A Texas company claims to have invented a kind of Orgasmatron for women -- an electrical stimulation device that takes women to a pre-orgasmic state.
Stimulation Systems' Slightest Touch is a $200 battery-powered device that electrically stimulates sexual nerve pathways in a woman's pelvis.
Unlike Woody Allen's Orgasmatron, the device doesn't produce orgasms -- it just gets a woman ready for an orgasm, the company claims.
Applied 10 to 20 minutes before sex, the company says the device's gentle, pulsating current brings its wearer to a state of sexual readiness, where the "slightest touch" can trigger an orgasm.
"The name is very accurate," said Romaine Patterson, a talk show host on Sirius satellite radio who tested the product and has become an enthusiastic and regular user.
"As a journalist, I didn't have much faith in the product going into it, but it changed my mind," Patterson continued. "It warms the oven. It brings women to the one-yard line.... It's a wonderful product. I think the world of it."
Another enthusiastic user, Mia Poehlmann, 29, of Dallas, said, "I had multiple multiples. (My boyfriend) finally said, 'You've got to take that thing off.'"
About the size of a Walkman, the Slightest Touch works via a pair of electrical pads attached to the ankles.
According to the company, the current stimulates two acupuncture points related to three nerve pathways in the pelvic region -- the hypogastric, pelvic and pudendal nerves.
"This is a nice marriage of high technology, classic nerve theory and ancient Chinese meridian theory," said senior design engineer Norman Comparini.
The device produces a "very gentle tingling sensation" in the lower ankle, and "butterflies" or "sparklers" in the pelvis, said Cherisse Davidson, Stimulation Systems' director of customer support, who said she's been using the device for more than three years.
"It's the same feeling as making out with someone and you're getting very turned on," said Davidson. "It makes you desire sex.
"I prefer my sex with it," she added. "It intensifies the experience. The orgasms are more intense, they last longer and I usually have more than one."
The company said the Slightest Touch was invented by accident. One of the four co-inventors, who are being kept anonymous, was trying to develop an electrical foot massager. Using his girlfriend as a test subject, the prototype didn't do so much for her feet, but it did stimulate her sexually, Comparini said.
Comparini said the company has sold about 2,000 units since the product launched last November.
But skeptics abound. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist from Allentown, Pennsylvania, who runs Quackwatch, said it was highly unlikely that electrical current to the ankles would stimulate the pelvis.
"I can't imagine how that would have anything to do with stimulating the pudendal nerve," he said. "That's nuts. That's bullshit. You're not going to stimulate anything in the pelvis by stimulating the ankle."
Barrett suggested the device might work by suggestion, or some secondary effect like relaxing its wearer.
One woman who used it, and who asked to remain anonymous, said, "You can feel a tingling in your ankles, but I don't know if it really works or it's just in your mind. I think it's in the mind."
Laura Weide, spokeswoman for Toys in Babeland, said the device sounded interesting but the company hadn't yet seen or tested it.
"We welcome all the innovations from the sex-toy industry and can't wait to try this," she said. "We do caution folks about some of the claims that sex-toy marketers promise. No sex toy is going to replace foreplay. No machine will ever replace a person or sexual communication between partners."
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Stimulation Systems' Slightest Touch is a $200 battery-powered device that electrically stimulates sexual nerve pathways in a woman's pelvis.
Unlike Woody Allen's Orgasmatron, the device doesn't produce orgasms -- it just gets a woman ready for an orgasm, the company claims.
Applied 10 to 20 minutes before sex, the company says the device's gentle, pulsating current brings its wearer to a state of sexual readiness, where the "slightest touch" can trigger an orgasm.
"The name is very accurate," said Romaine Patterson, a talk show host on Sirius satellite radio who tested the product and has become an enthusiastic and regular user.
"As a journalist, I didn't have much faith in the product going into it, but it changed my mind," Patterson continued. "It warms the oven. It brings women to the one-yard line.... It's a wonderful product. I think the world of it."
Another enthusiastic user, Mia Poehlmann, 29, of Dallas, said, "I had multiple multiples. (My boyfriend) finally said, 'You've got to take that thing off.'"
About the size of a Walkman, the Slightest Touch works via a pair of electrical pads attached to the ankles.
According to the company, the current stimulates two acupuncture points related to three nerve pathways in the pelvic region -- the hypogastric, pelvic and pudendal nerves.
"This is a nice marriage of high technology, classic nerve theory and ancient Chinese meridian theory," said senior design engineer Norman Comparini.
The device produces a "very gentle tingling sensation" in the lower ankle, and "butterflies" or "sparklers" in the pelvis, said Cherisse Davidson, Stimulation Systems' director of customer support, who said she's been using the device for more than three years.
"It's the same feeling as making out with someone and you're getting very turned on," said Davidson. "It makes you desire sex.
"I prefer my sex with it," she added. "It intensifies the experience. The orgasms are more intense, they last longer and I usually have more than one."
The company said the Slightest Touch was invented by accident. One of the four co-inventors, who are being kept anonymous, was trying to develop an electrical foot massager. Using his girlfriend as a test subject, the prototype didn't do so much for her feet, but it did stimulate her sexually, Comparini said.
Comparini said the company has sold about 2,000 units since the product launched last November.
But skeptics abound. Stephen Barrett, a retired psychiatrist from Allentown, Pennsylvania, who runs Quackwatch, said it was highly unlikely that electrical current to the ankles would stimulate the pelvis.
"I can't imagine how that would have anything to do with stimulating the pudendal nerve," he said. "That's nuts. That's bullshit. You're not going to stimulate anything in the pelvis by stimulating the ankle."
Barrett suggested the device might work by suggestion, or some secondary effect like relaxing its wearer.
One woman who used it, and who asked to remain anonymous, said, "You can feel a tingling in your ankles, but I don't know if it really works or it's just in your mind. I think it's in the mind."
Laura Weide, spokeswoman for Toys in Babeland, said the device sounded interesting but the company hadn't yet seen or tested it.
"We welcome all the innovations from the sex-toy industry and can't wait to try this," she said. "We do caution folks about some of the claims that sex-toy marketers promise. No sex toy is going to replace foreplay. No machine will ever replace a person or sexual communication between partners."
www.wired.com
