Do stressful life events impact women's sexual desire?

Abstract

People confronted to a stressful life event may experience negative consequences on sexual intimacy (Morokoff and Gillilland, 1993; Hagemeister and Rosenblatt, 1997, Bodenmann et al., 2006). The main hypothesis of the study is that the impact of stressful events on sexuality, especially on sexual desire, will depend on the subjective reactions to this event. Fifty-two women responded to several questionnaires: the sexual desire scale, the impact of event scale-revised (IES-R) and a list of potential stressful events. The results showed a positive association between the stressful event and dyadic sexual desire. Especially, women who experienced high levels of intrusions and hyperarousal after a stressful event also exhibited a higher levels dyadic sexual desire, with no significant result for individual sexual desire.