The influence of sexual arousal on subjective pain intensity during a cold pressor test in women

Background & objectives Pain can be significantly lessened by sex/orgasm, likely due to the release of endorphins during sex, considered potent analgesics. The evidence suggests that endorphins are also present during sexual arousal (that is, prior to sex/orgasm). It follows then that pain can be modulated during sexual arousal, independent of sex/orgasm, too. Accordingly, sexual arousal induced by erotic slides has been demonstrated to lessen pain in men, but not in women. One explanation could be that for women, the erotic slides were not potent enough to elicit a lasting primed state of sexual arousal by the time pain was induced. Thus, the current study aims to optimize the means of inducing a potent state of sexual arousal and subsequently examine the potentially analgesic influence of sexual arousal on pain in women. As a subsidiary aim, the study also assesses whether the anticipated analgesic effect of sexual arousal would be stronger than that of distraction or generalized (non-sexual) arousal. Methods Female participants (N = 151) were randomly distributed across four conditions: sexual arousal, generalized arousal, distraction, neutral. Mild pain was induced using a cold pressor while participants were concurrently exposed to film stimuli (pornographic, exciting, distracting, neutral) to induce the targeted emotional states. A visual analogue scale was utilized to measure the subjective level of pain perceived by the participants. Results Sexual arousal did not reduce subjective pain. Generalized arousal and distraction did not result in stronger analgesic effects than the neutral condition. Conclusion The present findings do not support the hypothesis that sexual arousal alone modulates subjective pain in women. This might be due to the possibility that genital stimulation and/or orgasm are key in pain reduction, or, that feelings of disgust may inadvertently have been induced by the pornographic stimulus and interfered with sexual arousal in influencing pain

Sexual Arousal and Sexual Pain Disorders in Women

Low or disrupted sexual arousal is discussed as a transdiagnostic-underlying denominator for women’s sexual dysfunctions. The role of sexual arousal in attenuating the inhibitory aspects of sexual stimuli, as well as factors that weaken sexual arousal are described and clinical implications critically discussed. We put specific emphasis on the bidirectional relationship of sexual arousal and disgust/pain along with the role of disgust and pain expectancies in sexual dysfunctions. Thereby, we aimed to provide a critical evaluation of the treatment options for inhibited sexual arousal with focus on generic and specific interventions targeting disgust: a critical feature that thus far received only scant attention in the available literatur

Sexual Arousal and Sexual Pain Disorders in Women

Low or disrupted sexual arousal is discussed as a transdiagnostic-underlying denominator for women’s sexual dysfunctions. The role of sexual arousal in attenuating the inhibitory aspects of sexual stimuli, as well as factors that weaken sexual arousal are described and clinical implications critically discussed. We put specific emphasis on the bidirectional relationship of sexual arousal and disgust/pain along with the role of disgust and pain expectancies in sexual dysfunctions. Thereby, we aimed to provide a critical evaluation of the treatment options for inhibited sexual arousal with focus on generic and specific interventions targeting disgust: a critical feature that thus far received only scant attention in the available literatur