Surgeon patents the secret of the orgasm

Dr Stuart Meloy was implanting some electrodes in a female patient's spine when he realised he might have hit on something. Abruptly the woman, who was under local anaesthetic, said excitedly: "You're going to have to teach my husband to do that!"

Dr Stuart Meloy was implanting some electrodes in a female patient's spine when he realised he might have hit on something. Abruptly the woman, who was under local anaesthetic, said excitedly: "You're going to have to teach my husband to do that!"

For while the routine operation was intended to relieve pain, Dr Meloy had stumbled on something far more pleasurable: the nerve cluster which, when stimulated electrically, induces (female) orgasm.

Now he has patented an implant device, which could be operated by a simple button to give a very pleasurable lift to any woman's day - and especially to the surprisingly large number who psychiatrists say suffer from "orgasmic dysfunction". Woody Allen's 'orgasmatron" from the film Sleeper, has finally arrived.

The as-yet unnamed device is due to start clinical trials later this year. And Dr Meloy, a surgeon at Piedmont Anesthesia and Pain Consultants in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is already looking ahead to a device which could do the same for men. Dr Meloy, who revealed his discovery in New Scientist magazine, believes the device, would have to be programmed to limit its use. "But whether that's once a day, four times a week - who am I to say?"