I'm in a heated conversation and have a little side bet going with these two females. They're telling me that the only way a woman can achieve orgasm is for her clitoris to be stimulated.

I keep telling these girls no, that's wrong because I've read about this before, but they continue to swear up and down that it is. Is that the only way?

I want to listen to my question on the air, because this bet is going on right now and I want us all to hear your answer.

A: I don't even want to know what this bet is for. In a sense, you're all correct. I just wrote a chapter about this in my book ("Eat, Drink and Be Merry.")

In literature, there have been case studies on women who can orgasm without any touching taking place, whatsoever. We doubted it was possible until a laboratory study proved differently.

In general, the clitoris plays an important part in the role of stimulation, but it does not have to be stimulated directly, and that's where it all becomes confusing. In other words, it's the pulling and yanking of the tissues around that area in various ways that contribute to the reflex.

Women who have been circumcised and had their clitoris removed have a great deal of difficulty in having an orgasm.

On the other hand, there have been cases of people with paraplegia who, with no spinal sensation, can get an orgasm from neck stimulation because the body transfers this point of ! stimulation.

So in a sense, you are all right, because there are no absolutes here. In terms of the generalizations about female anatomy and female sexual response, they are correct.

But in terms of absolutes, you are right, as in the cases I just mentioned - which are exceptions but do make it possible. Now, you all go off someplace and figure out who won that bet.

Dean Edell, M.D.