This story originally appeared on Them.
It’s long been a stereotype that lesbians report higher rates of orgasm from partnered sex and overall sexual satisfaction than straight people — and the science continues to back it up.
A new study in the journal Psychology & Sexuality found that lesbian women masturbate alone less frequently than straight people and gay men. Though masturbation is a common sexual practice, and its frequency does not necessarily say everything about a person’s sexual satisfaction with their partner overall, researchers wanted to examine a holistic picture of what masturbation looks like across gendered and sexuality lines, taking relationships into account.
Researchers at the University of Granada surveyed a group of 1,500 cisgender people, looking at the age a person started masturbating, how frequently they experience solitary sexual desire, and the subjective experience of their orgasms when masturbating, as well as the social shame and stigma they feel for engaging in solo sexual play.
The researchers found that lesbians reported lower rates of solitary sexual desire than straight women, masturbated less often, and had less intense orgasms while alone. In contrast, straight women reported higher intensity orgasms while masturbating. The researchers hypothesize this could be linked to higher rates of relationship satisfaction among lesbians than their straight counterparts, which in turn reduces their interest in solo sexual activities.
Gay men, who historically report lower rates of sexual satisfaction in their relationships compared to their straight counterparts, reported higher rates of solo sexual desire and masturbated more frequently than straight men. Because men surveyed reported higher rates of solo sexual desire and masturbated more often than women, researchers said this could be linked to the ways in which men are socialized to prioritize their own sexual pleasure, in comparison to women who are generally taught to minimize theirs.
Overall, both gay men and lesbian women surveyed started masturbating at an earlier age than their straight counterparts, which researchers suggest may be linked to the ways sexual minorities step outside of the usual scripts of normative sex to find sexual satisfaction and personal belonging earlier.
Though there is still more research to be done in the study of human masturbation — and there should be no shame in solo play — I vote that lesbians’ higher rates of satisfaction within a relationship should become its own field of study. Let’s go, lesbians!
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