Human Sexual Response Research Articles

Sexual functioning of women with complete spinal cord injury: Nursing implications

The Human Sexual Response Cycle and the neurological alteration in physiological sexual functioning of women following complete spinal cord injury is discussed. Nursing implications regarding current theoretical knowledge, its foundation in research and practical considerations for patient education is reviewed. Specific suggestions are also provided for the sexual concerns of birth control, lubrication issues, elimination problems, loss of motor and sensory control and changes in orgasmic function.

Sexual Dysfunction After Cancer Treatment

Although the incidence of sexual dysfunction among cancer survivors is high, many oncology professionals have little or no training in human sexuality. This article briefly reviews the normal human sexual response, offers a format for evaluating sexual function after cancer treatment, and discusses the clinical issues involved in the treatment of sexual dysfunction after cancer treatment is completed.

Sexual Selections: "Explorations in the Anthropology of Sex

The following selection of papers arose out of a half-year seminar course, The Anthropology of Sex, held at McMaster University in the winter of 1990. The course was originally conceived as a vehicle for scrutinizing the physical anthropological significance of current understandings of human sexuality and reproduction. As such, I imagined we would discuss human sexuality from the point of view of human and non-human primate biology, diversity, and evolution. I dutifully sketched out a fairly predictable range of topics, which included the origins and evolution of sexual reproduction, sex and sexuality in human evolution, factors affecting human fertility, the uniqueness (or not) of human sexual response and eroticism, variation in human sexual anatomy and physiology, sexual selection theory, sex differences between human and non-human primates, biological constructs of 'male' and 'female', sociobiological views of sex, the origins and evolution of sexually-transmitted diseases, and so on.

The human sexual response and alcohol and drugs

The effects of alcohol and drugs on sexual function are important to consider in clinical histories and medication prescribing practices. Virtually all aspects of the human sexual response are affected by alcohol and drugs: 1. Desire (libido) is reduced. 2. Performance. Impotency as defined by lack of erection and ejaculation occurs. 3. Dissatisfaction ensues. These effects of alcohol and drugs can be understood and illustrated by examining the phases of excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution in the human sexual response. The important first step in the treatment of sexual dysfunction is to identify the alcohol/drug/medication use. The next is to recognize the profound effect it can have on the human sexual response. Furthermore, knowledge of the mechanism of action of the drugs and a basic conception of the physiology and psychology of sexual performance are necessary to predict the course of the sexual dysfunction. In many instances, the sexual dysfunction is reversible even after chronic alcohol/drug/medication use.

Assessment of the effects of analgesic concentrations of nitrous oxide on human sexual response.

The euphorogenic and sexual effects of analgesic nitrous oxide have been long reported anecdotally; however, these effects have only recently been investigated scientifically. The effects of oxygen and analgesic nitrous oxide on sexual arousal provoked by visual erotic stimulation in male (n = 7) and female (n = 6) subjects, using both subjective and objective measures were assessed. Nitrous oxide had a depressant effect on objective measures of arousal in most subjects. It was also found that 7 of the 13 subjects were incongruent in that their subjective assessment of the gas which produced the most arousal differed from the one that caused most arousal as measured objectively. These findings are discussed in terms of the effect of nitrous oxide on the endogenous opioid system and the suggestion is made that the gas may prove useful as an investigatory tool of sexual function. This applies particularly in terms of the findings of this study that nitrous oxide, as with other opioids, may not only have central but also peripheral opioid effects, which may operate in opposing directions.

Masters and Johnson on Sex and Human Loving

Pioneering sex researchers William Masters, MD, and Virginia Johnson (later to become Mrs Masters) have written Human Sexual Responses (1966) and Human Sexual Inadequacy (1970). Although their impact was dramatic, these two books were stylistically severe and were dubbed least read bestsellers. The same cannot be said for their latest contribution, co-authored also by Robert Kolodny, MD. Sex and Human Loving is 600 pages of enjoyable reading. It is filled with helpful information for both clinicians and patients on intimate human relationships and sexuality. The illustrations included are of practical value. The anatomy, physiology, problems, dysfunctions, and treatments of male and female sexuality from childhood to late age are skillfully covered. Furthermore a useful index makes these discussions easily accessible. Contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, homosexuality, varieties of sexual behavior, coercive assault, sexual fantasy, solitary sexual behavior, love, communication skills, and intimacy are each given a chapter. A three-page subsection on

Plasma oxytocin increases in the human sexual response.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether plasma oxytocin (OT) levels change during human sexual responses and, if so, to demonstrate the temporal pattern of change. Plasma OT levels were measured by RIA before, during, and after private self-stimulation to orgasm in normal men (n = 9) and women (n = 13). Blood samples were collected continuously through indwelling venous catheters. The subjects pressed a signal to indicate the start and finish of orgasm/ejaculation. Objective assessment of sexual arousal and orgasm was obtained by measuring blood-pulse amplitude and electromyographic activity, recorded continuously throughout testing from an anal device containing a photoplethysmograph and electromyograph electrodes connected to a polygraph located in an adjacent room. These measures allowed collection of data from men and women of changes in blood flow and muscle activity in the lower pelvic/pubic area. Plasma OT levels increased during sexual arousal in both women and men and were significantly higher during orgasm/ejaculation than during prior baseline testing. We suggest that the temporal pattern of secretion could be related to smooth muscle contractions of the reproductive system during orgasm.

Scientific Basis of Obstetrics and Gynaecology

This fine volume contains 14 chapters dealing with various topics in obstetrics and gynecology. The objective is to convey to the reader an understanding of the scientific basis of the specialty, enabling students to further their development and clinicians to understand advances in subjects not even in the curriculum when they were students. In general, the authors succeed in their task. This volume is well edited and well written. Each chapter has a clear outline preceding the text. The bibliographies and reference lists are extensive and up-to-date. The chapters "Prostaglandins," "Ultrasound," "Natural History of the Origin of Cervical Cancer," and "Radiobiology of Ionizing Radiation Therapy" are clearly written by experts with international reputations. The chapters "Sexual Dysfunction" and "Medical Ethics" are important contributions to these relatively little-taught but increasingly important topics. The former, by Parsons and Dodd, contains an excellent presentation covering the anatomy and physiology of human sexual response,

The role of therapeutic format in the treatment of sexual dysfunction: A review

Review of the literature evaluating different formats for the delivery of behavioral sex therapy suggests that group therapy, minimal therapist contact bibliotherapy, and standard couple therapy all have demonstrable effectiveness; such differences as have been found between them have been subtle. Variations within these formats indicate that one therapist is as effective as two, the render of the therapist does not influence therapeutic outcome, and that massed and spaced sessions, with minimal exceptions, produce equivalent therapeutic effects. The authors argue, however, that it is premature to conclude that all therapeutic contexts are equally effective. Human sexual response is complex, therapy programs are multifaceted, and therapy outcome may be measured in multiple ways, yielding dramatically different results, judgments regarding therapeutic effectiveness will vary as well depending upon whether cognitive, affective or behavioral therapy outcome criteria are employed. Adequate evaluation of therapy as a function of mode of therapy delivery must take these considerations into account.

Organotherapy and the emergence of reproductive endocrinology.

Early scientific investigation of the reproductive process was neither a cause nor a direct result of changing social attitudes toward sex. It was instead part of the continuing search, initiated in the 1890s, to discover internal secretions that might be isolated and prove useful in therapy. Laboratory scientists, nonetheless, were among the many groups altering understanding of human sexual physiology in the first quarter of this century. The new data they generated regarding the dependence of human sexuality and fertility on chemical substances elaborated by the ovaries and testes became part of the evidence which hastened that quite tortuous transformation called the sexual revolution. Increasingly, as social reformers demanded more information about human reproduction, scientists were asked to provide it, and scientific concerns were shaped in the process. In the 1920s, especially in the United States, studies of the physiology of reproduction began to receive financial backing from social reformers. This was because for many, contraception had become a fact of life. Expression rather than repression of sexuality was accepted as being necessary to the stability of the fundamental social unit, the family. Theoretical and practical incentives for continued study of the reproductive process could thus be joined in common effort. This convergence of goals occurred just as the gonadal hormones were being isolated. The 1920s, therefore, mark an important juncture in the congruence of interests represented by theoretical science on the one hand and expressed social needs on the other. As a result of this convergence of interests and goals, physiologists gained a new realm of influence, claiming authoritative knowledge over a subject which once had been allocated to the priest and then, by the mid-nineteenth century, transferred to the physician. Since that formative period other research scientists, such as Alfred Kinsey and, more recently, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, have explored that niche and applied the scientific method to study of behavioral and physiological aspects of the human sexual response. They have been beset by many of the same tactical issues that confronted the earliest investigators of reproductive physiology. The definition, specification, and measurement of phenomena relating to sexual and reproductive activity have been as inherently difficult as they have been taboo.79 Traditional resistance to scientific study of the reproductive process was overcome in the early twentieth century by the expectation that this particular line of inquiry would lead to understanding and therefore medical control of the complex of disorders—physiological, psychological, and social — associated with the generative glands. Early investigators, particularly in Britain, did not wish to be social reformers. Especially in the 1910s such a stance would have threatened their credibility in a field determined to establish itself as a theoretical science. Once scientific progress was assured, as it was from about 1920, new problems opened for investigation and began to be motivated by social needs as well as by the concerns of a rapidly developing science. Especially in the United States new resources encouraged this work, allowing development of the specialized focus on gonadal hormones represented by the emerging field of reproductive endocrinology.

Alcohol and Human Sexual Response

Alcohol and Human Sexual Response

Biology of sexuality inborn determinants of human sexual response.

Opinions vary on the relative importance of biological and learning processes in the aetiology of sexual expression and deviance. The structure of personality, consistency of fantasy patterns, and the familial nature of homosexuality hint at a biological anlage. Research with the HY-antigen complex and X chromosome, and the elucidation of the interactions of intrauterine testosterone and its products with the foetal brain and neurotransmitters, have given us new models to understand the programming of sexuality. However, gonadotrophin feedback is not relevant as an indicator of brain feminization in primates and man. Finally, the interaction of masculinization and defeminization provides us with a model for understanding homosexual behaviour.

Sexual instrumentation.

The application of engineering tools to life science problems has both generated the incentive and provided the means for quantitative measurement of physiological variables. This trend is clearly demonstrated in the development of instrumentation to quantify human sexual response. Current devices to measure this response in males and females have evolved through several device generations and reflect a high level of technical sophistication. Nonetheless, intriguing problems remain, notably in measurement stability, calibration and correlation with subjective arousal, and noninterference with the psychologically delicate process being monitored.

Paradise regained? A reply to Moser

ELLIS, H. Sexual inversion. In Studies in the psychology of sex (Vol.1). New York: Random House, 1936 (originally published 1896). HARTMAN, W., & FITHIAN, M. Treatment of sexual dysfunction. New York: Jason Aronson, 1974 (originally published, 1972). KINSEY, A. C., POMEROY, W. B., & MARTIN, C. E. Sexual behauior in the human male. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1948. KINSEY, A. C., POMEROY, W. B., MARTIN, C. E., & GEBHARD, P. H. Sexual behavior in the human female. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1953. MASTERS, W., & JOHNSON, V. Human sexual response. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1966. MASTERS, W., & JOHNSON, V. Human sexual inadequacy. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1970. PERRY, J., & WHIPPLE, B. Pelvic muscle strength of female ejaculators: Evidence in support of a new theory of orgasm. The Journal of Sex Research, 1982, 17, 22-39. REISS, I. Trouble in paradise: The current status of sexual science. The Journal of Sex Research, 1982, 18, 97-113. SEVELY, J., & BENNETT, J. Concerning female ejaculation and the female prostate. The Journal of Sex Research, 1978, 14, 1-20.

Hominid Promiscuity and the Sexual Life of Proto-Savages: Did Australopithecus Swing?

The evolutionary history and significance of human sexuality hold a continuing interest for anthropologists and others. Among those who have made suggestions concerning the sexual life of our ancestors and its ramifications for humans today are Freud (1918), Morris (1967), Sherfey (1972), Spuhler (1979), and Symons (1979). Some of these writers are more serious than others (as might be expected from the nature of the topic, of Western reading habits, and of the Western economy). For every hypothesis offered at any level of rigor, however, there is a willing and able critic. Comments on past speculations include Kroeber's (1920) response to Freud and his horde and Geertz's (1980) response to Symons and his sociosexology. Unfortunately, there is little direct evidence to suggest the sexual behavior and sexual response of our hominid ancestors. It is very difficult to predict soft-tissue sexual response from fossilized skeletal material. Moreover, studies of human sexual response are in their infancy and culture-bound (Katchadorian 1979), while studies of nonhuman primate sexual response are few and usually confined to the laboratory (Mitchell 1979). Such problems are underlined in Lancaster's (1979) careful review of sexual behavior and human evolution. Most researchers, in any case, have ignored primate sexual response per se in favor of studying sexual relations. Studies of mating patterns and their ramifications for sexual dimorphism or demography are much more popular than are studies of response (Alexander et al. 1979, Martin 1980, Lovejoy 1981). Yet it is clear that the fundamental basis of mating behavior among primates is the individual's self-rewarding sexual response. Strictly speaking, copulation for procreation can be done simply, similarly, and with a minimum of fuss. The completely unnecessary, yet very large, range of primate mount postures suggests that a certain amount of play, learning, and reward is involved in primate copulation (for a macaque Kama Sutra, see Chevalier-Skolnikoff 1974 or Hanby 1976; for a human version, see Comfort 1972). Recent laboratory studies of primate sexual response (reviewed by Lancaster 1979) are identifying the nature of this reward. Social and ecological factors mediate primate sexual behavior, but without some kind of sexual response by at least one of the parties involved there would be no primate mating behavior at any level worth discussion. It is possible that we have underestimated the importance of the orgasm as positive reinforcement for primate behavior. Our prejudice may have something to do with our unconscious Western attitudes toward sexual behavior in general. M & M's are a good way to reinforce anthropoid behavior, but we should be aware that an orgasm is better and has been available a lot longer. Speculations on sexual response and human evolution are important and useful because they can stimulate thought and discussion on a topic central to primate experience. Although the danger of public misunderstanding is real, letting the matter of sex rear its ugly head in anthropology is necessary if anthropologists would claim to study humans and human nature (Marshall and Suggs 1971).

The relationship of sexual adjustment and related sexual behaviors and attitudes to marital adjustment

Abstract This paper examines the extent of relationship between sexual adjustment and marital adjustment for 30 married couples followed for 3–6 months. Sexual adjustment was assessed by means of the LoPiccolo-Steger Sexual Interaction Inventory, and two other measures termed a Couple Interaction Scale (CI) and a Couple Compatibility Ratio (CCR). Marital adjustment was assessed by means of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale (L-W MAS) and a clinically-devised instrument based on the extent of support between the marital partners. The two marital adjustment instruments agreed closely. A high degree of association was obtained between most of the sexual adjustment measures and the two marital adjustment measures; using the most reliable of these measures, it is estimated that sexual adjustment contributed between 40 % and 55 % of the variance in marital adjustment. This association was not due to a specific stage of. the human sexual response cycle of desire, excitement, orgasm and gratification. Int...

Voluntary control of sexual responding in men and women: implications for the etiology and treatment of sexual dysfunctions.

Recent psychophysiological investigations have shown that biofeedback and operant conditioning procedures are associated with changes in genital vasomotor activity in men and women. Although the exact role played by biofeedback or operant contingencies in the establishment of genital vasomotor control has not been conclusively established, some degree of voluntary control has been reliably demonstrated over a response that is traditionally viewed as an involuntary component of the human sexual response cycle. The present article critically reviews the experimental literature pertinent to the issue of voluntary self-control of sexual responding and makes recommendations concerning future research. The implications of this literature for traditional etiological theories and treatment approaches for sexual dysfunctions are discussed. The potential of biofeedback and operant techniques for shaping genital responses, increasing discriminability, enhancing body awareness, and facilitating cognitive labeling of genital sensations are discussed as they relate to the stated goals of sex therapy.

Transition: A Prephase of the Human Sexual Response Cycle

AbstractAccording to Masters and Johnson1, the human sexual response cycle is divided into four phases: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. Since the initial publication of the Masters and Johnson material, more and more patients seek therapy for disturbances in the “excitement” phase. A number of patients who have difficulty with feeling sexual desire have trouble making the transition from a nonsexual state of being to a sexual state of being. This paper concerns itself with this transition. Transitions in general are discussed, followed by a description of both the ways in which people become ready for transition and of the transitions themselves. Finally, disturbances in transition are described, and recommendations for treatment of these disturbances are outlined.

Reply to money's, Izard's, and Bullough's, comments on Mosher's “three dimensions of depth of involvement in human sexual response”

Reply to money's, Izard's, and Bullough's, comments on Mosher's “three dimensions of depth of involvement in human sexual response”

Comments on Mosher's “three dimensions of depth of involvement in human sexual response”

Comments on Mosher's “three dimensions of depth of involvement in human sexual response”