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Casual sex and hookups might be common for some people who are not interested in a committed relationship during specific times of their life. For example, young adults who are eager to start a career and have busy jobs might engage in causal sex in order to relieve that itch. However, according to a new study, causal sex and the joys from it are not equal for men and women. This study found that women are less likely to have an orgasm when they engage in casual sex.

"The notion of sexual liberation, where men and women both had equal access to casual sex, assumed a comparable likelihood of that sex being pleasurable," Kim Wallen, a professor of neuroendocrinology at Emory University said according to the New York Times. "But that part of the playing field isn't level."

The research team composed of Justin R. Garcia, an evolutionary biologist at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, and researchers from Binghamton University in New York recruited 600 college students. They found that women reported higher incidences of attaining an orgasm if they were in a serious relationship as opposed to a casual hookup. The team calculated that women in a relationship were twice as likely to have an orgasm from intercourse or oral sex in comparison to women who had causal sex. Furthermore, the researchers found that around 75 percent of women in a committed relationship had an orgasm the last time they had sex.

"We've been sold this bill of goods that we're in an era where people can be sexually free and participate equally in the hookup culture. The fact is that not everyone's having a good time," Garcia said.

This study's findings confirm the findings from a previous study that suggested that women do not get the same joys and pleasures from casual sex that men do. The previous study, which was headed by Paula England, a sociologist from New York University, included 24,000 students from 21 colleges. This study had found that 40 percent of women had an orgasm during their last hookup whereas 80 percent of men did in theirs.

"We attribute that to practice with a partner, which yields better success at orgasm, and we also think the guys care more in a relationship," England had explained. "Women are not feeing very free in these causal contexts to say what they want and need."

The study's findings were presented at the International Academy of Sex Research's annual meeting and at the Annual Convention for Psychological Science.