Orgasms are affected by a woman's menstrual cycle. Researchers at Yale report that when a woman is not menstruating, her orgasms during intercourse produce traveling wave-like uterine contractions that can suck semen into the uterus. By contrast, during menstruation, orgasms produce uterine contractions that travel in the opposite direction, which pushes debris out of the uterus instead of sucking inward.