked to be identified only by her first name for privacy reasons. Aside from the Lioness, he doesn’t own any wearable activity trackers, like the popular Apple Watch or Fitbit, but he says he likes to “have quantifiable information when I’m learning things.”
Whether it’s obsessively collecting step counts or waiting for Spotify to reveal our music tastes every year, we may be getting more and more accustomed to tracking every aspect of our lives through technology. The option of tracking female orgasms at home introduces the possibility of deciphering what some scientists have treated as an enigma. Some people use tracking technology to combat sexual changes that can occur with menopause or polycystic ovary syndrome, for example. Others say they want data to see how certain foods or medications can affect their arousal, and are thinking about how to optimize their orgasms with smart Bluetooth-enabled sex toys that they hope will help them better understand their bodies.
“We really call it a tool for ‘sexperiments,’ so doing experiments on yourself or your partners (how caffeine can have an effect on your orgasms, how alcohol, how CBDlike stress, all these things,” said Anna Lee, CEO and co-founder of Lioness.
Lee founded the company about eight years ago with Liz Klinger, and the pair launched their vibrators as a way for people to have “smarter” orgasms, joining a wave of everyday devices that are connected to the Internet.
As sex toys have become smarter, they have been advertised as much more than sources of pleasure. Now available for purchase at stores like Target and Sephora instead of just sex shops, these toys may promise to help users practice self-care or sexual wellness, offering people, especially women, the bright promise of a fully optimized life. They have also introduced some obstacles. Devices that collect data can be subject to data hacking and some experts have warned that sex toys that track orgasms could become sources of tension with partners.
“A sex toy can be a collaborator but not a competitor,” said Jamye Waxman, a sex therapist and educator in Los Angeles. “And I think you have to start noticing if you’re keeping score.”
Lioness is not the only device on the market that offers data to users. perifitAlthough it’s not a vibrator, it is a Kegel exercise device that allows users to connect to an app where they can play Kegel games to strengthen their pelvic floor and track their contractions.
AND Wujj, a sex tech company whose devices also use sensors to measure and improve orgasms, will begin beta testing this month. Its namesake product is a U-shaped, flexible silicone toy that comes in flesh-toned colors and will also include a phone app with AI-powered erotic audio, instructional videos, information from OB-GYNs, and guided meditations.
Penda N’diaye, founder and CEO of the brand, said the goal was not to “pathologize orgasms” but to give users the tools to understand themselves. She uses words like “biofeedback” or “machine learning” to talk about Wujj, terms not typically associated with masturbation and sexual pleasure. But she said it’s those features that allow users to receive useful information for their bodies.
N’diaye, who is also the founder of Pro Hoe, an organization for sexual wellness and sexual education for women of color, said she had discovered that having “the courage” and “audacity” to pursue what one desires sexually. ..and not waiting to be elected or remain on the receiving end, could be transformative.
Waxman said orgasm tracking devices could also be beneficial for women who were perimenopausal or menopausal, or who were taking medications such as SSRIs, which can make it difficult to have a satisfying orgasm.
“The advantages are that it can really help us understand from a physiological perspective what’s happening, which can then help from a psychological perspective,” he said. “If the toy creates an opportunity to talk with your partner about what you’re experiencing and what gives you pleasure, then I think that can be very positive.”
But frequent use of vibrators and sex toys can also create space for judgment, resentment and avoidance, she said, if a person and their partner can’t achieve the same level of pleasure that a toy can offer.
“If you’re really interested in monitoring your orgasms and they start to change or you’re not having the same huge orgasmic experiences, and that starts to change, the concern is ‘now something is wrong with me because this isn’t happening.'” ” she said.
To strike a balance, Waxman said smart sex toy users could use data from their devices as a starting point for a vulnerable conversation.
“If you notice that you are using your vibrator at 11 in the morning because it is the time when you are most excited, but your partner is working, then there is a conversation about the schedule you have to have and that maybe on the weekends you leave sideways. 11am,” she said.
Not everyone is so sure that an optimized orgasm is really the best type of orgasm. Lioness includes a “live view” that allows users to see their orgasm chart developing in real time and record when they are about to climax.
April Damaso, a 33-year-old tech designer who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, said she was excited about the product, but the tracking feature might be distracting. She sometimes “takes away from the experience,” she said.
Damaso, who identifies as lesbian, said the toy’s tracking feature was of limited use to her, as it only works if it is inserted. “I’m not someone who likes penetration all the time,” she said.
Data capture also raises privacy concerns when it comes to smart sex toys. While brands like Lioness state in their privacy policies that user data is encrypted and many companies do not require users to register with identifiable information, other brands have been criticized for their practices. In 2017, a Canadian sex toy company, We-Vibe, was ordered to pay customers up to 10,000 Canadian dollars each as part of a class-action lawsuit after the smart vibrator tracked owners’ usage without their knowledge.
As for Melissa, she doesn’t use the Lioness to record “every” orgasm she’s had, but rather uses it “from time to time,” like when she drinks a strong cup of coffee and wants to see how it affects her. the response of her body.
“I’m a big proponent of sex education,” she added, “and I think even adults are still learning about their bodies and about personal pleasure.”
