When we have sex, it's normal for women to moan — sometimes a little, sometimes in excess, and sometimes only during female orgasm. Though women's sex sounds can be a major turn-on for the man or woman she is having sex with, we weren't entirely sure why women make sex sounds during the act.

That's where science comes in.

Dr. John Grohol recently wrote about a study, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, which found that women's sex noises are not generally a reflex or consequence of orgasm, but rather an effort to help the man reach the finish line. The researchers found that a woman's "vocalizations" most often occurred around the man's orgasm, just before or simultaneously with ejaculation.

Tenor

"According to this study, whether they know it or not, women appear to vocalize during sex not to express their own enjoyment so much as to help the man reach climax," notes Grohol. "This is in keeping with the idea that we all have sexual scripts in our head of both our idealized sexual encounter, as well as what we believe our partners want."

Of the 77 women (all of whom were heterosexual) surveyed in the study, most were likely to achieve orgasm when masturbating or having their partner manipulate them to orgasm, not through oral sex or intercourse. Women in the study reported they most often experienced orgasm during foreplay.

The researchers theorize: "These data together clearly demonstrate a dissociation of the timing of women experiencing orgasm and making copulatory vocalizations and indicate that there is at least an element of these responses that are under conscious control, providing women with an opportunity to manipulate male behavior to their advantage."

Manipulate male behavior, eh? Now if we could just "manipulate" men into longer foreplay, maybe then they'd hear some bonafide sex noises. You hear that, guys?

Does this study mean that women need to let loose and have more fun in bed? You be the judge of that.